Interface dependencies

[Mel Flynn]

On Monday 29 June 2009 06:42:06 Brooks Davis wrote:
> On Sat, Jun 27, 2009 at 07:48:54PM -0800, Mel Flynn wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > maybe I'm overlooking something, so I thought I'd ask.
> > As far as I can tell, there is no way to specify interface dependencies,
> > so I have an issue I cannot seem to solve:
> > - Create a lagg0 that has em and wlan0 at boot time, because wlan0 takes
> > too long to be configured - and the default network_interfaces=AUTO sorts
> > alphabetically which is not making matters easier.
>
> The interfaces should be in the order they are probed/created.  No
> sorting should be performed beyond moving lo0 to the front in the
> default case.

Then my probing is probably alphabetical as a coincedence.

> > I've been trying to use hacks, but I think interfaces really need
> > dependencies. Like ifconfig_lagg0_require="wlan0 em0", which would first
> > configure wlan0, wait for it to be availabe, then em0 and finally lagg0.
> >
> > Is there something available, is it a known issue and ENOTIME to fix or
> > am I missing something else?
>
> There isn't a feature to add dependencies, but there probably should be.

I'll see what I can come up, cause on 7-STABLE box I've got similar issues 
with a bridge if I use WPA (i.e. hostapd). It seems like the proper solution 
even if there is no problem ;).

> I'm not sure that's really what the problem is there though.
>
> > At present, my rc.conf entries are:
> > # Need to do this manually to prevent alphabetical sorting.
> > network_interfaces="wpi0 lo0 em0"
> > cloned_interfaces="lagg0"
> > wlans_wpi0="wlan0"
> > ifconfig_wpi0="ether 00:16:36:f2:3b:84"
> > ifconfig_wlan0="WPA"
> > ifconfig_em0="up"
> > ifconfig_lagg0="laggproto failover laggport em0"
> > ifconfig_lagg0_alias0="laggport wlan0"
> > ifconfig_lagg0_alias1="inet 192.168.2.50 netmask 255.255.255.0"
> >
> > And this gives me a lagg0 at boottime without wlan0, since the interface
> > don't exist. I also cannot add inet commands to laggport commands, thus
> > the alias trick is already needed, yet the delay caused by running
> > separate commands does not seem to be enough to have wlan0 available.
>
> wlan0 should exist by the time lagg0 is created because it's created and
> configured synchronously when wpi0 is configured.   I know other people
> are using lagg this way so I'm a bit confused as to what's wrong.
> Enabling verbose start up and examining the output might be telling.

I'll revert to what it "should really be" and keep rc_debug. Meanwhile I 
discovered create_args and made it a bit less hacky:
/etc/start_if.wpi0 sets ether to em0 ether
network_interfaces="wpi0 lo0 em0"
cloned_interfaces="wlan0 lagg0"
create_args_wlan0="wlandev wpi0 wlanmode sta"
ifconfig_wlan0="WPA"
ifconfig_em0="up"
ifconfig_lagg0="laggproto failover laggport em0 laggport wlan0"
ifconfig_lagg0_alias0="inet 192.168.2.50 netmask 255.255.255.0"

I tried using wlanaddr in create_args_wlan0 but then ended up with a wpi0 with 
it's own MAC and wlan0 with the right one, which of course didn't associate.
-- 
Mel