Re: WPA + IBSS?

[Maxim Levitsky <maximlevitsky gmail com>]

On Thu, 2008-12-11 at 23:26 -0500, Dan Williams wrote:
> On Fri, 2008-12-12 at 04:00 +0200, Maxim Levitsky wrote:
> > I am testing now the connection sharing feature of NM.
> > It mostly works, but I found out that I can't create an ad hoc wpa2
> > protected network. 
> > Is this possible (nm creates it, but it doesn't work)?
> 
> It should be possible, yes, but the first question is "does the driver
> work?"  This was the major problem when I was actually developing the
> feature, and I had to go fix the drivers and supplicant to make it work.
> So, make sure you have at least the following things:
> 
> - 2.6.26 or later kernel
>    * mac80211: the IBSS search interval was too short, plus the stack
> never notified userspace that it had successfully created the network
>        872ba53395b2a8be08c3ea2d39e225e5b4a8cb40
>        507b06d0622480f8026d49a94f86068bb0fd6ed6
I use 2.6.28-rc7, so I guees that should be included?

I don't see first commit, but do see second in git history


> 
>    * ipw2200: the driver wouldn't expire old BSS entries when creating
> and IBSS and hit an internal BSS limit
>        a6d4eae80157830af9c9d80de2daf6611696a34e
I don't have this driver, iwl3945 here.

> 
> - wpa_supplicant 0.6.6 or later
>    * the wext driver was not correctly downing the interface and
> bringing it back up again when switching from infra to ibss mode
>        1d3c75b3b6663ed9f3a9a8dea8d47056cce2680f
> 
>    * the ordering of operations after mode switch was wrong
>        ec5f180a24cd31ba9d3d7f2abc9dc557fd16602f
> 
>    * the supplicant wasn't waiting long enough for IBSS creation
>        1d3c75b3b6663ed9f3a9a8dea8d47056cce2680f
> 
I install it soon.

> Then, see if you can set up a supplicant config that works for you, and
> if the supplicant can do it correctly, then we have a chance of getting
> NM to do it correctly.
> 
Just curios, what I understand is that wpa_supplicant deals with
periodic key update, but I have seen that it also scans the network,
implements roaming, etc..


Does NM use wpa_supplicant as a wrapper for most its operations, like
scanning, setting interface settings, like essid ?

Does nm call wpa_supplicant even while connecting/using to non wpa
network?

I assume that nm tells all settings to wpa_supplicant via some sort of
interprocess communication, like socket or fifo, therefore it doesn't
touch its configuration file, and I guees that by default there is no
configuration file for wpa_supplicant, right?


Best regards,
	Maxim Levitsky