Guys, I'm trying to reply to several emails at once...
Isaac Dunham:
> wpa_supplicant would be the only process reading/writing the file, but
> you need five commands at minimum.
> Here's roughly how you'd add an open network with wpa_cli:
> NETNUM=`wpa_cli add_network` || fail
> wpa_cli set_network $NETNUM ssid "$SSID" || fail
> wpa_cli set_network $NETNUM key_mgmt NONE || fail
> wpa_cli enable_network $NETNUM || fail
> wpa_cli save_config || fail
>
> And doing it manually:
> cat $CONFIG >$TEMPFILE || fail
> echo -e "network={\n\tssid=$SSID\n\tkey_mgmt=NONE\n}\n" >>$TEMPFILE || fail
> cp $TEMPFILE $CONFIG
Didier Kryn:
Shown like this, the manual method looks simpler, but it implies,
in addition to the race condition which, I admit, is mostly
hypothetical, the necessity to gain root priviledge.
Isaac Dunham:
>> >
>> > Don't you think this initial file could be created during package
>> >installation? For wpa_gui as well. It could be re-created with
>> >dpkg-reconfigure.
> Theoretically, it would be nice if this happened when wpa_supplicant
> was installed; no other package has a logical reason to provide a
> systemwide default config file.
> Practically,
> (a) no distro that I'm aware of ships wpa_supplicant with a configuration
> file, and
> (b) I originally wrote it without any expectation of it being properly
> packaged; I use a built-from-scratch musl/busybox system frequently,
> and this was one of the main targets.
>
Didier Kryn:
This is not done in the wpa_supplicant package, but it could be
part of the new UI package to install a default file if none exists.
There is a small issue which is writing the interfaces file. To my
knowledge, no package modifies interfaces; this file is generated by the
Debian Installer and then only hacked by the admin. I think it could be
possible to check for the presence of the line "iface default inet dhcp"
and add it if absent - or let the Devuan Installer do it in the first place.
> Simon Hobson:
>>> > >I am pretty sure there are very few cases where a wifi connection needs a static IP config. For the vast majority of cases, the config is dynamic and one single id_str is enough for all; doing otherwise would bloat the interfaces file for the sole sake of this description.
>> >That makes sense - provided that it's still possible to manually add entries which fall into that other 1%.
Renaud (Ron) OLGIATI:
> I hope so, since my home LAN is all fixed IP addresses. ;-3)
I think there is a limit to what a UI can do, in particular when it
comes to hacking the interfaces file - I don't know of any application
doing that. I think hacking the interfaces file must be left to the
admin with the text-editor and I guess you guys are able to do it. But
the wpa UI should be able to manage the wpa side. Currently wpa_gui
allows the user to specify the id_str.
> Isaac Dunham:
>> I think wpa_id_str is adequate as far as a "description phrase",
>> apart from the fact that you don't want it to be invalid for a logical
>> interface.
Didier Kryn:
It comes to my mind (sorry I'm slow) that id_str is exactly meant
as an informal description of the wifi station, and it is an abuse by
Debian to use it for interface mapping. Following this, I see another
possibility (besides asking the author of wpa_supplicant to add a new
variable): encode the interface name inside the id_str, either as the
1st token, or as a sentence like "iface=foo", which would imply to
modify the ifupdown scripts.
Didier
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Re: [DNG] wpa_supplicant/ifup integ…
