dhcpcd-discuss

Roy Marples wrote:

> I have an rfkill switch on my ipw2200 inside my IBM z60m.
> I don't see this problem - dhcpcd reacts just fine.
> I'm using wpa_supplicant in a seperate init script that also monitors the 
> interface.

Yes, the ipw2200 works, but that uses an older style driver which doesn't react in the same way. (I have a different problem with 
the ipw2200, but don't think that's anything to do with dhcpcd)

With this 3945, when the kill switch is enabled, typing 'ifconfig wlan0 up' gives an error and the interface stays down. on my 2200 
and on an ath5k card the same command sucessfully enables the interface, even though the radio stays turned off, and everything 
works as expected.
It could be something specific to this HP 6510b, but it's difficult to experiment on, the bios is locked to specific approved 
wireless cards and I can't exactly replace a PCIe 3945 with a 2200 as that's a plain mini-PCI.

> Well, dhcpcd should Do The Right Thing, but you can remove and add an 
> interface to the list like so
> dhcpcd -x eth0
> dhcpcd -n eth0

thanks, I will try that tomorrow - left the laptop at work tonight.
I really didn't pick up from the manpage that -n could be used to add a currently un-monitored interface to an existing instance. 
Even knowing it works I still don't read the manpage that way, but maybe I need more coffee..
Is there any room here for an option that does what -n does, but if there isn't a current instance to add the interface to then 
it'll let me know and not try to start up a new one ?  I envisage a scenario where I want just one instance running and that one 
will have various extra cli options, possibly a non-default config file and/or will be monitored against failure by some external 
means, having -n restart a new instance may not be what I'd want to happen in that case.

> No need, dhcpcd just listens for carrier up/down events.
> I think you maybe need wpa_supplicant in the middle?

Have wpa_supplicant, and while it'll see wlan0, it can't enable it. While the interface is disabled wpa_supplicant can't scan for a 
network or associate to one. So no carrier up/down events. Catch 22.

It also seems that after I disable the kill switch and then manually up the interface with ifconfig dhcpcd keeps ignoring it.

I was surprised at that as while trying to contrive a similar situation on another system I found that dhcpcd will even pickup an 
interface when I don't load the driver until long after dhcpcd has been started.
Was rather impressed that it could do that!  It did give me another question though.. If I have added allowinterfaces/denyinterfaces 
lines into the config file, those seem to be ignored when I load the driver after dhcpcd has started.

BTW, thanks for your efforts on v5, it's so much better than the v2.something I've been using!

Iain