[pkg-wpa-devel] Bug#610931: Please build wpasupplicant-udeb

[Gaudenz Steinlin]

Hi

I'm picking up the task to integrate WPA support into
debian-installer. My goal is to have this finished by the end of
Debconf. Is anyone of you also going to attend Debconf?

> On Tuesday 25 January 2011 04:39:44 Matthew Palmer wrote:
> > > 
> > > diff -urN wpasupplicant-0.6.10.orig/debian/config/udeb wpasupplicant-0.6.10/debian/config/udeb
> > > [...]
> > > +CONFIG_DRIVER_WEXT=y
> > > 
> > > Given that wext is deprecated, it would imho make more sense to use
> > > CONFIG_DRIVER_NL80211=y instead, maybe even to leave wext disabled. 
> > > With the notable exception of ipw2100/ ipw2200, all other linux wlan
> > > drivers weren't produced in large volumes or don't support wpa2 to
> > > begin with; for new ones (this covers all mac80211 based ones) nl80211
> > > support is mandatory and there are some initial efforts to add nl80211
> > > to ipw2x00. This also avoids the need for deprecated wireless-tools in
> > > favour of iw/ crda (which is required for ch11-14 anyways) - or being 
> > > able to use libnl for all configuration in netcfg.
> > 
> > I know nothing about WPA, I've just used a udeb config file that was in an
> > existing (out of date) patch to build a wpasupplicant udeb.  In all honesty
> > you can set this configuration to whatever you think is best.

> nl80211 is the way forward. It would require libnl to be included in D-I.

AFAICS with my iwlwifi card both nl80211 and wext work. Is there any
practical advantage of nl80211. If possible I would like to avoid
having to include another library into d-i.

> > 
> > > diff -urN wpasupplicant-0.6.10.orig/debian/control wpasupplicant-0.6.10/debian/control
> > > [...]
> > > +Architecture: linux-any
> > > 
> > > wpasupplicant is needed, and compatible with-, kFreeBSD as well, at 
> > > this moment kFreeBSD doesn't support wlan for unrelated reasons
> > > (ifconfig not being able to configure wlan interfaces, besides the open
> > > firmware issues, while firmwares are required for most chipsets). So
> > > ignoring hurd, it should be "any" or at least "linux-any kfreebsd-any".
> > 
> > Wireless config is disabled in d-i for kfreebsd, so there's no reason to
> > build wpasupplicant-udeb for those arches.  However, if you're comfortable
> > that a wpasupplicant-udeb will build correctly for those arches, it'd save
> > changes down the line if/when kfreebsd gets d-i wireless support.

> It'd probably be better to prepare early here and build wpasupplicant-udeb for
> whatever it can build on.

I don't care that much as it mainly concerns your package, but as
kfreebsd does not currently have wireless support in d-i, the package
won't be used for now. I don't know how much work it would be to
enable wireless for kfreebsd in d-i, but that's a another task.

I have another question:
To connect to the debconf network I needed to additional kernel
modules for the encryption algorithms: aes_generic.ko and
aes-x86_64.ko. Are these the only crpyto modules required for WPA or
are there configurations where other algorithms might be needed. Of
course aes-x86_64 has to be replaced by the appropriate module on
other architectures.
 
> > > Has there been any solution for the netcfg integration already, see 
> > > <201011041811.11753.kel at otaku42.de> [1], referring to the originally 
> > > proposed introduction of embedded source copies of wpasuppliant's 
> > > wpa_ctrl.[hc] into netcfg. Please also keep in mind that crda/ 
> > > wireless-regdb is required for accessing channels 11-13/14 on modern
> > > drivers.
> > 
> > I've applied the existing WPA netcfg support patches developed by Glenn
> > Saberton, and they do appear to include a (stripped down) wpa_ctrl.c.

> That stripped down crap probably was extracted from a sideline project
> (python-wpactrl) I was working on, and is not good long term solution.

> wpa_ctrl.{c,h} from current wpasupplicant source tree have lots more dependency
> on other stuff. Extracting and patching wpa_ctrl.{c,h} to be standalone is
> something which should be avoided - I just do not know how currently.

> Asked upstream wpa_supplicant if wpa_ctrl could be provided in a way where it
> could be a shared library but received no response.

Is there any progress on this? 

> > I
> > have no idea what the story is with crda/wireless-regdb, as I said before, I
> > don't know anything about WPA.  If you'd like to help out, though, your
> > knowledge would be greatly valued.

> I wouldn't mind helping out, don't know how though, Have little idea about D-I
> environment and took long enough to just reply to this request to feel a little
> embarrassed.

> Also haven't seen the proposed change to netcfg anytime in recent past to
> comment further. Can that be reviewed?

It's in branch people/womble/wpa of
git://git.debian.org/git/d-i/netcfg.

Gaudenz




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Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter.
Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
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