setting bssid in adhoc mode

[Paul B. Mahol]

On 9/25/08, John Hay <jhay at meraka.org.za> wrote:
> 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" :-)
Well, on my system it doesnt panic here.
So more info to debug "your" panic is required ...

>
> 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?