Hi On Saturday 19 July 2014, Mert Dirik wrote: > Hi, > First of all I would like to thank you all for the huge effort that went > into packaging the new upstream version, > but hostapd 2.0+ causes some nasty problems that prevent creating access > points. [1] [2]
I am aware that hostapd 2.0 ('hostap_2_0') was broken, however I'm not
aware of any issues with 2.1 or 2.2 (and we're talking about upgrading
to 2.2, not 2.0, here). Your references to [1], and [2] are pretty much
useless, while they specify "2.0" as version, there has no actual
debugging taken place. While [3] and [4] have a bit more meat to it,
both are also referring to "2.0", not anything newer - and both threads
seem to have died off about a year ago. Likewise almost no one mentions
the hardware they're using, which would be an important part of the
equation as well (there is basically no USB device that fully supports
AP mode, except for some EOLed Atheros designs; and even among the PCI/
PCIe chipsets, only Atheros and RaLink can be considered to support
it).
So if you have noticed any issues with hostapd >= 2.2, please do speak
up and provide any information you can get (you can build wpa 2.2 from
our packaging svn, if you have problems with that I could also provide
packages of that for internal testing), just stale information for 2.0
is not very helpful as that particular version was known-broken.
Personally I would be very grateful for reports (and/ or help) with the
hostapd component, as I don't use it production myself (well, I do, but
only on embedded devices which are not Debian compatible and use
OpenWrt instead - but I'm also using hostapd v2.2 there, without any
issues) and can only test it in a temporary setup before uploading any
new version.
> Sure it does not affect every hostapd user but it downright renders the
> package unusable for the ones who are affected. I'm not in a position to
> give an advice, I just wanted to inform you about a point which may be
> useful while evaluating the pros and cons of shipping Jessie with the
> new upstream version.
The wpa 1.x branch has been discontinued, there is upstream support for
it anymore (not that Intel, who had adopted it, actually did an active
job with it in the first place). Accordingly sticking to 1.1 is not an
option for jessie, which will need to be supported for the next ~3-4
years - even if that meant breaking (or removing) hostapd (from
jessie).
I have done some rigorous testing on wpa 2.2 for the last few weeks and
am shortly before pushing for it to be uploaded. While I would like to
get a few things settled before uploading, those equally affect 1.1 and
2.2, so don't necessarily block 2.2 from being uploaded. The wpa
package in jessie will be, needs to be, 2.2, eventually 2.3 (but I
don't believe 2.3 will be released in time before the freeze).
Regards
Stefan Lippers-Hollmann
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