2014-08-12 08:42:54

by Arend van Spriel

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Netlink Question

+ linux-wireless

Not really a backports question so adding linux-wireless

On 08/11/2014 09:21 PM, C. McPherson wrote:
> I have some private WiFi ioctl's that are associated with a couple of
> drivers and I would like to convert those private ioctl's into netlink.
> Does anyone know if there is any documentation on this or a URL that I
> could reference before I attempt?

I guess the "private WiFi ioctl's" you are referring to are the ones
used in Android wpa_supplicant driver_cmd lib? There is no real cookbook
on how to add nl80211 commands (maybe I am wrong here), but there are
sufficient patches to be found in the linux-wireless archive. A recent
one about key management offload adds a couple of commands and
attributes which may give an idea what is needed:

http://mid.gmane.org/[email protected]

Obviously, you need to modify the "couple of drivers" to deal with the
nl80211 netlink commands.

Regards,
Arend

> Thanks in advance
> Clyde
>
> --
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2014-08-12 09:32:38

by Krishna Chaitanya

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Netlink Question

On Tue, Aug 12, 2014 at 2:12 PM, Arend van Spriel <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> + linux-wireless
>
> Not really a backports question so adding linux-wireless
>
> On 08/11/2014 09:21 PM, C. McPherson wrote:
>>
>> I have some private WiFi ioctl's that are associated with a couple of
>> drivers and I would like to convert those private ioctl's into netlink.
>> Does anyone know if there is any documentation on this or a URL that I
>> could reference before I attempt?
>
>
> I guess the "private WiFi ioctl's" you are referring to are the ones used in Android wpa_supplicant driver_cmd lib? There is no real cookbook on how to add nl80211 commands (maybe I am wrong here), but there are sufficient patches to be found in the linux-wireless archive. A recent one about key management offload adds a couple of commands and attributes which may give an idea what is needed:
>
> http://mid.gmane.org/[email protected]
>
> Obviously, you need to modify the "couple of drivers" to deal with the nl80211 netlink commands.
>
We had same requirement in our driver, we have patched the iw to send
custom commands specific to our hardware and used NL80211_CMD_TESTMODE
to process and send it to driver.

2014-08-13 20:01:46

by C. McPherson

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Netlink Question


On 08/12/2014 05:32 AM, Krishna Chaitanya wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 12, 2014 at 2:12 PM, Arend van Spriel <[email protected]> wrote:
>> + linux-wireless
>>
>> Not really a backports question so adding linux-wireless
>>
>> On 08/11/2014 09:21 PM, C. McPherson wrote:
>>> I have some private WiFi ioctl's that are associated with a couple of
>>> drivers and I would like to convert those private ioctl's into netlink.
>>> Does anyone know if there is any documentation on this or a URL that I
>>> could reference before I attempt?
>>
>> I guess the "private WiFi ioctl's" you are referring to are the ones used in Android wpa_supplicant driver_cmd lib? There is no real cookbook on how to add nl80211 commands (maybe I am wrong here), but there are sufficient patches to be found in the linux-wireless archive. A recent one about key management offload adds a couple of commands and attributes which may give an idea what is needed:
>>
>> http://mid.gmane.org/[email protected]
>>
>> Obviously, you need to modify the "couple of drivers" to deal with the nl80211 netlink commands.
>>
> We had same requirement in our driver, we have patched the iw to send
> custom commands specific to our hardware and used NL80211_CMD_TESTMODE
> to process and send it to driver.
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe backports" in
> the body of a message to [email protected]
> More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>
Yeah thanks a lot, I could use NL80211_CMD_TESTMODE, I'll have to check
that out. I was also thinking about using NL80211_CMD_VENDOR. These
IOCTL's are not and will not be used by wpa_supplicant (but I will check
out the URL you sent), they are just some custom commands we use with
several chipsets.

-Clyde




2014-08-14 08:18:23

by Arend van Spriel

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Netlink Question

On 08/13/2014 09:01 PM, C. McPherson wrote:
>
> On 08/12/2014 05:32 AM, Krishna Chaitanya wrote:
>> On Tue, Aug 12, 2014 at 2:12 PM, Arend van Spriel <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>> + linux-wireless
>>>
>>> Not really a backports question so adding linux-wireless
>>>
>>> On 08/11/2014 09:21 PM, C. McPherson wrote:
>>>> I have some private WiFi ioctl's that are associated with a couple of
>>>> drivers and I would like to convert those private ioctl's into netlink.
>>>> Does anyone know if there is any documentation on this or a URL that I
>>>> could reference before I attempt?
>>>
>>> I guess the "private WiFi ioctl's" you are referring to are the ones
>>> used in Android wpa_supplicant driver_cmd lib? There is no real
>>> cookbook on how to add nl80211 commands (maybe I am wrong here), but
>>> there are sufficient patches to be found in the linux-wireless
>>> archive. A recent one about key management offload adds a couple of
>>> commands and attributes which may give an idea what is needed:
>>>
>>> http://mid.gmane.org/[email protected]
>>>
>>>
>>> Obviously, you need to modify the "couple of drivers" to deal with
>>> the nl80211 netlink commands.
>>>
>> We had same requirement in our driver, we have patched the iw to send
>> custom commands specific to our hardware and used NL80211_CMD_TESTMODE
>> to process and send it to driver.
>> --
>> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe backports" in
>> the body of a message to [email protected]
>> More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>>
> Yeah thanks a lot, I could use NL80211_CMD_TESTMODE, I'll have to check
> that out. I was also thinking about using NL80211_CMD_VENDOR. These
> IOCTL's are not and will not be used by wpa_supplicant (but I will check
> out the URL you sent), they are just some custom commands we use with
> several chipsets.

If you are using recent kernel or backports package, I would say go for
the vendor command. It is quite similar to TESTMODE except that it is
always enabled, ie. not depending on kernel config.

However, if the custom commands would add functionality that might be
interesting to linux-wireless drivers in general you may consider adding
them as nl80211 commands.

Regards,
Arend