When toggling HKS from device off to device on for wifi it is slow to react regarding the phosh software indicators for wifi (in the phosh pull down menu from the top). This may also be true for mobile data.
This is more of a user perception item, but the phosh software toggle for wifi should immediately turn on with HKS switch. Whether the modem is booted up, software/firmware, or drivers are functioning (or modem even exists) and whether it will ever connect to available or previously connected WIFI spots is actually secondary.
It should immediatelly turn on and just show - not connected.
Wifi turn on
Not connected
Modem does the bootup sequence etc…
Wifi attempts to connect to available sources indicated as usual
Wifi successfully connected, or not
This is more of an optimization item, where the focus then would be how to get the modem up faster, connect faster etc., but as far as the user is concerned all options should be available right away except the “scanning for available networks” the previously connected to or saved networks should also show right away. I don’t think phosh (or Gnome Settings) should do any checking at all whether modem actually exists.
Unless there is a new Wifi software indicator that could be added for Wifi, red or Wifi crossed out as in not available after attempting to boot up modem. That could occur after a while.
I am pretty sure that is what Apple iOS is doing when turning on the modem (software toggle) where it immediatelly turns on, but doesn’t necessarily try to connect right away and doesn’t necessarily show the wifi connected symbol in the status bar right away.
The status bar symbol for wifi may also be shown right away, but greyed out until connected after toggling HKS - to be consistent.
Our software switch works the same way. Hardware kill switch can not work this way, since at the time of switch flipping the system has no idea whether the card is actually there or not.
Ahh ok, got it. Is there is no way to fool the system “temporarily” or maybe cache the fact that it existed before turning it off? so the HKS behaves more like the software switch? And again not a big issue, just a perception improvement.
You can patch whatever you want, so there sure is a way I have no intention for looking for it though, as it sounds like huge complexity added for limited benefit.
That could help i suppose as a feedback item, without having to regigger the entire system, since we are talking about user perception of what the HKS does. Maybe a popup along the lines of the Volume overlay when using the volume buttons. (I was hoping the wifi toggle would in effect do the same and switch to on, then no additional notification, feedback would be needed).
… and for the more adventurous types … if there is a card there, what type of card it is. It wouldn’t have to be a WiFi card at all (although it could be limited by the keying of the slot).
Wouldn’t there be a configuration file that says what modems are in which slot and configuration though. The system would look at whats configured and know whether it exists (or last existed), regardless of whether it currently exists due to power state? It seems a little inefficient unless there is a reason to forget everything that was installed before…
Not with modern hardware. The operating system probes the bus to work out what devices are there. So configuration is dynamic (at least at boot time but potentially in real time). Maintaining and working with a config file is more trouble than it’s worth (and obviously in order to read a config file from a disk the operating system has already found a disk on a bus without the benefit of a config file!).
If you are operating the switch after the phone has booted then I suppose it could remember what was there. You already have an answer from an actual developer though.
I suppose maybe the status line could carry a rectangle with a question mark in it (representing “unknown”) when the switch is detected as “on” but a card hasn’t appeared and, once an actual card appears, an appropriate icon for the card replaces that “unknown” icon.
This all gets messy though because it has to work properly as part of booting (no kill switch state transition) as well as when a kill switch is operated after booting.
Kinda like that idea! Fault tolerant in that it accepts hardware, even if not fully functional after boot, it knows hardware is available, but has an issue initiating said hardware. All that is covered by boot process, but maybe a separate topic for linux.
I have no intention for looking for it though, as it sounds like huge complexity added for limited benefit.