Subject: Re: wpi(4) and transmitter being off
To: Stephen Borrill <netbsd@precedence.co.uk>
From: Arnaud Degroote <degroote@netbsd.org>
List: tech-net
Date: 08/08/2007 23:52:48
On Wed, Aug 08, 2007 at 10:51:25AM +0100, Stephen Borrill wrote:
>>
>> Can you test the following patch. It tests the status of the transmitter
>> when we init the card and improve off->on transition.
>
> N.B. I've not tested this yet.
>
> At a quick glance, this appears to keep the interface in the running
> state when the transmitter is off. RUNNING vs not is the only way I can
> think of for userland to detect whether the transmitter is on or not,
> i.e. this patch will improve the reporting as far as I can see in dmesg
> (yes, I _could_ parse that for transmitter state), but will make it
> _more_ difficult to prompt the user to switch it on. Perhaps an ioctl or
> sysctl to retrieve the transmitter state?

I can remove the IFF_RUNNING and IFF_OACTIVE in the on->off transition, it
is not a problem. I'm not really sure it will be help userland (and user)
that he must switch the transmitter on. 

Currently, on an off->on transition, on my configuration, dhclient is
automaticly restarted and I can use my network. 

I can add a sysctl to retrieve the transmitter state but I'm not sure it
really solves the issue. I think that with the message and the man page, it
is quite clear that he must turn the switch on.

You can find an updated patch on
http://zulzul.free.fr/wpi/test/wpi_rfkill.diff.

-- 
Arnaud Degroote
degroote@netbsd.org