Suggesting OS for testing?

[Brian DeLacey]

I have been working with the following wireless USB adapter on several
machines at a time:
       EW-7318Ug  USB adapter chipset is called   RT73

That was working well - for the past couple of weeks - until I installed
something new.

To make it work, I used a Jaunty build and downloaded the latest "
compat-wireless-2.6.tar.bz2 ", then just ran make and make install. I wasn't
rebuilding any kernel bits - and hoped to avoid that. I'm using the Aspire
One for testing which is great for mobility but would be slow for big
builds.

Although I wasn't initially "seeing" any of the other mesh point devices
immediately after installing Linux Wireless, the following workaround would
consistently connect up the mesh points:

       sudo iwlist mesh0 scan

That seemed to prime the mesh routes, and I could then ping the other mesh
points from multiple directions. I concluded this connected the mesh, but
maybe it was just luck that things worked.

Is beaconing's sole function to let other devices know where they are are,
and when they appear and leave? Or is periodic beaconing required to keep
the mesh alive? For some apps, the lack of beaconing could be a security
feature keeping the mesh points largely "hidden" from view.

Thanks for any pointers,
   Brian


On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 3:35 PM, Andrey Yurovsky <andrey at cozybit.com> wrote:

> Hi Brian.  By Ralink USB, do you mean that you were testing rt2x00
> mesh or just using the adapter in general?  I'm not aware of any
> improvements in rt2x00 support as beaconing was broken in that driver.
>  o11s mesh is not sensitive to the kernel version, so to speak, but as
> a part of the mac80211 subsystem it is sensitive to the version of the
> wireless components (mac80211 and drivers) that you have.  If I
> understand correctly, Ubuntu usually picks a kernel and then pulls
> additional patches from wireless-testing or elsewhere to further
> update mac80211 and related bits.
>
> Another option is to test the latest and greatest.  In this case, you
> would pull wireless-testing git and build it based on your Ubuntu
> kernel's config.  One way to do that is described here:
> http://o11s.org/trac/wiki/Ubuntu
>
> 2009/3/3 Brian DeLacey <bdelacey at gmail.com>:
> > Any recommendations on the "best" combination of Linux Kernel and Linux
> > Wireless versions to test mesh with?
> > I was running well on a recent build of Ubuntu/Jaunty after installing
> > recent builds of Linux Wireless.  That combination got my Ralink-based
> USB
> > adapters working, but recent updates seem to have broken that
> > functionality.
> > Using the latest Jaunty dailies and Linux Wireless, I now find that
> Ralink
> > USB no longer works and even built-in Atheros is now only partially
> > working. (I'm trying to track down where the break occurred.)
> > It seems like I need more recent builds (Linux 2.6.28+) and updated Linux
> > Wireless to get the Ralink USB working, which is why I've been trying to
> > keep reasonably current with the latest builds of Jaunty and Linux
> Wireless.
> > Is the core mesh functionality most sensitive to changes in the kernel,
> > changes in Linux Wireless, or both?
> > Thanks,
> >    Brian
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Devel mailing list
> > Devel at lists.open80211s.org
> > http://open80211s.com/mailman/listinfo/devel
> >
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Andrey Yurovsky
> cozybit Inc.
> _______________________________________________
> Devel mailing list
> Devel at lists.open80211s.org
> http://open80211s.com/mailman/listinfo/devel
>
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