scan params, wpa_supplicant.conf, wpa_gui, wifimgr suggestions ?

[Julian H. Stacey]

Hi freebsd-wireless at freebsd.org,
I'd appreciate suggestions, eg more URLs to read, & wlan ports/ to build etc: 

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/network-wireless.html
has some capabilities not documented:
  What is 'B' ? in a friend's (microsoft configured) net EPSB ;
	 E,P,S are documented in URL above, but not B ?
	I tried cd /sys ; find . -type f -exec grep "'B'" {} /dev/null \; 
	but noticed nothing.
  WPS is not defined in URL above, should be added, found here:
	 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Protected_Setup
  What is ATH ?  Unlikely something to do with Atheros ? 
	(though I'm not using that I believe with run & urwtn interfaces).
  What is HTCAP ? find & grep found
	/sys/dev/pci/pcireg.h
	  HT (HyperTransport) Capability
	  Doesn't seem likely .. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperTransport
	/sys/net80211/ieee80211_*

I Noticed man wpa_supplicant.conf does not document these generated by wpa_gui
  id_str="whatever"	# Maybe a comment ? Trying 2 the same
  disabled=1   		# Leave net disabled but documented ?

I've got attach entries in /usr/local/etc/devd/jhs.conf, eg
        action  "ifconfig wlan$interface create wlandev $device-name; \
                 ifconfig wlan$interface up; \
                 wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan$interface \
                        -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf \
                        -P /var/run/wpa_supplicant.pid ; \
                 service netif start;\
                 dhclient wlan$interface";

I got run0: & urwtn0: interfaces alternately configured on FreeBSD
10.0-BETA4 (after make world from stable from svn export), (I'm
testing with run0 as I & 1 other on mobile at freebsd suspect urtwn
drops out (overheats?) sometimes).

Once I got on line via WLAN
	(at a Starbucks (BTOpenzone) coffee shop, no password, but
	uses a browser to click Accept), (after I set /etc/rc.conf
	firewall_type="open", as firewall_type="client" blocked
	connection or authorisation, OK I'll write some ipfw rules
	later when I trace what to pass, after connection is reliable)

I even managed to help a NetBSD Wlan user (at a large site, to
select for bssid for max signal (= smallest (nor largest :-) S of
S:N), But still I'm mostly failing to connect other places eg
CoffeeFellows (thecloud.eu Sky Murdoch),

ports/net/wpa_gui I send-pr'd to patch for a lib,
	http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=184473
wpa_gui now can save entries in /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf, as syntax
& options examples against local nets, (If I supply dummy passwords :-)
& If I add 'update_config=1' also not documented in man 5 wpa_supplicant.conf

ports/net-mgmt/wifimgr was problematic, my rc.conf notes:
        # - wifimgr wants root password, even if started as root
        # - ./work/wifimgr-1.10/src/wifimgr.c
        #   find_wifi_if( complains:
        #       No WiFi interface is configured in /etc/rc.conf
        #   unless you have:
        #       ifconfig_wlan0="WPA"
        #   but it doesnt tell you it needs it.
        ifconfig_wlan0="WPA"
        #  - wifimgr after clicking scan, sometimes kills wpa_supplicant
        #  - I need to read code to see if it is just reading all rc.conf,
        #    or respecting my   if [ "X.$wlan_jhs" = "X.YES" ];

I've noticed reports about double dhclient (or was it dhcpd?) starts
on 10.0-BETA, not noticed anything myself ?

I would appreciate more complete docs (if those who know, can fill
in holes) & more URLs to read re connecting, & more ports tools
reccomendations.  (I am cautious re security settings, wanting to
make connection both more predictably & succesfuly, + secure).

Comments/suggestions welcome, (I am subscribed to wireless at freebsd.org).

Cheers,
Julian
-- 
Julian Stacey, BSD Unix Linux C Sys Eng Consultant, Munich http://berklix.com
 Reply below not above, like a play script.  Indent old text with "> ".
 Send plain text.  No quoted-printable, HTML, base64, multipart/alternative.
	Slash NSA budget.  http://berklix.eu/jhs/blog/2013_10_30