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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: kwireless
From:       Stefan Winter <swinter () kde ! org>
Date:       2006-12-18 17:34:35
Message-ID: 200612181834.36112.swinter () kde ! org
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Hello,

> I am involved in an open-source project for a wireless broadband device
> driver. One thing I have been looking at recently is displaying wireless
> information such as signal strength and in particular, trying to get
> this information displayed in existing tools, such as KWireless. Our
> driver puts the correct information into the /proc/net/wireless file,
> but KWireless does not display the information. Looking at the source, I
> see that KWireless ignores anything in this file which is not an 802.11
> interface, presumably on the assumption that anything else is not wireless.

Your approach is... let's say unusual. At least under Linux, the information 
is usually retrieved from the kernel with ioctl()s. The kernel's generic 
interface for wireless devices is called the wireless extensions [1] (a 
must-read for people writing wireless drivers). They claim to support more 
than just 802.11. A lot of applications interface with the wireless 
extensions, for example my own project KWiFiManager[2], shipped within 
kdenetwork. Your device would very probably be picked up by any application 
that queries the wireless extensions, and you can easily try it out on the 
command-line by invoking iwconfig [3]. If they don't you can consider it a 
bug IMO (and for KWiFiManager, you could just file a bug report [4] and I'd 
try to fix it).

> I can see a fairly simple change which would achieve the goals of the
> current code in KWireless, and would enable status information from
> non-802.11 devices such as ours to be displayed as well.

Is this the KWireless in the kdenetwork packages? Last time I talked to Mirko 
Boehm[5], he was the maintainer of it.

> However, I 
> really would like to discuss this change with the relevant developer, as
> they may prefer achieving the same result through different means.

Does kwireless really read only /proc/net/wireless? Then patching this one 
program might be an option. But if you want stuff to work _generally_, then 
export your data via the wireless extensions.

> The change I am considering is quite simple. I am happy to code and test
> it myself, or to describe what is needed and let someone more familiar
> with the code choose the best way to implement that.

Again, my suggestion is to inhale the API of the wireless extensions and code 
against that.

> So my question is:
>
> Q: How do I contact the developers/maintainers of KWireless to discuss
> this, and arrange for the changes to be coded and incorporated?

If it's the kwireless in kdentwork/wifi/kwireless, contact Mirko. 

> My thanks in advance for any and all replies.

Have fun coding :-)

Stefan

[1]http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Linux.Wireless.Extensions.html
[2]http://kwifimanager.sourceforge.net
[3]man:iwconfig
[4]http://bugs.kde.org/wizard.cgi?package=kwifimanager
[5]mailto:mirko@kde.org

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kdenetwork/wifi (KWiFiManager)
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