Re: Rfkill on ifconfig up.

[Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@hmh.eng.br>]

On Mon, 23 Jun 2008, Tomas Winkler wrote:
> Little RF KILL design question from user space perspective.
> What should be desired return value of ifconfig up when HW rfkill is
> on (radio is off).

This isn't really about rfkill, its design doesn't call for any particular
behaviour.  IMHO we should go with the principle of least suprise, and also
more convenience for the user.

In the end, it will depend on the capabilities of the hardware, I suppose.
Assuming the hardware CAN bring its interface up without going bonkers
because the transmitter is not transmitting anything, that's exactly what it
should do IMO.

What it must never do is to unblock the transmiter because of a ifconfig up
:-)

> rfkill on (radio off)
> ifconfig wlan0 up
> rfkill off (radio on)
> 
> Will it be ok for these sequence to require additional ifconfig up to
> make driver to work, providing the first ifconfig up failed?

It would be nice if it didn't fail the first ifconfig, and therefore needed
nothing special to work other than a rfkill unblock.

-- 
  "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
  them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
  where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
  Henrique Holschuh