Re: [PATCH 1/2] wireless: set correct mandatory rate flags

[Johannes Berg <johannes@sipsolutions.net>]

On Fri, 2017-09-08 at 10:43 +0200, Richard Schütz wrote:

> > Hmm, I guess technically you're correct, since 11b added what's now
> > Clause 16 (was Clause 18 at the time), and that has all of them
> > mandatory? But perhaps this was actually intended for Clause 15
> > compatibility?
> 
> Compatibility in what way?

Well, realistically there are only three users of this information:

 * ieee80211_mandatory_rates(), used for supported station rates if we
   don't know anything better in IBSS (and OCB) and for basic rates in
   mesh;
 * basic rates in IBSS (__cfg80211_join_ibss);
 * duration calculation in ieee80211_duration, but that's just a
   fallback

So I guess it's now pretty unlikely that anyone would have a pre-11b
device, so it would make sense to actually make this change.

johannes