Re: mac80211 regression: doesn't associate automatically

[Johannes Berg <johannes@sipsolutions.net>]

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[please make sure to copy me on replies]

> On first sight, you might be right. I haven't told to associate. 
> But at the second sight, there is no EXPLICIT iwconfig-based way 
> to say "now associate".

Exactly. So I argue we're free to chose.

> For 6 drivers (see below) the "iwconfig 
> XXX key YYY" command is an IMPLICIT way to say "try to associate 
> with what you know so far. That's because those drivers have a 
> heuristic like
> 
>   "If I'm not successfully associated yet, then I try to
>   associate whenver I get a new bit of info".
> 
> And this bit of info might be ESSID, wep key, wpa key, on some 
> drivers even rate or b/g limitations.

Which is crap.

> > Can't say that matters since wext is actually sufficiently
> > undefined to allow both behaviours. :)
> 
> Wrong.
> 
> Of course I can say that the ESSID,KEY sequence used to work with 
> non-mac80211 based WLAN drivers. Because it worked. I have proof 
> that it worked.

Bzzt. You're operating on wrong premises. It doesn't matter! Nothing in
wext gives you the promise that this works!

> I might not be able to say that it worked for *ALL* non-mac80211 
> based WLAN drivers. But I haven't said that.
> 
> And as of now, I can say that 6 drivers didn't care if I first 
> feed the ESSID and the the WEP KEY:

[drivers snipped]

Actually, all of these drivers misbehave because they allow you to
associate to a network that has encryption enabled even if you haven't
set a key!

> One can say that if so many drivers behave identically, then this 
> is a behavior that many users assume. And, oh, by the way, many 
> distros.
> 
> It's the behavior of mac80211 with wext-compatibilty layer that 
> behaves unusually or out-of-the-order.

Again, you're operating on the premise that what some drivers do defines
wext. That's thankfully untrue and since wext doesn't define behaviour,
the mac80211 behaviour is well in line.

johannes

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