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Re: Debian 2.6.32 CONFIG_WIRELESS_OLD_REGULATORY, wireless-regdb and crda



On Thu, 2010-02-18 at 09:19 -0800, Luis R. Rodriguez wrote:

> Upstream does not do the same. Ubuntu packages these two together
> right now but it was because it made life easier for packaging.
> 
> John, do you guys package wireless-regdb and crda together on Fedora
> land? Was this because of the dynamic key building per package? If so
> what is the restriction on using two packages?

> Thanks John. So -- not sure if Kel will have time to split these, I
> gather he is still pretty busy with his move. Paul, is this a
> requirement for inclusion? If so we'll need to request for some help.

I wouldn't upload it to Debian like that, you might find other people in
Debian who would be willing to do so though.

> > nl80211.h looks like it comes from Linux, can't you just build-depend on
> > the linux-libc-dev package and do #include <linux/nl80211.h> ? Comparing
> > the crda one and the one from Linux 2.6.32 reveals quite a few changes
> > since you copied nl80211.h into crda.
> 
> nl80211 is designed to allow userspace applications to either ship
> their own nl80211.h based on the most recent kernel or to ship it and
> ifdef around a feature instead of the kernel version.
...
> For CRDA then we ship our own nl80211.h and it doesn't matter much as
> we only use only one command, and the API that can't change anyway.
> When CRDA wants to make use of something new we can just re-synch,
> just as we do with iw.

Hmm, OK. I guess that makes sense.

> > Even after manually ensuring that sha1sum.txt reflects the sha1sum of
> > db.txt with "sha1sum db.txt > sha1sum.txt", the wireless-regdb Makefile
> > still seems to generate a new Debian RSA key pair. If the db.txt hasn't
> > changed, there is no reason to auto-generate and install a key pair.
> 
> wireless-regdb is designed so that you do not have to run make at all
> if you just intend on using John's key. So running make even if db.txt
> has not changed will generate the keys for you and sign the
> regulatory.bin with the new key.

Hmm, OK. So the Debian packaging should check that db.txt is unchanged,
instead of the upstream Makefile doing that check? I guess that means
Fedora, Gentoo, Ubuntu etc all need to do the same thing.

> > dpkg-shlibdeps complains that neither crda and regdbdump use symbols
> > from libssl, it looks like this might be a false positive though:
> >
> > dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: dependency on libssl.so.0.9.8 could be avoided if "debian/crda/sbin/regdbdump debian/crda/sbin/crda" were not uselessly linked against it (they use none of its symbols).
> 
> They are not uselessly linking against libssl if indeed signature
> checking is done.

It looked like a false positive to me, I didn't investigate too closely
though.

> > I'd suggest that 'make dist' should include a ChangeLog file in the
> > tarball, generated with git2cl or git log or whatever. A NEWS file
> > summarising the user-visible changes in each version would also be a
> > good idea for both crda and wireless-regdb.
> 
> I see little point to maintaining a ChangeLog on these two upstream
> git projects, is this something that has to be done on the package
> debian/* stuff itself then? Is this required for inclusion into
> Debian?

The point is that upstream are already maintaining a ChangeLog with git
and it'd be nice if they included that in the release tarballs (which
don't include the git history) by doing git2cl or git log or whatever in
'make dist' when they create the tarball.

The NEWS file is a separate, hand-maintained file summarising
user-visible changes between different releases.

> > I assume that the Debian installer should definitely install
> > crda/wireless-regdb on systems that have a wireless card.
> 
> Yes, all new wireless devices would use this.
> 
> > Should it also
> > be installed on other systems by default, in case a wireless card gets
> > installed?
> 
> Yes, I would just always install it, sort of like firmware_request udev stuff.
> 
> > There is also existing systems to consider, how would you
> > recommend crda/wireless-regdb be pulled in? Currently I'm thinking the
> > Linux kernel images should Recommend crda; this would pull it in by
> > default for those using Debian kernel images but allow those who do not
> > need it to remove it. People compiling their own kernel will need to
> > install it manually.
> 
> That seems fine logic.

Once it is uploaded, I'll be sure to file a bug asking for it to be
added as a recommends of the Linux image packages, thanks for the
advice.

> From what I gather Kel is busy, although he has done all the work for
> this package. How can we request help for this package? I was offering
> to do it but all the new debian/* magic makes me think its best for
> someone else familiar with modern debian packages.

> Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help upstream wise
> to help get this packaged up into Debian.

Hmm, not really sure. We have processes to request help for stuff
already in Debian, but not really anything for new packages that
no-one . You could try emailing the debian-devel list asking for
additional people to join the pkg-wpa-devel team for the purposes of
maintaining crda/wireless-regdb/etc. CCing the debian-mentors list might
also be a good idea since you might get someone willing to jump in and
learn who doesn't already have a lot on their plate. Perhaps Tim Gardner
(who maintains the Ubuntu package, CCed) might be also interested to
help. Please do mention that I've offered sponsorship, point at this
thread in the debian-kernel archives and to mail debian-mentors when the
package is ready. Michael Biebl recently sponsored Kel's wpasupplicant
upload so he might also be interested in doing so for
crda/wireless-regdb. If you don't get anyone to step up and maintain
crda/wireless-regdb in Debian, I guess they will have to stay out of
Debian for now.

BTW, due to the number of RC bugs, the freeze for Debian squeeze is now
delayed for a bit:

http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2010/02/msg00002.html

-- 
bye,
pabs

http://wiki.debian.org/PaulWise

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