It's high time that Linux get a serious effort going on a generic 802.11
stack, as it seems we are in danger of having every new wireless driver
invent one if we do not.
Given that there are at least 3 complete wireless stacks (or
thereabouts) floating about for Linux, I picked one that I felt had the
best chance of being _evolved_ into a nice, clean, generic wireless
stack: HostAP.
My general hope (plan?) is that generic wireless code can be arrived at
without horribly intrusive changes that require a 2.7 kernel.
wireless-2.6 is targetted for eventual merging, but it won't be
submitted anytime soon.
Now it's time for open source to kick into action :) wireless-2.6 queue
is available in patch form or BitKeeper for review. Or, if you object
to my selection of wireless code, now's the time to speak up.
BTW to Intel Centrino folks -- I would like to merge the current (open
source) Centrino driver into wireless-2.6 as well, to get it more
exposure, and also to ensure that it uses whatever generic 802.11 code
happens to appear...
Oh, and please speak up on [email protected], or at least CC there.
Patch:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/jgarzik/patchkits/2.6/2.6.7-rc2-bk3-wireless1.patch.bz2
BitKeeper (all of these are equivalent):
bk://kernel.bkbits.net/jgarzik/wireless-2.6
bk://gkernel.bkbits.net/wireless-2.6
http://gkernel.bkbits.net/wireless-2.6 (note: _not_ a Web URL)
Finally, here is Jouni's patch submission message, elaborating on the
driver-specific details:
> Finally, here's the first attempt at submitting Host AP code for
> wireless-2.6 tree. In addition, this could be considered for merging
> into linus-2.5 tree, so review and comments are very much welcome. Host
> AP code has lived in an external CVS repository for three years and is
> widely used.
>
> The included patch has minimal changes to the current tree (against
> 2.6.6, but should apply to different versions with some differences in
> line numbers) for including a new directory drivers/net/wireless/hostap.
> The contents of that new directory is a bit large for a patch file and
> since all the files are new, I made it available as a compressed tarball
> at http://hostap.epitest.fi/hostap-linux.tgz. This should be untarred in
> the root of the kernel tree (i.e., the file paths in the tarball start
> with drivers/net/wirelss/hostap/...).
>
> I removed most of the backwards (for Linux 2.4, pcmcia-cs modules,
> different wireless extensions versions) compatibility code. In addition,
> I replaced integrated implementations of ARC4, Michael MIC, and AES with
> crypto API. AES-CCM mode is still implemented in hostap_crypt_ccmp.c,
> but it could be moved at some point to crypto API as a new encryption
> mode.
On Wed, 02 Jun 2004 23:45:28 -0400
Jeff Garzik <[email protected]> wrote:
> Given that there are at least 3 complete wireless stacks (or
> thereabouts) floating about for Linux, I picked one that I felt had the
> best chance of being _evolved_ into a nice, clean, generic wireless
> stack: HostAP.
Even though I authored one of the "other" stacks, I'm totally fine
with this choice. Mainly because I simply lack the time or resources
to continue working on the stack I started.
David S. Miller wrote:
> On Wed, 02 Jun 2004 23:45:28 -0400
> Jeff Garzik <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>>Given that there are at least 3 complete wireless stacks (or
>>thereabouts) floating about for Linux, I picked one that I felt had the
>>best chance of being _evolved_ into a nice, clean, generic wireless
>>stack: HostAP.
>
>
> Even though I authored one of the "other" stacks, I'm totally fine
> with this choice. Mainly because I simply lack the time or resources
> to continue working on the stack I started.
Actually... I want to use some of your stuff too. :) HostAP is a
successful implementation, but your stuff was a good example of the glue
needed to tie 802.11 tightly to the net stack.
HostAP still has some "its a separate driver" stuff it needs to get rid
of, as it is made more generic.
Jeff