wpa_supplicant-0.6.7 on win32 does not create its IBSS network

[Jouni Malinen]

On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 08:07:54PM +0900, ????? wrote:

> I tried this problem using two lan cards 
>  - Cisco Aironet 802.11a/b/g Wireless Adapter (Microsoft's Packet Scheduler)
>  - Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (Microsoft's Packet Scheduler) 
> 
> With these two cards, I can connect if the IBSS network are already there. However, wpa_supplicant-0.6.7 still can not create its IBSS network. Why NDIS driver does not generate the NDIS association event if it can not find its configured ssid ?

I tested with Intel 3945 and I was able to create an IBSS with it in
ap_scan=2 mode. However, it looks like the NDIS drivers (well, at least
this one) report the connection only when there are other STAs in the
IBSS. In other words, the driver started beaconing, but wpa_supplicant
did not know that. When I connected to the IBSS with another STA, the
driver reported connection and wpa_supplicant noticed this and moved
into completed state. When the other STA was removed, the driver
reported disconnect event even though it continued beaconing.

> The following is my configuration for this test.
> 
> network={
>  ssid="adhoc_test"
>  mode=0
>  frequency=2412
>  key_mgmt=NONE
> }

That mode=0 is likely a typo (mode=1 is IBSS). You will also need to use
ap_scan=2 to make this work.

>   Sent: Friday, January 16, 2009 1:55 PM

>   wpa_supplicant-0.6.7 on win32 does not create its IBSS network. With ap_scan=1. I think after some time, IBSS network with its confiured SSID should be created if it can not find its configured ssid. However it it just keeps scanning.

This is by design. ap_scan=1 mode searches for networks as long as it
takes to find a matching one in scan results. Should you have more than
one network configured, creating the IBSS and stopping scanning for the
other networks may not be desirable behavior in many cases.

I think it would be reasonable to provide an optional feature where the
IBSS network is created if there is only one enabled network (i.e., the
IBSS) in configuration. Alternatively, a new flag could be added for the
networks (or maybe just mode=2) and ap_scan=1 mode would create the IBSS
after some time of scans not resulting in any matches. However, this may
not always end up in the expected behavior.

-- 
Jouni Malinen                                            PGP id EFC895FA