WLAN: link must be UP before ESSID is set

[Baris Cicek]

I'm using zd1211rw device and bringing interface up before setting ESSID
and KEY for wireless device did not cause any problem for me using
different hardware as well. 

That was not an issue with vendor driver, but it's necessary to bring
interface up for rewrite of the driver. Thus, I was not sure if this
related with driver or the network-scripts. 

But considering zd1211rw is included with kernel, it's evident that
without necessary changes on ifup-wireless it's not possible to
automatically bring interface into running state. 

If someone states a bug id, i can submit my change(s). 

On Tue, 2007-02-06 at 22:04 +0200, Pekka Savola wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On new USB stick WLAN interface (driver zd1211rw) it seems that the 
> 'ip link set $DEVICE up' needs to be done before ESSID is set for the 
> card to come up at all. (On the other hand, for example, the old 
> orinoco_cs doesn't require this.)
> 
> Even though DHCP client (run after ESSID is set) brings up the link, 
> the WLAN card is not associated to the AP (the state as shown below), 
> and IP doesn't work yet.
> 
> zd1211rw people had the opinion that this is a problem with ifup:
> 
> "This is a distro bug - it should bring the interface up before using 
> it. Many drivers require the interface to be up before scanning is 
> possible, since for a lot of hardware, scanning is just transmission 
> and reception of frames so requires the entire MAC layer to be 
> activated just the same as if you were transmitting/receiving data."
> 
> Should this be fixed by setting the link up before setting ESSID in 
> ifup-wireless (or even before setting some other iwconfig options)?
> 
> Is there any drawback in doing so? (At least it seems to me that you 
> may not be able to specify a new MACADDR if this was done.)
> 
> Is there already a bug report on this (based on very quick search I 
> couldn't find one)?
> 
> eth1      IEEE 802.11b/g  ESSID:"S"  Nickname:"zd1211"
>            Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: Invalid
>            Bit Rate=1 Mb/s
>            Encryption key:off
>            Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
>            Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
>            Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0
> 
> 
> -- 
> Pekka Savola                 "You each name yourselves king, yet the
> Netcore Oy                    kingdom bleeds."
> Systems. Networks. Security. -- George R.R. Martin: A Clash of Kings
>