On Sun, 2019-08-11 at 02:08 +0000, James Nylen wrote: > In 5.x it's still possible for `ieee80211_scan_results` (`iwlist > scan`) to fail when too many wireless networks are available. This > code path is used by `wicd`. > > Previously: https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/4/2/192 This has been known for probably a decade or longer. I don't know why 'wicd' still insists on using wext, unless it's no longer maintained at all. nl80211 doesn't have this problem at all, and I think gives more details about the networks found too. > I've been applying this updated patch to my own kernels since 2017 with > no issues. I am sure it is not the ideal way to solve this problem, but > I'm making my fix available in case it helps others. I don't think silently dropping data is a good solution. I suppose we could consider applying a workaround like this if it has a condition checking that the buffer passed in is the maximum possible buffer (65535 bytes, due to iw_point::length being u16), but below that -E2BIG serves well-written implementations as an indicator that they need to retry with a bigger buffer. > Please advise on next steps or if this is a dead end. I think wireless extensions are in fact a dead end and all software (even 'wicd', which seems to be the lone holdout) should migrate to nl80211 instead. johannes
