SIOCSIFFLAGS: Name not unique on network

SIOCSIFFLAGS: Name not unique on network

[Chanthearith HUON]

Hello everyone,

I would like to build a small mesh network based on 802.11s using 
open80211s for performance testing.
After reading linuxwireless.org <http://linuxwireless.org>, I came up 
with "iw" command to create new virtual interface and MP.

Here is my wireless card
"Intel PRO/Wireless 3845ABG"

Its installed driver
"iwl3945"

This wireless card is not listed 
in http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Devices 
<http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Devices>
but the driver is in the 
list http://linuxwireless.org/en/developers/Documentation/mac80211#mac80211drivers 
<http://linuxwireless.org/en/developers/Documentation/mac80211#mac80211drivers>

The OS is ubuntu Intrepid Ibex 8.10 with kernel 2.6.27-9-generic

After creating new interface for mesh "iw dev wlan0 interface add mesh 
type mp mesh_id 100". I turned the mesh interface up by "ifconfig mesh up".
I got following error message
" SIOCSIFFLAGS: Name not unique on network "

I got the same error message for " ifconfig mesh 192.168.1.1 "

I search on the net but not much help.

Thank very much,
Thierry

Re: SIOCSIFFLAGS: Name not unique on network

[Johannes Berg]

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On Thu, 2009-01-22 at 16:19 +0100, Chanthearith HUON wrote:

> This wireless card is not listed 
> in http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Devices 
> <http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Devices>
> but the driver is in the 
> list http://linuxwireless.org/en/developers/Documentation/mac80211#mac80211drivers 
> <http://linuxwireless.org/en/developers/Documentation/mac80211#mac80211drivers>

But it's listed here:
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers

-- as not supporting mesh.

> The OS is ubuntu Intrepid Ibex 8.10 with kernel 2.6.27-9-generic
> 
> After creating new interface for mesh "iw dev wlan0 interface add mesh 
> type mp mesh_id 100". I turned the mesh interface up by "ifconfig mesh up".
> I got following error message
> " SIOCSIFFLAGS: Name not unique on network "

That's strange, it should not have allowed you to add the interface in
the first place. But then, you're using an ancient kernel anyway...

johannes

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Re: SIOCSIFFLAGS: Name not unique on network

[Andrey Yurovsky]

On Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 2:21 PM, Johannes Berg
<johannes@sipsolutions.net> wrote:
> On Thu, 2009-01-22 at 16:19 +0100, Chanthearith HUON wrote:
>
>> This wireless card is not listed
>> in http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Devices
>> <http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Devices>
>> but the driver is in the
>> list http://linuxwireless.org/en/developers/Documentation/mac80211#mac80211drivers
>> <http://linuxwireless.org/en/developers/Documentation/mac80211#mac80211drivers>
>
> But it's listed here:
> http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers
>
> -- as not supporting mesh.
>
>> The OS is ubuntu Intrepid Ibex 8.10 with kernel 2.6.27-9-generic
>>
>> After creating new interface for mesh "iw dev wlan0 interface add mesh
>> type mp mesh_id 100". I turned the mesh interface up by "ifconfig mesh up".
>> I got following error message
>> " SIOCSIFFLAGS: Name not unique on network "
>
> That's strange, it should not have allowed you to add the interface in
> the first place. But then, you're using an ancient kernel anyway...
>
> johannes
>

That's indeed strange: the iwl3945 (along with the other Intel cards)
definitely doesn't support mesh but I was able to add an interface as
well on my Ubuntu box (2.6.27-9).  I think the reason is that iwlwifi
doesn't explicitly test for interfaces it actually supports:

static int iwl3945_mac_add_interface(struct ieee80211_hw *hw,
                                 struct ieee80211_if_init_conf *conf)
{
        struct iwl_priv *priv = hw->priv;
        unsigned long flags;

        IWL_DEBUG_MAC80211("enter: type %d\n", conf->type);

        if (priv->vif) {
                IWL_DEBUG_MAC80211("leave - vif != NULL\n");
                return -EOPNOTSUPP;
        }
<snip>

Re: SIOCSIFFLAGS: Name not unique on network

[Chanthearith HUON]

Thank you very much, this problem also occured with supported cards.
I solved this problem with both broadcom and intel wireless cards.

I deactivated the physical interface first before using mesh interfaces 
and no more error message.
However, since you mentionned that non of Intel card support mesh, now I 
only use broadcom wireless cards for testing.

I followed the howto http://www.open80211s.org/trac/wiki/HOWTO
but things did not work as expected.

my broadcom wireless cards
"
card: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306
driver: b43legacy
"

Here are commands for all my pcs except mesh interface name and ip which 
are different thereby i replace them here by X.
"
Killall NetworkManager
iw dev wlan0 interface add meshX type mp mesh_id mymesh
ifconfig wlan0 down
iwconfig meshX mode Ad-hoc
ifconfig meshX up
iwconfig meshX channel 2.462G
ifconfig meshX inet 192.168.1.X netmask 255.255.255.0
"

However, with "iw dev meshX station dump" in all experiement machines, 
nothing displayed on the screen as a result. I waited and no route 
constructed between them. Thus, I can not ping any mesh neighbors.

I would like to know ur suggestion? what is missing or...?

Thank,
Thierry

Andrey Yurovsky wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 2:21 PM, Johannes Berg
> <johannes@sipsolutions.net> wrote:
>   
>> On Thu, 2009-01-22 at 16:19 +0100, Chanthearith HUON wrote:
>>
>>     
>>> This wireless card is not listed
>>> in http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Devices
>>> <http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Devices>
>>> but the driver is in the
>>> list http://linuxwireless.org/en/developers/Documentation/mac80211#mac80211drivers
>>> <http://linuxwireless.org/en/developers/Documentation/mac80211#mac80211drivers>
>>>       
>> But it's listed here:
>> http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers
>>
>> -- as not supporting mesh.
>>
>>     
>>> The OS is ubuntu Intrepid Ibex 8.10 with kernel 2.6.27-9-generic
>>>
>>> After creating new interface for mesh "iw dev wlan0 interface add mesh
>>> type mp mesh_id 100". I turned the mesh interface up by "ifconfig mesh up".
>>> I got following error message
>>> " SIOCSIFFLAGS: Name not unique on network "
>>>       
>> That's strange, it should not have allowed you to add the interface in
>> the first place. But then, you're using an ancient kernel anyway...
>>
>> johannes
>>
>>     
>
> That's indeed strange: the iwl3945 (along with the other Intel cards)
> definitely doesn't support mesh but I was able to add an interface as
> well on my Ubuntu box (2.6.27-9).  I think the reason is that iwlwifi
> doesn't explicitly test for interfaces it actually supports:
>
> static int iwl3945_mac_add_interface(struct ieee80211_hw *hw,
>                                  struct ieee80211_if_init_conf *conf)
> {
>         struct iwl_priv *priv = hw->priv;
>         unsigned long flags;
>
>         IWL_DEBUG_MAC80211("enter: type %d\n", conf->type);
>
>         if (priv->vif) {
>                 IWL_DEBUG_MAC80211("leave - vif != NULL\n");
>                 return -EOPNOTSUPP;
>         }
> <snip>
>   

Re: SIOCSIFFLAGS: Name not unique on network

[Johannes Berg]

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On Fri, 2009-01-23 at 14:57 -0800, Andrey Yurovsky wrote:

> That's indeed strange: the iwl3945 (along with the other Intel cards)
> definitely doesn't support mesh but I was able to add an interface as
> well on my Ubuntu box (2.6.27-9).  I think the reason is that iwlwifi
> doesn't explicitly test for interfaces it actually supports:
> 
> static int iwl3945_mac_add_interface(struct ieee80211_hw *hw,
>                                  struct ieee80211_if_init_conf *conf)
> {
>         struct iwl_priv *priv = hw->priv;
>         unsigned long flags;
> 
>         IWL_DEBUG_MAC80211("enter: type %d\n", conf->type);
> 
>         if (priv->vif) {
>                 IWL_DEBUG_MAC80211("leave - vif != NULL\n");
>                 return -EOPNOTSUPP;
>         }

Yes, that was a long-standing bug in those drivers that was really only
fixed when we introduced the cfg80211 supported interfaces thing.

johannes

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