Re: [arch-dev-public] [arch-general] Wireless userspace tools
Very interesting, in case you guys don't read arch-general: On Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 12:06 PM, Sujith <m.sujith@gmail.com> wrote:
The new tool to interface with mac80211 based wireless drivers is 'iw' [1]. It was started because WEXT (Wireless Extionsions) will be deprecated [2] and 'iw' will be the single tool to configure/manage wireless devices in linux.
Currently, I see a PKGBUILD in AUR that is outdated and pointing to the wrong source as well. Though it is currently under heavy development [3] and doesn't implement all the commands that iwconfig supports, iw is where future development will be focused on. I think iw should be part of the core wireless tools in arch.
Also, the new regulatory framework for wireless devices is CRDA, initial patches have already been merged into wireless-testing and the only way to choose a regulatory domain from userspace is using 'iw'. Which reminds me, CRDA has to be packaged too. Briefly, CRDA is a userspace database of regulatory domains and is invoked by the kernel as and when needed using udev. Development of CRDA happens on wireless.kernel.org. [4]
Just wanted to update the arch developers with all the new wireless stuff that's happening.
[1] : http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Documentation/iw [2] : http://wireless.kernel.org/en/developers/Documentation/Wireless-Extensions [3] : http://git.sipsolutions.net/?p=iw.git [4] : http://wireless.kernel.org/en/developers/Regulatory/CRDA
Sujith -- http://sujith-m.blogspot.com
Aaron Griffin schrieb:
Very interesting, in case you guys don't read arch-general:
I already responded on arch-general. I already created an iw package and I was able to compile crda (no PKGBUILD yet). iw is only useful for setting up "the new stuff" (like mesh mode), but cfg80211 is still unable to do the basic settings like ssid, so iwconfig will remain the main configuration tool for a while. Anyway, I'd like to add iw to extra as some people may find it useful. I'd also like to add crda to extra, so people with compat-wireless can try using the new regulatory management (2.6.27 is required for such recent compat-wirless releases). Once 2.6.28 is released, we can move crda to core and disable the old static regdom code in the kernel (crda will then be necessary for using wireless). If you have any objections to adding iw and crda to extra, you may speak now or forever hold your peace.
participants (2)
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Aaron Griffin
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Thomas Bächler