Ubuntu
wireless-tools package

Suggested fix/enhancement for wireless-tools.if-pre-up script

Asked by Shawn J

I've been experiencing an issue with my wireless card and ifup relating to this script. I have a fix for it and thought the devs here might be interested.

This is the issue: If a setting fails to be applied, the script brings the card up and then tries to apply the setting again. This is fine, but it leaves the card up. Later on in the ifup process other scripts try to access the card and if the card is up it will respond that it's busy and ifup fails.

My solution has been to alter the wireless-tools if-pre-up script so that it ends by running ifconfig down in this case. Here is the patch:

--- ./wireless-tools.if-pre-up 2017-04-22 10:15:05.000000000 -0400
+++ ./wireless-tools 2019-06-03 22:39:24.314725863 -0400
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
   exit 0
 fi

-# check if this is a 802.11 device we're supposed to be effecting
+# check if this is a 802.11 device we're supposed to be affecting
 case "${IF_WIRELESS:-enable}" in
  wireless-tools|iwconfig)
  # *we* and not some other 802.11 tool should be used
@@ -140,4 +140,5 @@
  FAIL=
  ifconfig "$IFACE" up
  apply_settings
+ ifconfig "$IFACE" down
 fi

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#1

I suggest that you create a bug report with your patch.

You have to be aware that Ubuntu is taking over packages from Debian (to avoid double packaging work), and as far as I can see, also Debian has the same weakness. So a similar bug report should probably also be created in the Debian bug tracking system.

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