Re: [PATCH v3 3/4] nl80211: vendor-cmd: add Intel vendor commands for iwlmei usage

[Kalle Valo <kvalo@codeaurora.org>]

Emmanuel Grumbach <egrumbach@gmail.com> writes:

> On Thu, Jun 24, 2021 at 8:09 PM Kalle Valo <kvalo@codeaurora.org> wrote:
>>
>> Emmanuel Grumbach <emmanuel.grumbach@intel.com> writes:
>>
>> > iwlmei allows to integrate with the CSME firmware. There are
>> > flows that are prioprietary for this purpose:
>> >
>> > * Get the information the AP, the CSME firmware is connected
>> >   to. This is useful when we need to speed up the connection
>> >   process in case the CSME firmware has an TCP connection
>> >   that must be kept alive across the ownership transition.
>> > * Forbid roaming, which will happen when the CSME firmware
>> >   wants to tell the user space not disrupt the connection.
>> > * Request ownership, upon driver boot when the CSME firmware
>> >   owns the device.
>>
>> Vendor command requirements are documented here:
>>
>> https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/developers/documentation/nl80211#vendor-specific_api
>>
>> The commit log is not really answering to those. For example, how a user
>> would use this? Or is there a user space tool?
>
> We intend to send those command from the NetworkManager.

I'm not really fond of the idea that NetworkManager uses nl80211 vendor
commands, sounds quite hacky to me. I would prefer that NetworkManager
uses generic nl80211 interface so that it works with every driver. But I
need to look at v4 to understand more how this all works.

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