Questions for netcfg: Cannot connect to WPA and Open Network

HI,

I found some issues, so I am tracing netcfg source code which is downloaded from http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/n/netcfg/netcfg_1.142ubuntu7.tar.xz.

I have some questions about the netcfg code flow, so I hope you can help to answer/explain for them.

I saw netcfg.c has defined the state machine in main loop. Depend on different state, the network interface will be up/down. For example, config a WPA wireless network and with DHCP method, I list the state flow, and the wlan0 status after this state as below:

GET_INTERFACE (wlan0 down)
WCONFIG (no change)
WCONFIG_ESSID (wlan0 is up first. If choose essid from the list, wlan0 will be down; if choose enter essid manually, wlan0 will keep up)
WCONFIG_SECURITY_TYPE (no change)
WCONFIG_WPA (no change)
START_WPA (no change)
GET_METHOD (no change)
GET_DHCP (wlan0 up)

The issue I encountered is choosing essid from the list, wlan0 will be down, so I could see the below errors in syslog during START_WPA state:

Dec 2 04:37:11 localhost netcfg[8076]: INFO: buf = wpa_state=INTERFACE_DISABLED#012address=00:16:01:80:8a:47#012uuid=c9148e48-dd38-516c-80e

Dec 2 04:37:51 localhost netcfg[8076]: message repeated 8 times: [ INFO: buf = wpa_state=INTERFACE_DISABLED#012address=00:16:01:80:8a:47#0]

Dec 2 04:37:53 localhost wpa_supplicant[4114]: wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-FAILED ret=-100

And this causes the configuration is failed. But if I choose enter essid manually, it will be successful because wlan0 keeps up during START_WPA state.

My first question is: Why not keeping the wlan0 is up for both use cases because it needs to send commands to wpa_supplicant daemon during START_WPA state?

Another example is setting Open Network. I choose ‘Open Network’ and left wep key as blank. From syslog, I didn’t see the association with access point during WCONFIG_WEP state. Is this expected?

It will be failed due to wlan is carrier down:

Dec 2 05:22:48 localhost netcfg[6898]: DEBUG: State is now 0

Dec 2 05:22:48 localhost netcfg[6898]: DEBUG: Want link on wlan0

Dec 2 05:22:48 localhost netcfg[6898]: INFO: Waiting time set to 3

Dec 2 05:22:49 localhost netcfg[6898]: INFO: ethtool-lite: wlan0: carrier down

Dec 2 05:22:50 localhost netcfg[6898]: message repeated 5 times: [ INFO: ethtool-lite: wlan0: carrier down]

My second question is: Is this expected without association with access point before doing DHCPDISCOVER?

NOTE: I tried to sync and build the latest source from https://anonscm.debian.org/git/d-i/netcfg.git, but I could still encounter the same issues.

Information of my environment:

$ lshw -C network

  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 15
       serial: 00:04:4b:cc:2e:49
       size: 10Mbit/s
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8168 driverversion=8.045.08-NAPI duplex=half latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=10Mbit/s
       resources: irq:406 ioport:1000(size=256) memory:13004000-13004fff memory:13000000-13003fff
  *-usb:1
       description: Wireless interface
       product: WLI-U2-KG54
       vendor: Buffalo
       physical id: 3
       bus info: usb@1:2.2.3
       logical name: wlan0
       version: 0.01
       serial: 00:16:01:80:8a:47
       capabilities: usb-2.00 ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rt2500usb driverversion=4.9.140-tegra firmware=N/A link=no maxpower=400mA multicast=yes speed=480Mbit/s wireless=IEEE 802.11
  *-network:0
       description: Ethernet interface
       physical id: 3
       logical name: rndis0
       serial: fe:99:ee:1d:5f:f1
       capabilities: ethernet physical
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=g_ether driverversion=29-May-2008 firmware=tegra-xudc link=yes multicast=yes
  *-network:1
       description: Ethernet interface
       physical id: 4
       logical name: usb0
       serial: fe:99:ee:1d:5f:f3
       capabilities: ethernet physical
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=g_ether driverversion=29-May-2008 firmware=tegra-xudc link=yes multicast=yes
  *-network:2
       description: Ethernet interface
       physical id: 5
       logical name: l4tbr0
       serial: fe:99:ee:1d:5f:f1
       capabilities: ethernet physical
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=bridge driverversion=2.3 firmware=N/A ip=192.168.55.1 link=yes multicast=yes
  *-network:3 DISABLED
       description: Ethernet interface
       physical id: 6
       logical name: dummy0
       serial: 46:1a:14:65:74:19
       capabilities: ethernet physical
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=dummy driverversion=1.0

$ lsb_release -a

Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS
Release: 18.04
Codename: bionic

$ uname -a

Linux localhost.localdomain 4.9.140-tegra #7 SMP PREEMPT Thu Nov 28 14:01:51 CST 2019 aarch64 aarch64 aarch64 GNU/Linux

Thanks a lot.

Penny