>>>>> Leave INTERFACES blank. As you keep the networks seperated, hostapd >>>>> does >>>>> not >>>>> depend on any other devices. >>>>> wlan0 is initialized by hostapd. So you are good to go. >>>>> The accesspoint itself, so to say the wlan part does not have any IP >>>>> adress, >>>>> at it is merely a connectionpoint for normal wlan systems. The IP >>>>> adress >>>>> to >>>>> your device however is defined by the other nics. In your case eth1. >>>>> >>>>> >>>> >>>> I don't have eth1 set up yet. For now I just want eth0 on the WAN and >>>> wlan0 on the LAN. eth0 dhcp's from my ISP, but I need to specify a >>>> local IP address for my LAN somewhere right? >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> >>> wlan0 in master mode does _not_ have an IP adress. So far eth0 is the >>> only >>> ip adress your device has. >>> If you do not spezify a local ip adress on eth1, you will not have any >>> local >>> ip adress. >>> >> >> I'm very confused. I've been running wlan0 in master mode for about 3 >> years with IP 192.168.0.1 and no eth1. Here was my entire >> /etc/conf.d/net: >> >> config_eth0=( "dhcp" ) >> mode_wlan0=( "master" ) >> essid_wlan0=( "networkname" ) >> channel_wlan0=( "11" ) >> config_wlan0=( "192.168.0.1 broadcast 192.168.0.255 netmask 255.255.255.0" >> ) >> >> All I'm trying to do is switch wireless drivers from madwifi-ng to the >> in-kernel ath5k. With madwifi-ng, I started net.wlan0, started >> hostapd, and started shorewall and everything worked perfectly. Now >> with ath5k, net.wlan0 won't start in master mode. This causes 2 >> problems: >> >> 1. I can't specify a local IP for wlan0 in /etc/conf.d/net like I've >> been doing for years. >> 2. shorewall checks whether or not net.wlan0 has started because wlan0 >> is the only device in zone loc, so shorewall won't start. >> >> So I'm required to have an eth1 because I'm switching from madwifi-ng >> to ath5k? That doesn't seem right. >> >> >>>>> >>>>> For the shorewall business, you have to tell, what you want to do with >>>>> shorewall exactely. >>>>> I dare say you have a wlan zone as your AP and a loc zone with eth1. As >>>>> i >>>>> am >>>>> using bridging i can not tell you if and how shorewall responds. >>>>> But if you want to keep eth1 an wlan0 seperate, what so you need >>>>> shorewall >>>>> for? >>>>> >>>>> >>>> >>>> Since the AP system is also the router, I use shorewall for NAT, port >>>> closing, port forwarding, and packet shaping. shorewall gives an >>>> empty loc zone error if I don't have net.wlan0 started because wlan0 >>>> is the only loc interface. >>>> >>>> - Grant >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> >>> You can let shorewall depend on hostapd, so your shorewall starts after >>> hostapd and your wlan0. >>> Check the "depend()" section in shorewalls rc-script. >>> >> >> I'm confused here too. shorewall seems to be checking whether or not >> net.wlan0 has started, not whether the wlan0 interface is up. Trying >> to start shorewall after hostapd has started results in the same error >> described above because net.wlan0 hasn't been started. >> >> - Grant >> >> > > Well, madwifi-ng is a matured project with an insanely great featureset. > ath5k ap mode till this day is not activated in the kernel. You have to > activate it with a code patch, the gentoo rc-script can not cope with it > yet. hostapd needs to be a new version and has to initialize the device > itself. > Of course you can not expect the same features and easy to use behaviour > from such an experimental software. > > You seem to have a working setup, which suits your needs. Unless you have a > serious reason i would not change a running and supported system.
OK, thank you Norman. The reason I'm trying to switch (this is my third serious attempt) is some kind of a bug that crashes the system when SMP is enabled and the madwifi driver is in master mode. I've been running without SMP, but I could really use the extra power. Do you know if there is better Gentoo support for this on the horizon? - Grant
