From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Feb 28 00:52:41 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E8CF21065671 for ; Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:52:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from sam@errno.com) Received: from ebb.errno.com (ebb.errno.com [69.12.149.25]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B677D8FC22 for ; Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:52:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from sam@errno.com) Received: from trouble.errno.com (trouble.errno.com [10.0.0.248]) (authenticated bits=0) by ebb.errno.com (8.13.6/8.12.6) with ESMTP id m1S0qeSn021547 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:52:41 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from sam@errno.com) Message-ID: <47C605D8.1030106@errno.com> Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:52:40 -0800 From: Sam Leffler User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.9 (X11/20071125) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: yuri@rawbw.com References: <1204146470.47c5d1267ceee@webmail.rawbw.com> <47C5D8F6.20608@errno.com> <1204149622.47c5dd76995ba@webmail.rawbw.com> <47C5F356.3000101@FreeBSD.org> <47C5F744.8020608@rawbw.com> In-Reply-To: <47C5F744.8020608@rawbw.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-DCC-SIHOPE-DCC-3-Metrics: ebb.errno.com; whitelist Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Is it possible that modern wireless card only supports WPA and not WEP or this is a bug in the driver? X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:52:42 -0000 Yuri wrote: > Pietro Cerutti wrote: >> It wouldn't make sense. Flags are used to specify capabilities of the >> interface, not things provided by the operating system. >> >> > This is very confusing to user. > User is assumed to have this bit of knowledge that WEP flag actually > means only hardware support, not support in general. > > On another note WEP is actually supported by interface but driver authors > didn't bother to use it. So WEP flag doesn't represent actual > capabilities of > the interface and this is again confusing. > > When I type 'ifconfig ...' I am mostly interested what can I > use from > that side, not what is supported by hardware. Is there any way to know > what is > logically supported by network interface as passed to 'ifconfig' vs. what > is supported by hardware interface? If you cannot use a feature you'll get an error when you try to use it. There simply are not enough capability bits around to waste on features that are always true. If I reorg this stuff (and I intend to to split crypto out into a separate features word because we are out of bits) then I can look into expanding the status. To be honest you're the first person that's even noticed you can list capabilities in the 3+ years that's been in place (or at least made public mention). Hardly seems like something that's constantly confused people. Sam