[openbeosnetteam] Re: Interfaces

"Waldemar Kornewald" <wkornew@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 7/11/06, Axel Dörfler <axeld@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > "Waldemar Kornewald" <wkornew@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > > - you can also refer to /dev/net/ipro1000/0 via /dev/net/
> > > > ipro1000/
> > > > 0:0
> > Would you also find it okay if this wouldn't work outside ifconfig?
> > Because the rest could completely be solved in ifconfig.
> Yes, of course. At the UI level there is no need for it, anyway. It's
> just an access method for the command-line.

Okay, great.

> > That reminds me: how does PPPoE come into play here? Is it just 
> > another
> > interface on the ethernet device? So should ifconfig hide it under 
> > the
> > ethernet device then in your opinion?
> Like Bruno said, it's an independent net_device. All PPP interfaces

That's not what Bruno said, and that's not how BONE does it. In BONE, 
it's just another datalink path to the ethernet net_device. This is how 
the bone.conf lines look like:
                dl protos {
                        6 IFT_ETHER {
                                0 bone_arp framings/bone_ether_frame
                                1 ppp/bone_pppoe framings/bone_ether_frame
                        }
                        ...
                }

There is no ppp net_device loaded when I use PPPoE. Even though there 
exists such a device, I have no idea when it comes into play.

> are named "ppp0", "ppp1", and so on, no matter if you're using a 
> modem
> or a PPPoE device. When loaded, the PPPoE module simply registers a
> handler with the ethernet module. BTW, the way I'm currently doing it
> is not thread-safe (the PPPoE<->ethernet device registration, I 
> mean).

Well, in the new stack, it can't be done in a not thread-safe manner, 
anyway.

> Now that you mention it, the current ethernet module only shows an
> ethernet device as "up" when some protocol is active (IPv4, for
> example). The problem is that PPPoE will only work when the interface
> is "up", so you have to configure your interface to some unused
> address like 192.168.0.1 even if it's only connected to a DSL modem
> (and thus can't even use IPv4).
> This is very annoying because unconfigured interfaces just won't work
> with PPPoE and the user won't be informed of the exact error.

Huh? Whatever you did before, this problem won't exist anymore, AFAICT. 
You will just create an interface in the AF_INET domain for PPPoE that 
will use the ethernet net_device, the protocol chain stays active as 
long as there is an interface configured.

> What I want to suggest is a flag "physically connected" (I think BSD
> already has this). The legacy module could always set it to "true",
> but our new net_device module system should actually set it
> appropriately. That way, packets could always get through when there
> is a physical connection (instead of an active protocol). With this,
> PPPoE and other services would work without any IP configuration.

I don't see how this would help the situation, but anyway, it shouldn't 
be needed for this. What we could use some flag like this for is if 
there is a link - and if there isn't, we could reroute the packets over 
another interface in the same domain, if possible (for example when you 
unplug your ethernet cable, the networking stack should be able to 
automatically and seamlessly switch to the wireless connection.

Bye,
   Axel.

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