Return-path: Received: from mx1.redhat.com ([209.132.183.28]:61321 "EHLO mx1.redhat.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751832Ab1HRTRq (ORCPT ); Thu, 18 Aug 2011 15:17:46 -0400 Subject: Re: [PATCH] ath9k: make driver usable standalone From: Dan Williams To: Pavel Ivanov Cc: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?G=E1bor?= Stefanik , "Luis R. Rodriguez" , Jouni Malinen , Vasanthakumar Thiagarajan , Senthil Balasubramanian , linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org, ath9k-devel@venema.h4ckr.net, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:20:15 -0500 In-Reply-To: References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Message-ID: <1313695217.23920.4.camel@dcbw.foobar.com> (sfid-20110818_211805_619332_60E7F934) Mime-Version: 1.0 Sender: linux-wireless-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Thu, 2011-08-18 at 00:01 -0400, Pavel Ivanov wrote: > > Iwconfig and iwlist are themselves deprecated. Iw is the new wireless > > configuration tool. > > I've just tried to use iw and it didn't quite work for me. Maybe it's > interfering with something installed in Ubuntu by default but Ubuntu installs NetworkManager by default, so if you want to manually control the wifi card you'll have to tell NM to ignore the wifi device, or turn NM off temporarily. > connect/disconnect commands didn't seem to do anything. And why these > commands can be executed only as root? Because poking and configuring hardware is a privileged operation; tools like NetworkManager selectively poke holes through that wall and often require administrator passwords to do it, but at the end of the day its an operation that can affect security and stability, and that means it needs to be privileged. In the end, you probably want to be using wpa_supplicant instead of trying to configure stuff with iw directly. Dan > Well, maybe in Ubuntu 11.10 it will work better. > > > Pavel > > > 2011/8/17 Gábor Stefanik : > > 2011/8/17 Pavel Ivanov : > >>> WIRELESS_EXT is not required for configuring wireless on recent > >>> kernels - in fact, the WEXT API is deprecated in favor of nl80211 now. > >> > >> Since what version it's deprecated? Do user-space tools know about this new API? > >> > >> Neither iwconfig nor iwlist worked for me without WIRELESS_EXT. > >> > >> > >> Pavel > >> > > > > Iwconfig and iwlist are themselves deprecated. Iw is the new wireless > > configuration tool. > > > >> > >> 2011/8/17 Gábor Stefanik : > >>> On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 5:28 AM, Pavel Ivanov wrote: > >>>> When ath9k is the only wireless driver included in the build > >>>> WIRELESS_EXT configuration option becomes undefined. Because of that > >>>> driver becomes essentially unusable as you can't actually connect to > >>>> any WiFi network. By including WIRELESS_EXT into Kconfig we ensure > >>>> that build with ath9k and without other drivers (having WIRELESS_EXT > >>>> selected in their Kconfig) is actually usable. > >>> > >>> WIRELESS_EXT is not required for configuring wireless on recent > >>> kernels - in fact, the WEXT API is deprecated in favor of nl80211 now. > >>> > >>>> > >>>> Signed-off-by: Pavel Ivanov > >>>> --- > >>>> > >>>> diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/Kconfig > >>>> b/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/Kconfig > >>>> index d9c08c6..2573f77 100644 > >>>> --- a/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/Kconfig > >>>> +++ b/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/Kconfig > >>>> @@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ config ATH9K > >>>> select LEDS_CLASS > >>>> select NEW_LEDS > >>>> select ATH9K_COMMON > >>>> + select WIRELESS_EXT > >>>> ---help--- > >>>> This module adds support for wireless adapters based on > >>>> Atheros IEEE 802.11n AR5008, AR9001 and AR9002 family > -- > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-wireless" in > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org > More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html