setting bssid in adhoc mode

[John Hay]

On Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 04:41:30PM +0200, Paul B. Mahol wrote:
> On 9/22/08, John Hay <jhay at meraka.org.za> wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> > I'm trying out the new ath/wlan stuff in current. Should one still be
> > able to set the bssid in adhoc mode? We normally lock the bssid in
> > an adhoc network because of problems that the network split and does
> > not merge, if you do not do it.
> >
> > What I have done is this:
> >
> > # ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode adhoc
> > # ifconfig wlan0 ssid ptamesh up
> >
> > Up to here works well. It will scan and if it finds another node with the
> > same ssid, it will "lock" on that channel and use the correct bssid.
> >
> > If it does not find another node with the same ssid, it will start it
> > own thing on channel 10. But it looks like one cannot set the bssid.
> >
> > # ifconfig wlan0 bssid 02:07:ca:fe:ba:be
> > ifconfig: 02:07:ca:fe:ba:be: bad value
> 
> I had similar experience with STA mode, instead I use ap (ap is alias
> for bssid, at least it works in STA mode)
> I never bothered is this bug in manual page, ifconfig or in something else ...

Ah, thanks yes, "ifconfig wlan0 ap 02:07:ca:fe:ba:be" works just fine.
Just do not try to unset it with "ifconfig wlan0 ap -". That is an
alias for "panic now" :-)

So it looks like ifconfig is getting confused with the many different
uses of the keyword bssid.

I must say I still do not understand what the other use for bssid is.
Close to the end of ifconfig/ifieee80211.c there are these:

DEF_CMD_ARG("bssid",            set80211bssid),
DEF_CMD_ARG("ap",               set80211bssid),
...
DEF_CLONE_CMD("bssid",  1,      set80211clone_bssid),
DEF_CLONE_CMD("-bssid", 0,      set80211clone_bssid),

So my guess is that I was hitting the clone version when in fact I
needed the other version. Luckily ap does not have a clone version.
So when should the clone version be used? And how does ifconfig
decide which one to use?

John
-- 
John Hay -- John.Hay at meraka.csir.co.za / jhay at FreeBSD.org