support question: hostapd does not recognize working interface

[Alexander Huemer]

Pavel Roskin wrote:
> On Wed, 2008-11-19 at 20:29 +0100, Alexander Huemer wrote:
>
>   
>> i think i know a little bit more now.
>> it seems like the prism54 driver included in current kernels does not 
>> support something that hostapd needs.
>> is that true?
>>     
>
> It's entirely possible.  The drivers in the kernel are migrating from
> driver specific API towards common API.
>
>   
>> i also read something about the nl80211 interface.
>>     
>
> It should be supported by the newer p54 driver, which is mac80211 based.
>
>   
>> the ebuild for hostapd-0.6.4 (the rules to build hostapd on the local 
>> machine) says, that nl80211 subsystem of hostapd is disabled, because 
>> the current kernel does not yet support it.
>>     
>
> I suggest that you use hostapd 0.6.5.  Distribution supplied packages
> are nice, but at this point the AP functionality is too new to rely on
> them.
>
>   
>> i am running 2.6.26, and 2.6.27 does not seem to support it either.
>> on http://johannes.sipsolutions.net/patches/kernel/all/LATEST/ i did not 
>> find any related patches.
>> does anybody know more?
>>     
>
> The patches have been committed to the wireless-testing tree:
> http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/linville/wireless-testing.git
>
>   
thanks for your answer, pavel.
i just realized that there are two drivers in the kernel, PRISM54 and P54.
before i used PRISM54.
i already have hostapd-0.6.5 installed. that's quite easy with gentoo, 
although nl80211 is still not enabled.
the decision whether it gets enabled or not depends of the result of

    if [ "$(grep NL80211_IFTYPE_AP: ${KV_DIR}/net/mac80211/cfg.c)" ]; then
                                    einfo "  nl80211 driver enabled"
                                    echo "CONFIG_DRIVER_NL80211=y" >>
    ${CONFIG}
                                    echo "CFLAGS +=
    -I/usr/include/netlink" >> ${CONFIG}
                                    echo "LIBS += -L/usr/lib" >> ${CONFIG}
                            else
                                    einfo "  nl80211 driver disabled
    (due to no AP support in cfg.c file)"
                                    einfo "  (To enable this, use the
    patch from
    http://johannes.sipsolutions.net/patches/kernel/all/LATEST until
    support gets added to the mainline kernel)"
                            fi

do you think this is the right way to check that?
from what kernel version on do you think enabling nl80211 makes sense?

i will have to fetch the right softmac firmware image before i can 
continue my tests.
until then i would be happy if you respond and tell me your thoughts.

-- 
kind regards
alex