Re: iwctl force autoconnect

[Denis Kenzior <denkenz@gmail.com>]

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Hi Yuri,

On 3/26/21 4:28 PM, Yuri D'Elia wrote:
> Is it possible to force iwd to connect to a known network without
> explicitly giving a network name? That is, to force attempting to
> autoconnect?
> 
> Currently "station <net> connect" requires a ssid. It would be nice if
> that would be made optional, causing iwd to go through the automatic
> connect logic.
> 
> I assumed that issuing a "station <net> scan" *would* attempt to
> autoconnect if a known network is seen and we're currently disconnected,
> but it's not always the case. If we disconnected from a known network
> due to AP disappearing and reappearing sometime later, "scan" will the
> network, but connection is still performed after some longer timeout.

So in theory this should always be happening.  Once iwd is in 'autoconnect' 
state (starting state, or when we lose a connection) then any scan results 
triggered (either internal scanning logic or scans triggered via dbus/iwctl) 
should then be considered for autoconnect purposes.  You say that 'it's not 
always the case'.  So this works for you sometimes and not other times?  Can you 
capture some logs for us?  Also, are you running any other network managers on 
top of iwd or just iwd standalone?

> 
> I want to bind an action to force a scan+connect without having to wait,
> and without having to hardcode a network name. When I'm moving a laptop
> between offices and go through some blind spots (elevator) I end-up in a
> situation where I'm disconnected, and I want to force a connection right
> away.

We set some very conservative scan timeouts, perhaps you can play with more 
aggressive settings to see if iwd's autoconnect logic will work in your case? 
See 'man 5 iwd.config', InitialPeriodicScanInterval and MaximumPeriodicScanInterval.

I think our default for MaximumPeriodicScanInterval is way too high actually.

Regards,
-Denis