In Mandriva's wpa_supplicant package, we provide a wpa_supplicant service to start wpa_supplicant on boot. This service detects which driver should be used using modprobe.conf and starts wpa_supplicant as a daemon.

However, this is not reliable enough, since the wpa_supplicant daemon is killed when the device is brought down.

An alternative is to use wpa_supplicant support in the initscripts. This needs the WIRELESS_WPA_DRIVER variable to be set in ifcfg configuration files, which could be done by drakconnect.

The advantages would be :

• wpa_supplicant not killed by ifdown
• simplify the wpa_supplicant driver detection (no complicated awk anymore, but perl in drakconnect modules)
• easy support of new wpa_supplicant drivers (no need to modify the wpa_supplicant service, only to edit WIRELESS_WPA_DRIVER in ifcfg)
• allows multiple wpa_supplicant instances if many wireless devices are available
• the merge of the driver detection code in drakconnect would allow it to know if the configured card supports WPA
• easier to know if WPA is enabled for a wireless interface

The WIRELESS_WPA_DRIVER should be preferred WPA configuration method after 2005 LE is released, the wpa_supplicant service has to be dropped.