RE: [PATCH v3 3/4] nl80211: vendor-cmd: add Intel vendor commands for iwlmei usage

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On Thu, Jun 24, 2021 at 8:09 PM Kalle Valo [off-list ref] wrote:

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Emmanuel Grumbach [off-list ref] writes:

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iwlmei allows to integrate with the CSME firmware. There are flows
that are prioprietary for this purpose:

* Get the information the AP, the CSME firmware is connected
  to. This is useful when we need to speed up the connection
  process in case the CSME firmware has an TCP connection
  that must be kept alive across the ownership transition.
* Forbid roaming, which will happen when the CSME firmware
  wants to tell the user space not disrupt the connection.
* Request ownership, upon driver boot when the CSME firmware
  owns the device.

Vendor command requirements are documented here:

https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/developers/documentation/nl80211#
vendor-specific_api

The commit log is not really answering to those. For example, how a
user would use this? Or is there a user space tool?

We intend to send those command from the NetworkManager.

I'm not really fond of the idea that NetworkManager uses nl80211 vendor
commands, sounds quite hacky to me. I would prefer that NetworkManager
uses generic nl80211 interface so that it works with every driver. But I need
to look at v4 to understand more how this all works.

You'd need to look at v5 which I already sent.
Nothing of this can be generic, because it is really Intel proprietary. CSME can only use Intel devices by design.
It uses a proprietary bus implemented only in Intel devices (and not even all of them, only the ones in systems
with the vPRO sticker).
I already touched base with the NetworkManager's maintainers about this. They asked the vendor commands
to be upstream in the kernel, so this is what I am doing.