[PATCH 09/10] libbsd.txt: Describe current state of WLAN.

[Christian Mauderer]

Am 09.11.2017 um 06:01 schrieb Chris Johns:
> On 08/11/2017 23:33, Christian Mauderer wrote:
>> +- Create your wlan device using ifconfig:
>> +  +ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev rtwn0 up+
> 
> Any rc.conf support?
> 
> Chris
> 

Hello Chris,

currently there is still no rc.conf support. I took a look at it and
found out that I can't do it in the scope of the project. Therefore I
only added a note regarding this in the "known restrictions".

In FreeBSD, the creation of such devices would be handled by rc.conf
lines like
    wlans_rtwn0="wlan0"
    ifconfig_wlan0="DHCP"

It wouldn't be a great problem to parse such lines in rc.conf and call a
matching ifconfig command. But there is a problem due to the nature of
the rtwn0 device: It's an USB device. Due to that, it isn't there right
from the start. Depending on quite a number of conditions it will appear
sooner or later during the startup or - in the worst case - a user could
plug it after a few minutes of run time.

Please correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I know, the rc.conf support
in RTEMS currently is only executed once during start without
remembering any configuration for later use. The source can be either a
file or a string.

With that in mind, I would expect that roughly the following would be
necessary for that implementation:

- To handle dynamically added WiFi and network devices through rc.conf,
either the complete rc.conf string or at least the information from the
wlans_xxx and ifconfig_xxx lines has to be kept somewhere for later use.

- Some kind of handler or daemon for detecting new USB devices would be
necessary. As far as I know, there is currently no such thing. The only
other application with dynamic device detection that I know of is the
media listener. But I think that is on block device level and not on the
USB level.

I would have liked to add that integration to have a clean solution. But
like I said, there isn't enough free budget left in that project to do
it. I really hope that we can find some time and budget for it in the
future.

Regards

Christian
-- 
--------------------------------------------
embedded brains GmbH
Christian Mauderer
Dornierstr. 4
D-82178 Puchheim
Germany
email: christian.mauderer at embedded-brains.de
Phone: +49-89-18 94 741 - 18
Fax:   +49-89-18 94 741 - 08
PGP: Public key available on request.

Diese Nachricht ist keine geschäftliche Mitteilung im Sinne des EHUG.