From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: James Chapman Subject: Re: Network device driver with PPP Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:27:03 +0000 Message-ID: <47C67E67.70604@katalix.com> References: <3415E2A2AB26944B9159CDB22001004D024DA732@nestea.sierrawireless.local> <1204164955.26292.5.camel@localhost.localdomain> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Kevin Lloyd , netdev@vger.kernel.org To: Dan Williams Return-path: Received: from s36.avahost.net ([74.53.95.194]:33780 "EHLO s36.avahost.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1754965AbYB1J1J (ORCPT ); Thu, 28 Feb 2008 04:27:09 -0500 In-Reply-To: <1204164955.26292.5.camel@localhost.localdomain> Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: Dan Williams wrote: > On Wed, 2008-02-27 at 17:28 -0800, Kevin Lloyd wrote: >> Hi all, >> >> I have a device that is currently supported via a combination of loading the device with usb-serial (drivers/usb/serial/sierra) to expose the serial ports and connecting by manually launching pppd. >> I would like to support this device in a network driver as opposed to a serial driver in an effort to offer a seamless always-on device, such as an Ethernet device. >> >> From what I understand the ppp support in the kernel is only for ppp framing and that all control (e.g., IPCP) is done in user-space via pppd. Are there any network drivers that currently manage the ppp connection (entirely, IPCP included) internally to the driver and expose either a raw ip or ethernet stream to the user-space? > > That seems quite icky to do all in kernel space and a pile of code > running in the kernel. What's so wrong with userspace? Don't you need > to push values to the driver like username/password and get IP config > out of it (which would involve userspace anyway)? It just seems like > there's a different solution to your actual problem here than stuff all > off pppd into kernel space. I agree. Kevin mentions manually launching pppd and the desire for a seamless always-on device. I think this could be done using udev/hotplug rules to launch/stop pppd automatically when the usb device is hot-plugged. No additional kernel support needed. -- James Chapman Katalix Systems Ltd http://www.katalix.com Catalysts for your Embedded Linux software development