[pkg-wpa-devel] Bug#673823: wpasupplicant: Power management suspend script runs unconditionally even in wired-only computers

[Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña]

Package: wpasupplicant
Version: 0.7.3-6
Severity: normal

I'm running a desktop system which does *not* have a Wireless interface which
is, AFAIK, still a common setup in many computers. My connection uses a wired
(Ethernet) interface. When hibernating and resuming from suspension this system
will *always* run the /usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/60_wpa_supplicant, which in
turn runs /sbin/wpa_cli unconditionally. 

This is done "by design" because Network-manager (installed because of
GNOME3) dependencies pulls in the wpasupplicant package and this package
installs the /usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/60_wpa_supplicant script.

Running this script n a wired-connected desktop environment which lacks a WiFi
interface is useless in most circunstances. However, the previous script cannot
be configured in any way in order to prevent it from running and the script
will run regardless of whether the system is using a wireless connection (where
it's useful) or a wired connection (where it's not).

If possible, I would appreciate if the script is changed to prevent it from
running under the following circumstances:

a) /sbin/wpa_cli is not executable or not present in the system. This is, for
   example, how /etc/network/if-up.d/wpasupplicant is disabled

b) wpasupplicant is not running. By, for example, using the test_wpa_cli()
   function defined in /etc/wpa_supplicant/functions.sh

c) by detecting that wpasupplicant is not configured in the system by
   using some kind of system indication.

d) by making it possible for the administrator to disable it manually. This
   could be possible by either using a defaults file (under /etc/) or by moving
   the script under /etc/ and replacing /usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/55wicd with a
   symbolic link.


Introducing any of these mechanisms would enable administrators to configure
the system so that this script does not run in systems that do not require it.

On the one hand this possibility would save some CPU cycles when resuming for
hibernation, making the system startup faster and, on the other hand, it would
avoid potential issues or errors that could be caused by running the
/sbin/wpa_cli script on systems that are really not configured with any
Wireless interface.

Thank you for your help in fixing this bug,

Javier



-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-2-686-pae (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=es_ES.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=es_ES.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages wpasupplicant depends on:
ii  adduser           3.113+nmu1
ii  initscripts       2.88dsf-22.1
ii  libc6             2.13-30
ii  libdbus-1-3       1.5.12-1
ii  libnl-3-200       3.2.7-2
ii  libnl-genl-3-200  3.2.7-2
ii  libpcsclite1      1.8.3-2
ii  libreadline6      6.2-8
ii  libssl1.0.0       1.0.1b-1
ii  lsb-base          4.1+Debian2

wpasupplicant recommends no packages.

Versions of packages wpasupplicant suggests:
pn  libengine-pkcs11-openssl  <none>
pn  wpagui                    <none>

-- no debconf information