[arch-dev-public] [networking] autowifi

[James Rayner]

On Fri, Jun 01, 2007 at 07:44:29PM +0200, Thomas Bächler wrote:
> James Rayner schrieb:
> > could tie in very nicely to mine if it used the same network profile
> > configuration, otherwise it's a bit icky, having wireless networks
> > defined in multiple locations. Part of the point of my scripts was to
> > eliminate that.
> 
> The profiles for autowifi have different requirements than the ones
> netcfg uses:
> 
> - autowifi profiles don't have an interface name
> - it is not possible to run a pre_up and pre_down script with autowifi,
> wpa_supplicant only notifies us after the event.
> - autowifi profiles are not bound to an interface, but to an essid.

the only required option in a network profile is connection, telling
netcfg what type of connection it is. 
 
> I don't like putting all autowifi networks in one big netcfg profile
> either, as it will kill some simplicity.

yeah, that'd suck.
 
> However, autowifi could be a more flexible replacement for your
> wpa_config mode, but then there would still be external files for the
> networks.

Looking at how autowifi works, to put the wireless networks in external
files would be.. horrible at best.

Some ideas of making it co-operate with netcfg...
a) definitely record state. create the standard netcfg state files so netcfg knows
the interface is in use, and autowifi is using it. Don't hurry and
implement this now, i'm moving state to netcfg/functions, so any script
can set state.
 
b) Through the above, make it possible for netcfg --stop-iface work,
which shouldnt be hard, and possibly even netcfg --stop autowifi.

c) Possibly, just implement autowifi as a netcfg connection type, thus
moving /etc/conf.d/autowifi to a profile, and the regexp's to the same
file. So to enable autowifi, one would just add 'autowifi' to the
network daemons line and modify the example /etc/network.d/autowifi with
the above. You could also keep the /etc/rc.d/ -- it could just call
start_profile autowifi from netcfg/functions

d) For the various networks, you could just implement these as
autowifi-ethernet type networks, or with a bit of work, I could modify
ethernet and they would be standard ethernet profiles.

Just ideas, not sure how well they'd work. Don't rush and implement
anything till i get the state work done, which should be this week. If
you've got any qualms with the above, remember, the new netcfg is still
pretty flexible, I want input, im happy to make changes.

James