hotplug & PCMCIA schemes

hotplug & PCMCIA schemes

[shivers]

Please excuse me if this message is not addressed the proper mailing list.

I have just upgraded from RedHat 6.2 to RedHat 7.2, which introduces the
hotplug service. Unfortunately, the architecture of the system doesn't
seem to accomodate my useage patterns. I think my useage patterns are typical
for a common and growing class of users. I'd like to describe how I use
PCMCIA cards to this list, and see if there is some natural way to accomplish
it using the hotplug system, or if the hotplug system has problems.

I have a notebook computer. I use it in one of about five places: 
    1. My condo in Harvard Square
       Here I connect to the net using an old, pre-802.11 netwave card &
       DHCP. This requires non-standard flags to the driver for encryption.

    2. A little compay where I work
       Here I connect to the net using an 802.11 card, with a particular
       encryption key & network id, via DHCP.

    3. My office at MIT.
       Static IP, 802.11 card, different encryption key.

    3. My home in Atlanta
       DHCP, 802.11 card, different encryption key.

    4. My office at Georgia Tech.
       DHCP, 802.11 card, different encryption key.

(Clearly, I am a little more mobile than is really good for me. But I have
insane frequent-flyer miles.) 

Additionally, I sometimes use a 100Mb 3Com card when I back my hard drive up
to a sessile server; static IP.

This all works fine under Hinds' standard pcmcia system -- I just use
different "schemes" -- "home," "GT," "boston," "GT-static," etc. -- to
determine DHCP or the static IP address, the proper encryption key, any
funky-nonstandard options and so forth. But I see no way to do this under the
hotplug system. The /etc/hotplug/net.agent script will invoke
/etc/pcmcia/wireless if I use a wireless card, but it *won't* invoke
/etc/pcmcia/network with a wireline network card. So it's scheme-insensitive
in the wireline case.

The short summary here is that notebook users hook up to lots of different
networks, depending (among other things) on location, as they cart their
machines around. All the hotplug agent sees is "eth0". That's not enough.

Hind's system handles this by providing an extra user-configurable key
in the form of the "scheme." How does one do this in hotplug?
    -Olin

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Re: hotplug & PCMCIA schemes

[David Brownell]

From: <shivers@cc.gatech.edu>

> This all works fine under Hinds' standard pcmcia system -- I just use
> different "schemes" -- "home," "GT," "boston," "GT-static," etc. -- to
> determine DHCP or the static IP address, the proper encryption key, any
> funky-nonstandard options and so forth. But I see no way to do this under the
> hotplug system. 

Not the standard distro, but I believe all the necessary ingredients
are there.


>    The /etc/hotplug/net.agent script will invoke
> /etc/pcmcia/wireless if I use a wireless card, but it *won't* invoke
> /etc/pcmcia/network with a wireline network card. So it's scheme-insensitive
> in the wireline case.
> 
> The short summary here is that notebook users hook up to lots of different
> networks, depending (among other things) on location, as they cart their
> machines around. All the hotplug agent sees is "eth0". That's not enough.

The hotplug agent sees the whole filesystem, too.  Whatever tells
PCMCIA that the current "scheme" is "GT", for example, should
be accessible to hotplug agents too.


> Hind's system handles this by providing an extra user-configurable key
> in the form of the "scheme." How does one do this in hotplug?

Well, one could always submit a patch to teach hotplug that such
different schemes exist.  That facility isn't restricted to networking,
is it?  Seems to me that different kinds of docking setup would need
it for more than just network devices.

Alternatively, I think the RedHat scripts used by "ifup" are also
places that such behaviors can be hooked.

-  Dave




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