please abandon use of madwifi driver backend
| Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| network-manager (Ubuntu) |
Fix Released
|
Wishlist
|
Unassigned | ||
Bug Description
Binary package hint: network-manager
The driver_madwifi backend has been deprecated by upstream Madwifi developers since "WEXT" support was added first half of 2006 [0].
debian/
+ * We want to work with the generic "wext" wpa_supplicant driver, but some kernel drivers
+ * are just utter junk. For those losers, we use a specific wpa_supplicant driver.
LP: #202453 discusses this issue, and apart from the noise about bzr branches, there seems to be a consensus that reverting to previous packages behaviour of using driver_madwifi backend for ath_pci driven devices works, and wext doesn't. The wext backend works fine with madwifi devices when using the supplicant alone, which to me indicates that some other error of logic in network-manager. Debian's network-manager doesn't employ these hacks and I asked some people from the debian-eeepc group how it is working with their shiny new Atheros devices and they claim to have no major problems.
It would also be nice to remove the private copy of madwifi headers from the Debian wpasupplicant packages[1].
Thanks, Kel.
[0] http://
[1] http://
| Alexander Sack (asac) wrote | #1 |
| Changed in network-manager: | |
| status: | New → Incomplete |
| importance: | Undecided → Wishlist |
| status: | Incomplete → Confirmed |
| Alexander Sack (asac) wrote | #2 |
| Changed in network-manager: | |
| status: | Confirmed → Fix Released |
Yes, I tried dropping the madwifi tweak in the hardy cycle. As you found, what came out of it was bug 202453.
wpasupplicant working alone + network manager not working is almost certainly a driver bug..
Unfortunately, I can't debug that driver without having a card that exposes that behaviour; only thing i can do is dropping that tweak again - which will surely happen when NM 0.7 gets uploaded.