Subject: Re: wlan#ap seems bogus

From: "Jouni Malinen" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2006 08:58:47 -0700

On Mon, Aug 14, 2006 at 10:22:34AM +0200, Johannes Berg wrote:
> As far as I understand the entire point of the wlan#ap interface is to
> receive all management relevant management frames. (If that's wrong, reply
> now and don't read the rest)
> 
> Hence, I think it ought to be named 'wlan#mgmt' instead. However, I think
> it's hard-coded existence is bogus.
> 
> How about we just add a new interface mode called MGT_MONITOR and
> wpa_supplicant simply creates a new device via the regular sysfs mechanism,
> and then sets that MGT_MONITOR mode via the relevant WEXT ioctl? iwconfig
> doesn't even need to be taught about this mode except for display
> purposes...

Isn't this already done? I don't remember what happened with client mode
case, but at least hostapd is requesting the management interface
dynamically at startup time.

> Also, like I mentioned previously, the device naming can be changed by the
> user and there's no guarantee that wlan0ap corresponds to wmaster0. Etc. But
> if wpa_supplicant simply created the device itself, it could give it any
> name, say wlan0_mgt (if it was controlling wlan0), but if that name is
> already taken it simply appends a number or something until it hits a device
> name that's still free (or gives up after 100 tries or so...) :)

Same here.. hostapd gets the ifindex from kernel and doesn't care about
the name.

-- 
Jouni Malinen                                            PGP id EFC895FA