Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S265486AbUFCDrZ (ORCPT ); Wed, 2 Jun 2004 23:47:25 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S265489AbUFCDrZ (ORCPT ); Wed, 2 Jun 2004 23:47:25 -0400 Received: from dsl017-049-110.sfo4.dsl.speakeasy.net ([69.17.49.110]:62337 "EHLO jm.kir.nu") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S265486AbUFCDqq (ORCPT ); Wed, 2 Jun 2004 23:46:46 -0400 Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2004 20:44:59 -0700 From: Jouni Malinen To: Pedro Ramalhais Cc: Netdev , hostap@shmoo.com, prism54-devel@prism54.org, Jeff Garzik , Jean Tourrilhes , Linux Kernel Subject: Re: Prism54 WPA Support - wpa_supplicant - Linux general wpa support Message-ID: <20040603034458.GD7548@jm.kir.nu> Mail-Followup-To: Pedro Ramalhais , Netdev , hostap@shmoo.com, prism54-devel@prism54.org, Jeff Garzik , Jean Tourrilhes , Linux Kernel References: <20040602071449.GJ10723@ruslug.rutgers.edu> <20040602132313.GB7341@jm.kir.nu> <20040602155542.GC24822@ruslug.rutgers.edu> <20040603014000.GA7548@jm.kir.nu> <1086230284.7604.38.camel@rootix> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <1086230284.7604.38.camel@rootix> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 4703 Lines: 94 On Thu, Jun 03, 2004 at 03:38:05AM +0100, Pedro Ramalhais wrote: > As you may know (or not), the ipw2100 driver is somewhat based on hostap > code. We use some code from hostap in the ipw2100 driver, and use the > hostap driver externally as a way to provide WEP. > I'm currently working on turning hostap_crypt* into ieee80211_crypt* in > such a way that could be used in a generic way by all drivers that need > host based WEP (and TKIP/CCMP). I basically renamed the hostap_crypt* to > ieee80211_crypt* and search&replaced hostap with ieee80211. Also made > hostap_crypt.c into a module (instead of having to rely on hostap.o). I do not understand what kind of changes you think are required. Renaming the functions/structures is not really changing anything and hostap_crypt.o used to be a separate module (and it should still be possible to compile it as such by defining HOSTAP_CRYPT_MODULE when compiling the Host AP code). It sounds like your changes are just making it more difficult to maintain generic code because of making it require more work to merge changes back. With the changes to use crypto API, there's already couple of different versions of the crypto code for Host AP. I would rather not bring in more versions. The improvements should go to the wireless-2.6 tree. As far as I can tell, the version that I submitted couple of days ago for wireless-2.6 (and potentially linus-2.5) trees, should be usable as is from other drivers. Yes, hostap module will include some extra functionality that is not needed, but it does not make it any more difficult to use the encryption part which should be fully hardware independent. This can be easily (again) extracted, if it looks like this code will be used from multiple drivers. > I have WEP working and a Makefile that can be used in the kernel or > externally. I took a look at the TKIP and CCMP source files and it is > somewhat tied up to ioctls and headers (just took a quick look correct > me if i'm wrong) from hostap. This makes it somewhat difficult to turn > them into code that compiles without hostap code. Tied to ioctls?? There is no ioctl processing in the Host AP crypto code. The header files are mainly for defining the IEEE 802.11 header. In addition, Host AP code can already be used in the kernel and externally.. > Besides this, the ipw2100 code also has an attempt at a somewhat generic > ieee80211 interface for drivers. ieee80211_rx.c is mostly based on > hostap_hw.c code (which looks like is now in CVS as hostap_80211_rx.c ) > and there's also ieee80211_tx.c which i think was created from scratch > by James Ketrenos (ipw2100 main developer @intel). This sounds similar to what the current Host AP driver uses hostap_80211_{rx,tx}.c. > My question is: would it be interesting to try and merge code from > hostap, ipw2100 and possibly other drivers to try to create generic code > for 80211 and 80211_crypt? Yes and this is what has been discussed on netdev and (admittedly, slowly so far) started with wireless-2.6. > developers (hostap, prism54, atmel, etc...). I'm asking this because > AFAICS, the hostap driver always had an history of more focus on new > features, functionality, bug fixes, than "standard" APIs, etc... and i > completely understand that and thank god it has been like this because > the final result was a really nice driver. I believe that one needs to first experiment with the features/design before being able to design a standard API. There has already been quite many versions of Linux wireless extensions and I would rather first see what would be a common design that could work with most wireless cards and then design an API for this. For many functions, we are starting to have all the needed information to actually to this successfully. > Would you accept patches at least for now to make hostap_crypt* into > ieee80211_crypt*? Sure, if there is something that really improves the current situation in some way. I don't think that just renaming the functions would be very useful at that point. Of course it can be done, but I would prefer to see a bit more design on the other parts of the IEEE 802.11 support and its place in the Linux net stack. > PS: Comments, ideas, proposals, etc are welcome for discussion.(What is > the best way to discuss this matter? There's a large number of > developers involved. Maybe netdev?) netdev -- Jouni Malinen PGP id EFC895FA - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/