NET: usb: sierra_net.c driver

Subject: [ANNOUNCEMENT] NET: usb: sierra_net.c driver
From: Elina Pasheva <[email protected]>

The following is a new Linux driver which exposes certain models of Sierra Wireless modems to the operating system as Network Interface Cards (NICs).

This driver requires a version of the sierra.c driver which supports blacklisting to work properly. The blacklist in sierra.c rejects the interfaces claimed by sierra_net.c. Likewise, the sierra_net.c driver only accepts (i.e. whitelists) the interface(s) used for Direct IP traffic.
The term "Direct IP" is used within Sierra Wireless to refer to these alternate data interfaces. The version of sierra.c which supports blacklisting is available from the sierra wireless knowledge base page for older kernels. It is also available in Linux kernel starting from version 2.6.31.

This driver works with all Sierra Wireless devices configured with PID=68A3
like USB305, USB306 provided the corresponding firmware version is I2.0
(for USB305) or M3.0 (for USB306) and later.
This driver will not work with earlier firmware versions than the ones shown
above. In this case the driver will issue an error message indicating incompatibility and will not serve the device's DirectIP interface.

Sierra_net.c sits atop a pre-existing Linux driver called usbnet.c. A series of hook functions are provided in sierra_net.c which are called by usbnet.c in response to a particular condition such as receipt or transmission of a data packet. As such, usbnet.c does most of the work of making a modem appear to the system as a network device and for properly exchanging traffic between the USB subsystem and the Network card interface. Sierra_net.c is concerned with managing the data exchanged between the so-called Direct-IP interface and the upper layers of the operating system.

The version number of sierra_net.c driver is set to 2.0. This patch has been tested on the latest stable kernel-2.6.33.1.

Signed-off-by Elina Pasheva <[email protected]>

Signed-off-by Rory Filer <[email protected]>

Hi Elina,

drivers/net/usb/sierra_net.c line 928

Quoted 10 lines

drivers/net/usb/sierra_net.c +10 -0

+static const struct driver_info sierra_net_info_68A3 = {
+	.description = "Sierra Wireless USB-Ethernet Modem",
+	.flags = FLAG_ETHER | FLAG_SEND_ZLP,
+	.bind = sierra_net_bind,
+	.unbind = sierra_net_unbind,
+	.status = sierra_net_status,
+	.rx_fixup = sierra_net_rx_fixup,
+	.tx_fixup = sierra_net_tx_fixup,
+	.data = (unsigned long)&sierra_net_info_data_68A3,
+};

the FLAG_ETHER is wrong here. Please use FLAG_WWAN to clearly mark these interfaces.

Otherwise we have wrong DEVTYPE uevent assignments and userspace will treat them as real Ethernet cards. And that should not happen. As a nice

benefit the interface name will be wwan%d by default as well.

Regards

Marcel

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Quoted 16 lines · Marcel Holtmann

Hi Elina,

drivers/net/usb/sierra_net.c line 928

Quoted 10 lines

drivers/net/usb/sierra_net.c +10 -0

+static const struct driver_info sierra_net_info_68A3 = {
+	.description = "Sierra Wireless USB-Ethernet Modem",
+	.flags = FLAG_ETHER | FLAG_SEND_ZLP,
+	.bind = sierra_net_bind,
+	.unbind = sierra_net_unbind,
+	.status = sierra_net_status,
+	.rx_fixup = sierra_net_rx_fixup,
+	.tx_fixup = sierra_net_tx_fixup,
+	.data = (unsigned long)&sierra_net_info_data_68A3,
+};

the FLAG_ETHER is wrong here. Please use FLAG_WWAN to clearly mark these interfaces.

Quoted 2 lines

Otherwise we have wrong DEVTYPE uevent assignments and userspace will treat them as real Ethernet cards. And that should not happen. As a nice

Why shouldn't that happen if they look like NIC cards?

Quoted 17 lines · Stephen Clark

Quoted 16 lines · Marcel Holtmann

Hi Elina,

drivers/net/usb/sierra_net.c line 928

Quoted 10 lines

drivers/net/usb/sierra_net.c +10 -0

+static const struct driver_info sierra_net_info_68A3 = {
+	.description = "Sierra Wireless USB-Ethernet Modem",
+	.flags = FLAG_ETHER | FLAG_SEND_ZLP,
+	.bind = sierra_net_bind,
+	.unbind = sierra_net_unbind,
+	.status = sierra_net_status,
+	.rx_fixup = sierra_net_rx_fixup,
+	.tx_fixup = sierra_net_tx_fixup,
+	.data = (unsigned long)&sierra_net_info_data_68A3,
+};

the FLAG_ETHER is wrong here. Please use FLAG_WWAN to clearly mark these interfaces.

Quoted 3 lines

Quoted 2 lines

Otherwise we have wrong DEVTYPE uevent assignments and userspace will treat them as real Ethernet cards. And that should not happen. As a nice

Why shouldn't that happen if they look like NIC cards?

[...]

This information is important for management interfaces. The user doesn't care what your device looks like at the kernel level - they know it's a wireless broadband device and they expect to see a device labelled as such in Network Manager or whatever they use.

Ben.

Quoted 23 lines · Ben Hutchings

Quoted 20 lines · Stephen Clark

Quoted 16 lines · Marcel Holtmann

Hi Elina,

Review

Quoted 10 lines

(quoted diff) +10 -0

+static const struct driver_info sierra_net_info_68A3 = {
+	.description = "Sierra Wireless USB-Ethernet Modem",
+	.flags = FLAG_ETHER | FLAG_SEND_ZLP,
+	.bind = sierra_net_bind,
+	.unbind = sierra_net_unbind,
+	.status = sierra_net_status,
+	.rx_fixup = sierra_net_rx_fixup,
+	.tx_fixup = sierra_net_tx_fixup,
+	.data = (unsigned long)&sierra_net_info_data_68A3,
+};

the FLAG_ETHER is wrong here. Please use FLAG_WWAN to clearly mark these interfaces.

Quoted 2 lines

Otherwise we have wrong DEVTYPE uevent assignments and userspace will treat them as real Ethernet cards. And that should not happen. As a nice

Why shouldn't that happen if they look like NIC cards?

[...]

Quoted 7 lines

This information is important for management interfaces. The user doesn't care what your device looks like at the kernel level - they know it's a wireless broadband device and they expect to see a device labelled as such in Network Manager or whatever they use.

Ben.

You sound like a windows guy!

Whats with everything having to use
NetworkManager!? Are people so dumb they can't figure things out from the command line.

If it acts like a NIC it should be a NIC.

I am so tired of eveyone trying to make Linux look and act like WINBLOWS.

Quoted 14 lines

drivers/net/usb/sierra_net.c line 928

Quoted 10 lines

drivers/net/usb/sierra_net.c +10 -0

+static const struct driver_info sierra_net_info_68A3 = {
+	.description = "Sierra Wireless USB-Ethernet Modem",
+	.flags = FLAG_ETHER | FLAG_SEND_ZLP,
+	.bind = sierra_net_bind,
+	.unbind = sierra_net_unbind,
+	.status = sierra_net_status,
+	.rx_fixup = sierra_net_rx_fixup,
+	.tx_fixup = sierra_net_tx_fixup,
+	.data = (unsigned long)&sierra_net_info_data_68A3,
+};

the FLAG_ETHER is wrong here. Please use FLAG_WWAN to clearly mark these interfaces.

Quoted 2 lines

Otherwise we have wrong DEVTYPE uevent assignments and userspace will treat them as real Ethernet cards. And that should not happen. As a nice

Why shouldn't that happen if they look like NIC cards?

because they are not NIC cards. They just use Ethernet emulation. And they also require a management interface to setup APN and activate them first.

It is important that we tell userspace about the type of a network interface. We do the same for WiMAX and WiFi btw.

From: Marcel Holtmann <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:29:53 -0700

Quoted 4 lines

because they are not NIC cards. They just use Ethernet emulation. And they also require a management interface to setup APN and activate them first.

Quoted 2 lines

It is important that we tell userspace about the type of a network interface. We do the same for WiMAX and WiFi btw.

I completely agree with Marcel on this, please fix the device type.