Hi,

I was habited to setup client mode on Asus WL500b via proprietary wl tool (using wl.o, et.o).
Everything I needed was (applicable to eth2):

wl ap 0        #Set client mode
wl scan        #Scan for APs in neighbourhood
wl scanresults #Display results of the scan
wl join  xxxx  #Join selected AP
(wl assoc)     #Verify that I'm associated with AP

In current snap, there are modules wl.o and wlcompat.o.
I was not able to insert et.o (message like: "module_init: no such device")
I have tried to install wl from third party ipk package, but has not worked (mesages like: "eth2 unsupported...")
I have tried iw* utilities, but either not supported or not found any equivalent commands like in wl. I need exactly equivalents for these five commands as above.

I don't like magicall setings via nvram variables and these variables at all, because I can't see who reads/use/modify it at all and when. There is a big mess in them. The scripts are (by my opinion) too complex for my purposes.

The questions are:

It there possibility to build (???link only from binary modules against current libc???) wl ipk package during building the openwrt? (I couldn't find it in my tree).
Is there a possibility to have oldschool wl for settings described above?
If yes, what I did wrong that I have some errors about "unsupported" and so on?

What does wifi command?
It's open?
Does it use any nvram variables?

Feel free to kick me to any links with information.
If you use similar HW in client mode: internet from wifi side (eth2, dhcp client), lan on switch side (eth0, dhcp server), please describe your method of setting.

If you use nvram magic only and understand it exactly, feel free to describe it in detail (advice like: set this, this and this variable to these values and reboot is not sufficient for me. I need to understand and prepare my simplified version)

THANK YOU

I appologize for not accurate messages and description.
I have either old working FW or new (still) not working FW without internet access.
And my access to router is limited.

If you find this message stupid/useless/redundant please try to tell it briefly or via mail, thanks

Client mode:

nvram set wl0_mode=sta; nvram commit

AP scan:

iwlist eth2 scanning

Join AP:

nvram set wl0_ssid=MY_AP; nvram commit

Thank you, but I still dont know nothing about the background.

What/who does use the wl0_mode?
What/who does use the wl0_ssid?
What associates with wl0_ssid?

Does this need complicated user scripts like /sbin/ifup /sbin/ifdown?
What is the next dependency in the nvram (if any)?

Does "anything" monitor nvram for changes? Waiting for commit?
What if connection from provider is temporarily unavailable? I want to simply restore connection without restart.

It's too much questions for me ;(

wl0_mode will adjust radio mode - ap, sta and wet.
wl0_ssid is SSID the radio will use.
ifup/ifdown does use these nvram values.
nvram commit will put nvram changes to the NVRAM, but there is no need to it if you just want to test new values.

See http://wiki.openwrt.org/OpenWrtNVRAM for details of the NVRAM settings - I've just edited this to try to make it clearer.

wl0_* applies to the physical wireless interface. Typing "wifi" (from wificonf package) will read all these settings and send them to the wifi hardware as ioctls (which is, I believe, basically what wl did).

wifi_* settings are passed to ifconfig and/or brctl to configure the IP interface. Typing "ifup wifi" will run all the necessary commands to configure the IP interface. The name "wifi" is arbitary, but wifi_ifname binds it to the IP interface name as known to the kernel.

When you type "nvram set foo=bar" you are just changing an in-RAM copy of the settings, which these scripts will read. "nvram commit" copies this in-RAM copy back to the non-volatile storage.

If you want to continue using wl, which is closed source, then install it from the "non-free" distribution area: http://downloads.openwrt.org/whiterussi … /non-free/ - it works for me(TM),  but I'm using Asus WL-500g Deluxe, which is a different model to yours.

http://wiki.openwrt.org/ClientModeHowto is probably also of interest to you.

HTH, Brian.