[gentoo-dev] Re: baselayout-1.11.12-r2 request for testers

[Kevin Bryan <bryank@cs.uri.edu>]

Mike Frysinger <vapier <at> gentoo.org> writes:
> 
> yes, it's finally that time ... after months of hearing us say 'we want to get 
> new baselayout stable asap', we're serious
> 
> so can people please try out baselayout-1.11.12-r2+ and see if they notice any 
> regressions ?  the 'best' tests are simply rebooting and seeing if your 
> system comes up :)
> 


I've been running the 1.11.x series since .8 with no problems (except the
parallel thing that was mentioned before).  Good work!  

I just wanted to share some of the coolness of the new scripts:

Let's say you have a wireless network that uses BlueSocket login.  It's rather
annoying to have to load a web browser before you can start using the
connection.  I wrote a little perl script to submit the form and call it from
postup().  (Email me if you want the script.)

A second bit of logic I added to postup() was to merge the settings from my
wireless card into the bonding interface.  This works as follows: 

    local ESSID=$( wireless_get_essid eth1 )
    if [ "${IFACE}" == "bond0" ] ; then
        echo "ESSID: $ESSID" 
        if [ -z "$(eval echo \${config_${ESSID}})" ] || 
           [ "$(eval echo \${config_${ESSID}})" == "dhcp" ] ; then
            dhcpcd -t 5 bond0
        else
            echo $(eval echo "\${config_${ESSID}}")
            ifconfig ${IFACE} $(eval echo "\${config_${ESSID}}")
            (route -n | grep -q "^0.0.0.0") && route del default
            route add $(eval echo "\${routes_${ESSID}}")
        fi
    fi

Note that I also have these lines for the bond0 interface:
slaves_bond0="eth0 eth1"
config_bond0=( "null" ) # I'll configure this later

The astute reader will notice that I got a little lazy and didn't use the
dhcpcd_xxx variables for that condition, but that wouldn't be too hard to hack
in there.

The end result of this is I can seemlessly go back and forth between the wired
and wireless worlds without losing network connections.  It's great to be on
wireless, start a download, plug into the wired, and then get an immediate speed
boost!

Here's another hint for wireless users:  Test your card's ability to respond to
iwconfig <card> txpower <val> commands.  Then put whatever the max value is into
the /etc/conf.d/wireless preassociate() function.  This should have a noticable
effect on your ability to connect to networks.

Thanks for making this all this possible!

--Kevin



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