Re: [PATCH 00/39] merge request for WiMAX kernel stack and i2400m driver v2

Dan Williams
2008-11-30T04:05:59Z

On Thu, 2008-11-27 at 12:23 +0100, Johannes Berg wrote:
> > The idea is to make the WiMAX subsystem more generic and create
> > something similar to what we have with mac80211/cfg80211 and also
> > inside Bluetooth. This is the common starting point and next step is
> > to move functionality that has been identified as generic and common
> > from the driver into the subsystem.
>
> The problem is with the current stack design this isn't really possible,
> since the stack only provides like three real commands:
> * talk to driver
> * reset device
> * do rfkill (though I'm not sure why this is needed)
>
> > I prefer if we do this development inside the kernel tree instead of
> > externally. One big thing we should have learned from mac80211 is that
> > developing a full stack outside the kernel source tree is not really
> > working out. We should apply the same model as we did for ext4 or what
> > Greg is doing with his staging tree.
>
> The problem with that is that the stack is setting APIs in stone that
> are, if you ask me, suboptimal. Once we add those, I don't see how we
> can migrate away from a "command handled by driver" model towards a
> "command handled by stack and appropriate driver callback called" model,
> which would be more like cfg80211/nl80211 rather than iwpriv.
>
> > It has been open source since quite some time now at linuxwimax.org
> > (exception are some tiny binary pieces).
>
> Ok, sorry, I thought there was a bunch of binary code still.

The 802.1x supplicant still is.

Dan