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Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
If you've ever used an embedded Linux development device with wireless networking, you've likely benefited from the work of Marcel Holtmann, the maintainer of the BlueZ Bluetooth daemon since 2004, who spoke at an Embedded Linux Conference Europe panel in October.
In 2007 Holtmann joined Intel's Open Source Technology Center (OTC), where he created ConnMan (Internet connectivity), oFono (cellular telephony), and PACrunner (proxy handling). Over the last year, Holtmann and other OTC developers have been developing a replacement for the wpa_supplicant WiFi daemon called IWD (Internet Wireless Daemon). In the process, they have streamlined the entire Linux communications stack.
"We decided to create a wireless daemon that actually works on IoT devices," said Holtmann in the presentation called "New Wireless Daemon for Linux."
The IWD is now mostly complete, featuring a smaller footprint and more streamlined workflow than wpa_supplicant while adding support for the latest wireless technologies. The daemon was also developed with the help of the OTC's Denis Kenzior, Andrew Zaborowski, Tim Kourt, Rahul Rahul, and Mat Martineau.
Source: https://www.linux.com/news/event/elce/2017/new-linux-wifi-daemon-streamlines-networking-stack
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ikanreed on Tuesday January 17 2017, @08:14PM
and I may not be. What they're saying here is that there's an old legacy daemon that was a pile-up of kludges to fix individual changes in wifi specs from the 802.11a era up to the present. And that they've rewritten it to handle all the cases from the ground up?
I do wonder how many builds are going to puke their guts out the first time this new daemon is put over even slightly unusual hardware drivers. My past experience with linux firmware issues says to me "Oh god, so many, you have no idea".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 17 2017, @08:31PM
Dude! Old is bad, bro. Millennials need to refactor shit every quarter. If your shit ain't fucked up, it's not trendy enough.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 17 2017, @09:27PM
But is it written with Rust using over 9000 crates?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 17 2017, @10:20PM
It's got "a smaller footprint" (tm) too! That's what sold me.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by http on Wednesday January 18 2017, @02:34AM
Millenials have no monopoly on that idiocy. It happens everywhere programmers are paid in stock options, or fired for not making visible changes.
I browse at -1 when I have mod points. It's unsettling.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 17 2017, @08:44PM
Or when they'll get around to fixing Bluetooth support. It would be great to have the Mic work.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday January 17 2017, @09:02PM
What I find interesting is that it comes from an Open Source, which implies that we may actually have source to work with instead of blobs and binaries.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 5, Informative) by frojack on Tuesday January 17 2017, @09:56PM
Nope.
Blobs are dictated by chipset managers. (and to some extent by the FCC).
Best thing this daemon can do is marshal those blobs in a way that might actually work.
Summary is long on names of contributors and names of projects,
I wish submitters/editors could cut that crap to the bone. I don't care what OTHER projects they worked on, or what other universities the worked at, or what conferences they spoke at. All that is tl;dr stuff.
Meanwhile we are all left guessing as to how it works.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by RS3 on Tuesday January 17 2017, @10:12PM
It won't matter, it'll soon be merged into the real gobble-everything blob (like in the movie "The Blob"): systemd.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 17 2017, @09:17PM
As far as I know wpa_supplicant only takes care of Wifi authentication/encryption, not required for open wifi networks. This software runs a layer above the drivers/hardware layer. For this software to run it should not matter that much if you're using the best supported wifi stick or something more exotic (but still supported) hardware. IMHO it sound like something that might be a good development. Question is how hard it ties into systemd? Or merge into it at some point in the future.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday January 17 2017, @09:22PM
If everything's part of systemd, then nothing is.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 17 2017, @09:59PM
host support, and *MAY* allow hostap mode via software. However it does NOT handle the encryption and other facets in software, as you can discover by using older 802.11b/g/n wifi adapters which don't support WPA2-AES (only TKIP)
When associating constantly resets you will know you have an older wifi device incapable of supporting AES (and thus ANY wireless encryption that might still be safe from adversaries.)
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday January 17 2017, @09:26PM
Hey, if it means I don't have to deal with wpa_supplicant ever again, I wish them all the best. Not that I'm planning on holding my breath until it's a completely viable alternative, mind you.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.