[arch-projects] [netctl] Few observations

[Jouke Witteveen]

On Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 12:35 AM, Leonid Isaev <lisaev at umail.iu.edu> wrote:
> On Sun, 10 Mar 2013 10:08:07 +0100
> Jouke Witteveen <j.witteveen at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Sat, Mar 9, 2013 at 8:46 PM, Leonid Isaev <lisaev at umail.iu.edu> wrote:
>> > On Sat, 9 Mar 2013 14:22:17 +0100
>> > Jouke Witteveen <j.witteveen at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >> On Fri, Mar 8, 2013 at 9:02 PM, Leonid Isaev <lisaev at umail.iu.edu> wrote:
>> >> > 2. There is a WPADriver variable whuch is not read if a profile is
>> >> > included in a group by netctl-auto (because profiles are parsed in
>> >> > separate subshells). This a good thing, as different profiles can have
>> >> > incompatible values of WPADriver, but I think it should be included in
>> >> > documentation (it can seriously confuse a user, myself included, who
>> >> > looks at ps auxww).
>> >>
>> >> Your new documentation suggests the same holds for other variables
>> >> too, but I cannot quickly see which ones. If WPADriver is the only
>> >> one, I would prefer the suggestion is removed from the documentation
>> >> ;-).
>> >
>> > WPAConfigFile? But this is logically for wpa-config security which is
>> > incompatible with netctl-auto (there is a comment in netctl-auto, but I'd
>> > also make it clear in netctl.special). The reason why I mentioned it is
>> > because I tried to make netctl call wpa_supplicant with -Dnl80211, but
>> > wext kept showing up...
>>
>> So basically, WPADriver is the only ignored option in netctl-auto?
>
> Yes, correct.
>

This is documented now. It is possible to use WPADriver through an
interface hook.

>> >> > 3. This is the main issue, albeit also present in netcfg. With
>> >> > wpa_supplicant 2.0 and wpa_actiond 1.4 we noticed a sizeable delay when
>> >> > shutting down netctl-auto (resp. net-auto-wireless) in a WPA-EAP
>> >> > environment. This is somehow related to the fact that wpa_actiond is
>> >> > never killed by netctl/netcfg which only terminates wpa_supplicant/dhcp
>> >> > client. The real problem may be in wpa_supplicant, but regardless,
>> >> > netctl/netcfg should properly clean up after itself.
>> >>
>> >> What is the problem, precisely? If wpa_actiond sees the supplicant has
>> >> disappeared, it quits.
>> >
>> > Please see
>> > https://mailman.archlinux.org/pipermail/arch-general/2013-March/033036.html.
>> > Basically, with wpa_actiond 1.4 (which IIRC includes wpa_ctrl code from
>> > wpa_supplicant 2.0) some of us noticed ~10sec delays when netctl-auto is
>> > stopped. Currently I can only test this on a WPA enterprise univ. network.
>> > Of course, I can't prove that this is not a bug in wpa_actiond, but it
>> > doesn't seem that way. Since I have a hw control and light indicator on my
>> > laptop wifi card, I can tell that interface is down, but systemd waits for
>> > something, and the only thing which is not killed by netctl is
>> > wpa_actiond. Killing it explicitly helps in my case at least.

I think this is fixed now.
@Thomas: In going through the wpa_actiond code I noted you missed
something in commit c14f0. Also at the bottom of the loop-function,
you should have:
unlink(pidfile);

Regards,
- Jouke