Otherwise bad things happen:
systemd-networkd[3140]: wlan0: Saved new link: ifindex=5, iftype=ETHER(1), kind=n/a
systemd-networkd[3140]: Assertion '(_error) != 0' failed at src/network/networkd-wifi.c:119, function manager_genl_process_nl80211_config(). Aborting.
Resolves: #28534
When a new wireless network interface is created by the kernel, it emits
both RTM_NEWLINK and NL80211_CMD_NEW_INTERFACE. These events can arrive
in either order and networkd must behave correctly in both cases.
The typical case is that RTM_NEWLINK is handled first, in which case
networkd creates a Link object and starts tracking it. When the
NL80211_CMD_NEW_INTERFACE message is handled, networkd then populates
the Link object with relevant wireless properties such as wireless
interface type (managed, AP, etc.).
In the event that the order is reversed however, networkd will fail to
populate these wireless properties because at the time of processing the
nl80211 message, the link is considered unknown. In that case, a debug
message is emitted:
systemd-networkd[467]: nl80211: received new_interface(7) message for link '109' we don't know about, ignoring.
This is problematic because after the subsequent RTM_NEWLINK message,
networkd will have an incomplete view of the link. In particular, if a
.network configuration matches on some of the missing wireless
properties, such as WLANInterfaceType=, then it will never match.
The above race can be reproduced by using the mac80211_hwsim driver.
Suppose that there exists a .network configuration:
[Match]
WLANInterfaceType=ap
...
Now loop the creation/destruction of such an AP interface:
while true
do
iw dev wlan0 interface add uap0 type __ap
iw dev uap0 del
done
The above debug message from networkd will then be observed very
quickly. And in that event, the .network file will fail to match.
To address the above race, have the nl80211 message handler store the
interface index in a set in case a Link object is not found on
NL80211_CMD_NEW_INTERFACE. The handler for RTM_NEWLINK can then query
this set, and explicitly request the wireless properties from nl80211
upon the creation of the Link object.
When an AP goes up, the kernel may emit a netlink event indicating that
the interface has gained carrier. In that event, we should check if the
SSID has changed before attempting to reconfigure. Not doing so means
that the link->ssid member is not updated, leading to a potential
mismatch if some of the .network configurations match on SSID=.
There are however scenarios where the above heuristic is not enough.
Specifically, if the interface carrier state flip-flops within a short
enough interval, the internal throttling of netlink events inside the
kernel may suppress intermediate linkdown+linkup events (cf. Linux
net/core/link_watch.c). So there is no linkup event to react on.
To improve on the latter scenario, it is proposed to make newer kernels
emit an NL80211_CMD_START_AP multicast event when an AP goes up. This
event will not be dropped by link_watch. systemd-networkd can then react
to such events as well, and optionally reconfigure the link if the SSID
has changed. This will only work with newer kernels though.
Sometimes, RTM_NEWLINK message with carrier is received earlier than
NL80211_CMD_CONNECT. To make SSID= or other WiFi related settings in
[Match] section work, let's try to reconfigure the interface.
Fixes a bug introduced by 96f5f9ef9a.
Fixes#25384.
(s) is just ugly with a vibe of DOS. In most cases just using the normal plural
form is more natural and gramatically correct.
There are some log_debug() statements left, and texts in foreign licenses or
headers. Those are not touched on purpose.
Yu Watanabe
Frantisek Sumsal
Alvin Šipraga
Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek