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

Rafał Miłecki
2016-06-17T20:45:06Z

On 17 June 2016 at 21:00, Arend van Spriel <arend.vanspriel@broadcom.com> wrote:
> On 17-06-16 14:30, Rafał Miłecki wrote:
>> 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.
>
> Actually, the puzzle was supposed to be for me, but I like your
> curiosity and persistence in digging up the (partial) info.
>
>> 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
>
> (huh)? anyway the api indeed uses what we call an iovar, ie.
> string-based ioctl.

That's what I meant, sorry for wrong naming :)

>> string. Any tip what would it be? Something like
>> "wl_interface_create"? Can you reveal such a small secret?
>
> It is "interface_create" and "interface_remove".

It (almost) works, thanks! I just hit some bug in brcmfmac in handling
events. It can be exposed by deleting 2 interfaces quickly, one by
one, it seems. I'll debug this.

--
Rafał