Re: CVS-2-2 NMApplet empty bar explained

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Fri, 2005-02-04 at 10:54 -0500, Bill Moss wrote:
> Take a look at the next message I sent about patching the NM 
> nm_wireless_qual_to_percent function. If a driver does not report 
> max_qual->level and max->qual->noise, make some good guess. The physical 
> lower limit for what a card can do is about -96 dBm. The upper limit 
> varies but is always less than -10 dBm. For the ipw2200, -20 dBm is 
> about right. Percentage is at best a rough indicator and does not 
> directly relate to a physical quantity so I don't think it matters that 
> much to get it "exactly right". If the driver does not specify 
> max_qual->level and max->qual->noise, how about setting
> 
> max_qual->level to 221 (-35 dBm)
> max_qual->noise to 161 (-95 dBm)

I've seen mention of cards capable of receiving around -80 dBm down to
-97 dBm.  I think around -90 dBm would be a good value there...

I also don't think I've ever seen a card (out of my stack of 6 and a few
more from friends and coworkers) that's been able to get above -20 dBm,
so that might be a good starter value.

We could also adjust this stuff on the fly (at least the upper bound
here) and maybe move that down as low as -30dBm over time, though that
gets more complicated.  I guess the answer would be "fix the driver" if
people complained enough.  Sounds like a good idea though.  Thanks for
the tip.

Dan