Re: mt76x[02]u 802.11w support

From: Sid Hayn <sidhayn@gmail.com>
To: Matthias Brugger <matthias.bgg@gmail.com>
Cc: Lorenzo Bianconi <lorenzo.bianconi@redhat.com>,
	sgruszka@redhat.com, linux-mediatek@lists.infradead.org,
	linux-wireless <linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org>,
	Felix Fietkau <nbd@nbd.name>
Subject: Re: mt76x[02]u 802.11w support
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2018 10:07:43 -0500	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAM0KTbBV_YZqt6kkrKeY5tRtKn10UOLQY3EyTKPY+zLzht7sgg@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <dd275289-99d0-54a8-9ac5-cb137123950a@gmail.com>

On Sun, Dec 16, 2018 at 5:39 AM Matthias Brugger <matthias.bgg@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> On 15/12/2018 04:43, Sid Hayn wrote:
> > On Thu, Dec 13, 2018 at 9:39 AM Lorenzo Bianconi
> > <lorenzo.bianconi@redhat.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Per a conversation with Lorenzo, it seems that 802.11w for mt76x[02]u
> >>> has only been fixed in 4.20.  As 4.19 is a LTS kernel, I'd like to
> >>> request that work be backported.  While the improvements in 4.20 and
> >>> 4.21 are already fairly obvious, a lot of people will be running 4.19
> >>> for years to come.  This is good hardware, with a working driver
> >>> (thanks team) but in the next few months excitement is going to turn
> >>> toward WPA3 which requires working 802.11w.
> >>>
> >>> Pretty please backport 802.11w support to 4.19
> >>
> >> IIRC the isse is just on mt76x0u, mt76x2u should work
> >
> > I can confirm that it does work on mt76x2u on 4.19.5; so my request is
> > to backport 802.11w (software crypto I believe) support for mt76x0u to
> > 4.19 LTS.  Pretty please :-)
> >
>
> Stable kernel are not used to do feature backports but just bug fixes. Please
> reach out to your favorite Linux distribution to backport this driver into their
> kernel. That's the value add a distro has :)
>
That is a valid fact, however, fixing broken 802.11w, a required part
of the standard, feels like a valid bug fix to me.  Especially since
in 4.19.5 a patch to fix monitor mode was added for the same driver.
Interestingly when I asked for the monitor mode patch to be ported it
was initially refused and then just kind of happened a few weeks
later.  In this case I have a much stronger case, a required feature
of the wifi driver is broken, and this is an LTS kernel.

I also feel compelled to point out that this doesn't matter at all to
me personally.  I will be on 4.20 ten seconds after it comes out, but
many many people use distros which run LTS kernels like 4.19 for
years.  Those people will be missing a required feature for wpa3, and
APs with support (and certification) are already appearing.  So I
close by politely requesting that this bug gets fixed :-)

-Zero

> Regards,
> Matthias
>
> > Just in case it helps to confirm what is needed, here is the error
> > from wpa_supplicant when trying to connect to an 802.11w AP
> > wlan0: WPA: Failed to configure IGTK to the driver
> > wlan0: RSN: Failed to configure IGTK
> >
> > thanks,
> > Zero
> >
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >> Lorenzo
> >>
> >>>
> >>> Thanks,
> >>> Zero
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-mediatek
> >