Re: [PATCH RFC] brcmfmac: support deleting MBSS AP interfaces

Rafał Miłecki
2016-06-17T12:30:50Z

On 1 June 2016 at 21:00, Arend van Spriel <arend.vanspriel@broadcom.com> wrote:
> On 01-06-16 16:36, Rafał Miłecki wrote:
>> We already support adding extra (AP) interfaces so it also makes an
>> obvious sense to allow deleting them.
>>
>> Adding a new interface is implemented by sending request to firmware for
>> creating a new BSS and waiting for a proper event. Ideally deleting
>> interface should be handled in a similar way. There should be a request
>> to firmware for deleting BSS and firmware should respond with an event.
>>
>> Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work with recent firmwares. They never
>> seem to delete BSS and never send BRCMF_E_IF_DEL. As a workaround this
>> patch deletes Linux interface while keeping a track of BSSes present in
>> a firmware. If there is request for adding a new interface this code is
>> capable of reusing existing BSS-es.
>
> It is not so much an issue of recent firmware. Actually, on recent
> firmware 7.x.y.z and higher there are other command to create *and*
> delete additional interfaces. On the other hand we aim to support a
> large number of devices going back to bcm4329 so we have to come up with
> a scheme to use the new commands or fallback to old api. Let's hope we
> can reuse much of this effort you put in.

You gave me a complex puzzle there :D It took me a while to find out
what API you meant.

Finally I found an interesting wlioctl.h in SDK 9.10.178.27 that gave
me some clue. I got this SDK from ASUS RT-AC1200G+ open souce tarball.
There are 2 interesting structs:

typedef struct wl_interface_create {
uint16 ver; /* version of this struct */
uint32 flags; /* flags that defines the operation */
struct ether_addr mac_addr; /* Optional Mac address */
uint32 wlc_index; /* Optional wlc index */
} wl_interface_create_t;

typedef struct wl_interface_info {
uint16 ver; /* version of this struct */
struct ether_addr mac_addr; /* MAC address of the interface */
char ifname[BCM_MSG_IFNAME_MAX]; /* name of interface */
uint8 bsscfgidx; /* source bsscfg index */
} wl_interface_info_t;

I couldn't find any corresponding WLC_* in wlioctl_defs.h, so I guess
I should use WLC_SET_VAR (or WLC_SET_VAR as you prefer) with some
string. Any tip what would it be? Something like
"wl_interface_create"? Can you reveal such a small secret?

Also can you share any tip on removing interface? I don't see any
struct for that. Is that handled by some special value in
"wl_interface_create_t" or by separated string used with WLC_SET_VAR?