Re: nm-applet lists ath_pci as wired but NetworkAdministration Tool lists it as wireless

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Tue, 2008-09-02 at 14:59 +0000, Lars Oliver Hansen wrote:
> Hi,
>  
> > On Tue, 2008-09-02 at 10:04 +0000, Lars Oliver Hansen wrote:
> > > Hello,
> > >  
> > > with kernel 2.6.27-rc5 nm-applet 0.6.6 from Ubuntu 8.04 lists my
> > > Atheros wireless chip as a wired network when the MadWifi ath_pci
> > > driver is loaded. Connecting with it is unsuccesfull. Network
> > > Administration Tool from Ubuntu 8.04 from Carlos Garnacho Parro
> who
> > > has a gnome e-mail adress lists it as wireless though and shows
> the
> > > available access points and their signal strengths. What does
> Network
> > > Administration Tool do different from nm-applet?
> > 
> > Grab the output of 'lshal'.  Look through that output for the
> interface
> > name of your device.  Does the interface have the "net.80211"
> > capability?  Here's the output for an ipw2200 for reference:
> 
> 
> There isn't a info.capabilities field at all. Yet the same driver 

That's the problem then.

> works with the Ubuntu kernel (on the same system).
> Also Network Administration Tool recognizes a wireless adapter and
> can 

If the Network Admin Tool was properly using HAL to detect hardware, it
would also have this problem.  Plugging in a madwifi-driven card on 8.04
just now seems to work OK with both the network tool and NetworkManager
recognizing the card.

> use it. Kernel 2.6.27-rc5 related?

Could be, but there are a few causes and not all are kernel related:

1) the kernel changed sysfs interface on you, and you haven't updated
HAL, or HAL hasn't yet been updated to understand new kernel sysfs
layouts or something

2) the madwifi driver isn't properly telling userspace that it's a
wireless device

3) there's a race condition with udev or something that's screwing up
hotplug events and making things confused
 
> Any workarounds?

Fixing the bug.  Just working around something usually doesn't help
anyone because the bug lives on :)

Any reason you're not using the kernel's ath5k or ath9k drivers, and why
you're still using madwifi?

Dan