WiFi Managers
From Openmoko
Introduction
It's not easy to use WiFi with the freerunner:
- 2.6.29 kernels has major issues on ifconfig up/down (what are they?)
- 2.6.28 kernels has random issues on fake wow events
- 2.6.24 kernels has rare random issues
- on OE based distro the wpa-roaming support is broken, the wpa-conf approach is working fine but it does not renew dhcp ip address when the freerunner changes AP
- using udev to trigger interface configuration does not spawn dhcp, the problem is that the kernels brings the interface up, so networks scripts ignore it
- some AP refuses the power management mode of the atheros 6000, so you have to launch some script to setup it when the interface comes up
- connman seems to not support WPA/WPA2 enterprise mode (please confirm)
- connman does not set a route if one is already present (always as usb0 has a default route)
- other wifi implementation, that in a rude way scan the networks and generate a wpa_supplicant.conf file, does not support WPA/WPA2 enterprise mode
- connman api changed so Illume wifi gadget does not work anymore (please confirm)
Proposal
- patch the damned kernel :)
- bore Illume authors to patch wifi gadget with the new connman api
- bore connman authors to support WPA/WPA2
- write a WM indipendent connman applet
- test other NetworksManager to see if they may run fine on the freerunner
- write a simple WiFi manager interacting with wpa_supplicant by dbus, see a first prototype at NWA