Author Topic: New xwlan beta - please test and give feedback  (Read 12564 times)

Andi B.

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New xwlan beta - please test and give feedback
« on: October 02, 2018, 09:21:58 pm »
I've uploaded the new beta5 of xwlan. ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/pub/wlan/xwlan314beta5.zip
I want to ask people who have a wireless NIC supported by genmac to test this version. I've made significant changes in a lot of places to improve some code and in debug message handling. I've cross checked all changes numerous times and think I did not break anything. Hope it works for others too the same as the latest versions. Or better.

Included is wpa_supplicant from current official code repository and Spanish language files.

Before I concentrate on other topics I wanted to assure all my current changes works as designed (do not break any functionality of previous versions).

Btw. you can create tickets or post here. Don't be offended when I can not answer questions the next week. I've to meet some sharks. But I'll be back afterwards :-)
« Last Edit: October 03, 2018, 08:40:19 am by Andi B. »

Doug Bissett

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Re: New xwlan beta - please test and give feedback
« Reply #1 on: October 03, 2018, 03:01:46 am »
There is an undocumented dependency on PMPRINTF.

I do wish developers would get over doing that. Normal users would not have that installed, except by accident, and the final program should not need it.

Now, to find, and install it, so I can test your work.

Doug Bissett

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Re: New xwlan beta - please test and give feedback
« Reply #2 on: October 03, 2018, 06:23:11 am »
The supplicant seems to work well (using the widget), but switching the radio on and off, doesn't always work properly. Most of the time, no IP address is obtained, and AFAICT, there is no attempt to get one. Every once in a while, it does work, as it should. Strange...

Andi B.

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Re: New xwlan beta - please test and give feedback
« Reply #3 on: October 03, 2018, 07:52:21 am »
There is an undocumented dependency on PMPRINTF.
Even with beta5? My own checks with pmdll assured me that I've fixed that. But YMMV.

Holger Schuett

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Re: New xwlan beta - please test and give feedback
« Reply #4 on: October 03, 2018, 12:39:34 pm »
Hi Andi,
works here. I installed the widget and it works and the wpa_supplicant too. Tested the wpa_supplicant starting from command line, works there too.

Thank you

Doug Bissett

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Re: New xwlan beta - please test and give feedback
« Reply #5 on: October 03, 2018, 06:35:01 pm »
There is an undocumented dependency on PMPRINTF.
Even with beta5? My own checks with pmdll assured me that I've fixed that. But YMMV

I downloaded again, from the link above, and installed the widget to a new ArcaOS 5.0.3.1 install. The supplicant did not work. Starting the supplicant manually complained that it couldn't find PMPRINTF.DLL, until I added PMPRINTF.DLL to LIBPATH. Then it worked.

It seems that the only way to test it, is to remove PMPRINTF.DLL, completely. It also seems that some sort of check needs to be made, to notify the user that something isn't right. The only indications that I got, was the connection sound kept on repeating, forever, and the supplicant window didn't open.

BTW, I am testing with my IBM ThinkPad T43, with an Intel 2915abg adapter.

Holger Schuett

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Re: New xwlan beta - please test and give feedback
« Reply #6 on: October 03, 2018, 09:45:35 pm »
Hi Andi, hi Doug
I am quite sure that I do not have PMPRINTF.DLL in my Libpath nor in any relevant directory, but I will check again. I do remember that I tested another Beta-Version of xwlan and PMPRINTF.DLL was needed.
I am testing on an X61with 4965 a/g/n adapter
« Last Edit: October 03, 2018, 09:47:56 pm by Holger Schuett »

Holger Schuett

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Re: New xwlan beta - please test and give feedback
« Reply #7 on: October 03, 2018, 10:20:27 pm »
Hi Andi, hi Doug,
Doug is right concerning PMPRINTF.dll. It was in OS2/dll in my case. Moving it I could neither use xwlan nor the wpa_supplicant by command line

Andi B.

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Re: New xwlan beta - please test and give feedback
« Reply #8 on: October 04, 2018, 11:32:20 am »
Strange. I reopened the ticket #49. Will look at it when I'm back. Thx for testing.

Andi B.

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Re: New xwlan beta - please test and give feedback
« Reply #9 on: October 11, 2018, 07:01:08 pm »
I've bundled together an intermediate version of wpa_supplicant with beta5 unfortunately. Was a stupid error in the script which packs all together and I didn't have the time for much testing before my travel. So I didn't find it by myself :-(.

I've fixed this and packed beta6. Beside small help file updates (history) it's the same as beta5 except the current wpa_supplicant. Hope the pmprintf.dll dependency is fixed finally.

Quote
It also seems that some sort of check needs to be made, to notify the user that something isn't right.
One of the first things I check with every new version is if the properties dialog shows the version for dhclient and wpa_supplicant. A non working wpa_supplicant would be shown in read color. Of course if you compare usability of the whole wlan/lan switching with modern devices/OSes we are years behind. I fear we can never catch up with other systems anymore. Best we can try is to keep it working and ironing out the biggest bugs.

It's also a good idea to start with the standalone application (wlanstat) first instead of the xcenter widget. And read the readme.txt step by step to narrow down problems (current version - http://trac.netlabs.org/xwlan/browser/trunk/src/ship/readme.txt). Given that the user base with supported wlan devices is very small now and even shrinking I wouldn't bet on much improvement any more.

Doug Bissett

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Re: New xwlan beta - please test and give feedback
« Reply #10 on: October 12, 2018, 01:28:25 am »
Confirmed, that PMPRINTF is no longer required.

It seems that the supplicant works better than the older version (quick test), and the rest works just as badly as ever. At least it can be made to communicate, without too much trouble. FWIW, the main problem seems to be that the IP address is not obtained reliably. Sometimes it gets one immediately, at other times, I need to turn off/on the radio, a couple of times, before it even attempts to get an IP address. The same is true for getting an IP address for the wired NIC.

Thanks for your efforts.

Dave Yeo

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Re: New xwlan beta - please test and give feedback
« Reply #11 on: October 12, 2018, 04:52:01 am »
Seems to work fine on my T42. As Doug said, it seems faster but I never benchmarked.

Andi B.

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Re: New xwlan beta - please test and give feedback
« Reply #12 on: October 12, 2018, 10:21:37 am »
I've also the impression that the wpa_supplicant is much faster most of the times. BUT not always. Sometimes it needs longer to establish the connection.

DHCP - I didn't see the problem Dough describes here. But I didn't test very much with DHCP since a while. In fact while building and testing new xwlan/wpa_supplicant I switched DHCP off. One thing that comes to mind - I think I've created a ticket long ago about that I think there is a logic error in the original xwlan code. IIRC xwlan fires up dhclient at the same time as wpa_supplicant (before the supplicant has negotiated the connection). If for some currently unknown reason the supplicant takes longer maybe the dhclient has increased it's pause period that much that Dough thinks it never asks and so gets a response. But this is all guessing. Someone has to dig into this. Starting point would be setting wpa_supplicant debug visible with Debuglevel Info and DHCP client Log NOT activated (to see the dhclient window, it is minimized by default, maximize it and see what the dhclient sciprt does).
« Last Edit: October 12, 2018, 10:23:28 am by Andi B. »

Holger Schuett

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Re: New xwlan beta - please test and give feedback
« Reply #13 on: October 14, 2018, 10:07:43 am »
Hi Andi,
I can confirm that the new version works without PMPRINTF with xwlan and from command line. Concerning the speed I find it hard to tell if it works faster or not as I mainly use the command line to start the wpa_supplicant and establish a connection. This way it works faster than using xwlan in any case.

Thank you once again for your efforts.