OpenSolaris

FLAG DAY: WiFi for GLDv3

Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2006 01:53:23 -0500
From: Peter Memishian <peter.memishian at sun dot com>
To: onnv-gate at onnv dot eng dot sun dot com, on-all at eng dot sun dot com
Subject: FLAG DAY: WiFi for GLDv3

Gatelings,

The recent integration of:

  PSARC/2006/406 WiFi for GLDv3
  PSARC/2006/517 WiFi for GLDv3 Addendum
  PSARC/2006/623 WiFi for GLDv3 Addendum #2

... represents a flag day for build machines, incremental builds, and
machines with persistent link aggregations that will be BFU'd.
Specifically:

  1. A new username and uid ("dladm" and 15) have been reserved for system
     use.  As such, you must upgrade your build machine to a SUNWonbld
     package built after 10/24 to ensure builds will continue to work.

     Builds with "t" in NIGHTLY_OPTIONS will continue to work, regardless
     of the vintage of the SUNWonbld package.  (In general, use of "t" is
     strongly recommended to avoid build tool flag days like this.)

  2. Because aggregation.conf has moved from /etc to /etc/dladm,
     incremental builds will fail unless $ROOT/etc/aggregation.conf is
     removed before starting the incremental build.  Alternatively, you
     can just blow away the whole proto area.

  3. If you configured link aggregations using "dladm create-aggr" and
     plan to use BFU, please use the updated BFU we putback.  If you
     don't, after you BFU you will need to manually add the contents of
     /etc/aggregation.conf to /etc/dladm/aggregation.conf, or your
     persistent link aggregations won't be brought up upon reboot.

This remainder of this email is a heads-up.  Note that wificonfig(1M) has
*not* been removed at this time, but dladm(1M) is now the preferred way to
administer WiFi links.  If you're interested in giving dladm a spin,
materials and preliminary manpages can be found at:

  http://opensolaris.org/os/community/arc/caselog/2006/623/

The EXAMPLES section of dladm(1M) shows how to connect to WiFi networks.
Complete end-user documentation is in progress and will be available
through Solaris Express soon.

Those looking for context and rationale behind the dladm subcommands and
WiFi administration as a whole are encouraged to read:

  http://opensolaris.org/os/community/arc/caselog/2006/623/materials/dladm-wifi.pdf

Of note is that dladm by itself is not intended to subsume wificonfig, but
rather to eventually be used in concert with Network Auto-Magic (NWAM); see
http://opensolaris.org/os/project/nwam.

In addition to the aforementioned dladm enhancements, this putback adds a
WiFi kernel framework and library APIs to enable additional WiFi drivers
and technologies to be smoothly incorporated into Solaris.  As such, the
iwi, ipw, pcwl, pcan, and rtw drivers have already been ported to use the
new common layers and will be integrated into Nevada as testing resources
permit.  In addition, WPA/Personal support in Nevada is on the horizon.
For much more on this project and future plans, please see the materials
for PSARC/2006/623, which describes the latest WiFi architecture.

Some of you may be using additional WiFi drivers or alternate wificonfig
binaries from opensolaris.org or from frkit.  Those drivers can also be
administered using dladm, and those wificonfig binaries can administer the
Atheros driver updated by this putback.  However, please note that the
Atheros driver in ON is now the most up-to-date and should be preferred.

If you have questions or comments, please send mail to wifi-dladm at sun dot com.
Bugs should be filed against driver/wifi, kernel/gld, or network/dladm as
appropriate.

~--
meem