RFC: Create a default wlan for wireless NICs

[John Baldwin]

From the bikeshed department....

The change at https://reviews.freebsd.org/D15481 would create a default
wlan for wireless NICs by default. The default wlan's ifnet name would
match the name of the adapter (e.g. "iwn0"). Existing configurations
would still be honored and people who need multiple wlan devices can
still do so using existing configuration variables in rc.conf, etc.

However, the out of the box experience on a new machine would be that
'ifconfig iwn0' would Just Work(tm) for wireless NICs as it does now for
wired NICs, and you could just use 'ifconfig_iwn0="WPA DHCP"' in rc.conf.
I think this is more consistent with how we present NICs to users in
general.

[Warner Losh]

Post by John Baldwin
From the bikeshed department....
The change at https://reviews.freebsd.org/D15481 would create a default
wlan for wireless NICs by default. The default wlan's ifnet name would
match the name of the adapter (e.g. "iwn0"). Existing configurations
would still be honored and people who need multiple wlan devices can
still do so using existing configuration variables in rc.conf, etc.
However, the out of the box experience on a new machine would be that
'ifconfig iwn0' would Just Work(tm) for wireless NICs as it does now for
wired NICs, and you could just use 'ifconfig_iwn0="WPA DHCP"' in rc.conf.
I think this is more consistent with how we present NICs to users in

Love it.

Warner

[Eitan Adler]

Post by Warner Losh

Post by John Baldwin
From the bikeshed department....
The change at https://reviews.freebsd.org/D15481 would create a default
wlan for wireless NICs by default. The default wlan's ifnet name would
match the name of the adapter (e.g. "iwn0"). Existing configurations
would still be honored and people who need multiple wlan devices can
still do so using existing configuration variables in rc.conf, etc.
However, the out of the box experience on a new machine would be that
'ifconfig iwn0' would Just Work(tm) for wireless NICs as it does now for
wired NICs, and you could just use 'ifconfig_iwn0="WPA DHCP"' in rc.conf.
I think this is more consistent with how we present NICs to users in

Love it.

Yes please!

[Rodney W. Grimes]

Post by John Baldwin

Post by John Baldwin
From the bikeshed department....

The change at https://reviews.freebsd.org/D15481 would create a default
wlan for wireless NICs by default. The default wlan's ifnet name would
match the name of the adapter (e.g. "iwn0"). Existing configurations
would still be honored and people who need multiple wlan devices can
still do so using existing configuration variables in rc.conf, etc.
However, the out of the box experience on a new machine would be that
'ifconfig iwn0' would Just Work(tm) for wireless NICs as it does now for
wired NICs, and you could just use 'ifconfig_iwn0="WPA DHCP"' in rc.conf.
I think this is more consistent with how we present NICs to users in
general.

Yes, Blue Please, with a red stripe. :)

I asked about documentation in the review, but about all I can
find is:
/etc/defaults/rc.conf:
#wlans_ath0="wlan0" # wlan(4) interfaces for ath0 device

There is probably stuff in the wiki that would need updated though.

[John Baldwin]

Post by Rodney W. Grimes

Post by John Baldwin

Post by John Baldwin
From the bikeshed department....

The change at https://reviews.freebsd.org/D15481 would create a default
wlan for wireless NICs by default. The default wlan's ifnet name would
match the name of the adapter (e.g. "iwn0"). Existing configurations
would still be honored and people who need multiple wlan devices can
still do so using existing configuration variables in rc.conf, etc.
However, the out of the box experience on a new machine would be that
'ifconfig iwn0' would Just Work(tm) for wireless NICs as it does now for
wired NICs, and you could just use 'ifconfig_iwn0="WPA DHCP"' in rc.conf.
I think this is more consistent with how we present NICs to users in
general.

Yes, Blue Please, with a red stripe. :)
I asked about documentation in the review, but about all I can
#wlans_ath0="wlan0" # wlan(4) interfaces for ath0 device
There is probably stuff in the wiki that would need updated though.

I think there are also installer bits that could be simplified. Right now
the installer has to use a special sysctl to identify wireless NICs so
it can add them to the list of NICs, etc. It also then creates wlan_foo
variables in rc.conf. That would need to be updated for this change as well.

[Joel Dahl]

Post by John Baldwin
From the bikeshed department....
The change at https://reviews.freebsd.org/D15481 would create a default
wlan for wireless NICs by default. The default wlan's ifnet name would
match the name of the adapter (e.g. "iwn0"). Existing configurations
would still be honored and people who need multiple wlan devices can
still do so using existing configuration variables in rc.conf, etc.
However, the out of the box experience on a new machine would be that
'ifconfig iwn0' would Just Work(tm) for wireless NICs as it does now for
wired NICs, and you could just use 'ifconfig_iwn0="WPA DHCP"' in rc.conf.
I think this is more consistent with how we present NICs to users in
general.

Yes. Do it. :-)

[Adrian Chadd]

Lol. :-)

The main change here is people having to unlearn wlanX being the device and
things are now named dependent on your hardware type.

I mean, ok ok it could just be like freebsd-4 or whatever, pre-vap support.
:-)

(do it!)


-adrian

[Adam]

Post by Adrian Chadd
Lol. :-)
The main change here is people having to unlearn wlanX being the device and
things are now named dependent on your hardware type.
I mean, ok ok it could just be like freebsd-4 or whatever, pre-vap support.
:-)
(do it!)
-adrian

I like this change. Having my network device reflect the driver name is
useful and makes it more consistent.

[Lars Engels]

Post by Adrian Chadd
Lol. :-)
The main change here is people having to unlearn wlanX being the device and
things are now named dependent on your hardware type.
I mean, ok ok it could just be like freebsd-4 or whatever, pre-vap support.
:-)
(do it!)

The problem I see is that a couple of tools / scripts in ports do expect
a "wlan0" device to be the first wireless device and will stop working
after the change.