Question on 'iw reg get/set'

Question on 'iw reg get/set'

[Ben Greear]

I'm using an ath9k NIC on a slightly hacked 2.6.34 kernel, Fedora 13 32-bit.
I'm using the stock 'iw' command that comes with Fedora 13.

As far as I can tell, the results of 'iw reg get'
are funky:

[root@atom lanforge]# iw reg get
country 98:
	(2402 - 2472 @ 40), (N/A, 20)
	(5170 - 5250 @ 20), (N/A, 17)
	(5250 - 5330 @ 20), (N/A, 18), DFS

What is '98'?  It doesn't correspond to anything I can find
in the numeric or ascii lists of country codes.

Also, setting the domain doesn't seem to do anything, although
there are no errors:

[root@atom lanforge]# iw reg get
country 98:
	(2402 - 2472 @ 40), (N/A, 20)
	(5170 - 5250 @ 20), (N/A, 17)
	(5250 - 5330 @ 20), (N/A, 18), DFS
[root@atom lanforge]# iw reg set US
[root@atom lanforge]# iw reg get
country 98:
	(2402 - 2472 @ 40), (N/A, 20)
	(5170 - 5250 @ 20), (N/A, 17)
	(5250 - 5330 @ 20), (N/A, 18), DFS

Anyone know if this is *supposed* to work?

Thanks,
Ben

-- 
Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com

Re: Question on 'iw reg get/set'

[John W. Linville]

On Thu, Jul 01, 2010 at 01:30:35PM -0700, Ben Greear wrote:
> I'm using an ath9k NIC on a slightly hacked 2.6.34 kernel, Fedora 13 32-bit.
> I'm using the stock 'iw' command that comes with Fedora 13.
> 
> As far as I can tell, the results of 'iw reg get'
> are funky:
> 
> [root@atom lanforge]# iw reg get
> country 98:
> 	(2402 - 2472 @ 40), (N/A, 20)
> 	(5170 - 5250 @ 20), (N/A, 17)
> 	(5250 - 5330 @ 20), (N/A, 18), DFS
> 
> What is '98'?  It doesn't correspond to anything I can find
> in the numeric or ascii lists of country codes.
> 
> Also, setting the domain doesn't seem to do anything, although
> there are no errors:
> 
> [root@atom lanforge]# iw reg get
> country 98:
> 	(2402 - 2472 @ 40), (N/A, 20)
> 	(5170 - 5250 @ 20), (N/A, 17)
> 	(5250 - 5330 @ 20), (N/A, 18), DFS
> [root@atom lanforge]# iw reg set US
> [root@atom lanforge]# iw reg get
> country 98:
> 	(2402 - 2472 @ 40), (N/A, 20)
> 	(5170 - 5250 @ 20), (N/A, 17)
> 	(5250 - 5330 @ 20), (N/A, 18), DFS
> 
> Anyone know if this is *supposed* to work?

The ath9k driver is setting its own regulatory restrictions based on
its EEPROM.  Setting the domain from userland can only further restrict
the regulatory settings.  The '98' value represents a synthesized
regulatory domain, based on the intersection of the available source
of regulatory information (which can include the EEPROM, the userland
setting, and a country IE from your AP).

Hth!

John
-- 
John W. Linville		Someday the world will need a hero, and you
linville@tuxdriver.com			might be all we have.  Be ready.

Re: Question on 'iw reg get/set'

[Ben Greear]

On 07/02/2010 07:12 AM, John W. Linville wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 01, 2010 at 01:30:35PM -0700, Ben Greear wrote:
>> I'm using an ath9k NIC on a slightly hacked 2.6.34 kernel, Fedora 13 32-bit.
>> I'm using the stock 'iw' command that comes with Fedora 13.
>>
>> As far as I can tell, the results of 'iw reg get'
>> are funky:
>>
>> [root@atom lanforge]# iw reg get
>> country 98:
>> 	(2402 - 2472 @ 40), (N/A, 20)
>> 	(5170 - 5250 @ 20), (N/A, 17)
>> 	(5250 - 5330 @ 20), (N/A, 18), DFS
>>
>> What is '98'?  It doesn't correspond to anything I can find
>> in the numeric or ascii lists of country codes.
>>
>> Also, setting the domain doesn't seem to do anything, although
>> there are no errors:
>>
>> [root@atom lanforge]# iw reg get
>> country 98:
>> 	(2402 - 2472 @ 40), (N/A, 20)
>> 	(5170 - 5250 @ 20), (N/A, 17)
>> 	(5250 - 5330 @ 20), (N/A, 18), DFS
>> [root@atom lanforge]# iw reg set US
>> [root@atom lanforge]# iw reg get
>> country 98:
>> 	(2402 - 2472 @ 40), (N/A, 20)
>> 	(5170 - 5250 @ 20), (N/A, 17)
>> 	(5250 - 5330 @ 20), (N/A, 18), DFS
>>
>> Anyone know if this is *supposed* to work?
>
> The ath9k driver is setting its own regulatory restrictions based on
> its EEPROM.  Setting the domain from userland can only further restrict
> the regulatory settings.  The '98' value represents a synthesized
> regulatory domain, based on the intersection of the available source
> of regulatory information (which can include the EEPROM, the userland
> setting, and a country IE from your AP).

Is there any way to get/set these raw settings (like, whatever it has in EEPROM)?

I expect we may ship some of these systems overseas, and would like the flexibility
to set the country-code for testing purposes, if nothing else.

Is there any documentation as to what '98' really means, or do we just ignore that
value and look at the info printed out after that?

Thanks,
Ben

-- 
Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com

Re: Question on 'iw reg get/set'

[John W. Linville]

On Fri, Jul 02, 2010 at 09:42:54AM -0700, Ben Greear wrote:
> On 07/02/2010 07:12 AM, John W. Linville wrote:

> >The ath9k driver is setting its own regulatory restrictions based on
> >its EEPROM.  Setting the domain from userland can only further restrict
> >the regulatory settings.  The '98' value represents a synthesized
> >regulatory domain, based on the intersection of the available source
> >of regulatory information (which can include the EEPROM, the userland
> >setting, and a country IE from your AP).
> 
> Is there any way to get/set these raw settings (like, whatever it has in EEPROM)?
> 
> I expect we may ship some of these systems overseas, and would like the flexibility
> to set the country-code for testing purposes, if nothing else.

I'll leave it to the Atheros guys to address this.

> Is there any documentation as to what '98' really means, or do we just ignore that
> value and look at the info printed out after that?

'98' pretty much means "look at the info" :-)

-- 
John W. Linville		Someday the world will need a hero, and you
linville@tuxdriver.com			might be all we have.  Be ready.

Re: Question on 'iw reg get/set'

[Luis R. Rodriguez]

On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 9:48 AM, John W. Linville <linville@tuxdriver.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 02, 2010 at 09:42:54AM -0700, Ben Greear wrote:
>> On 07/02/2010 07:12 AM, John W. Linville wrote:
>
>> >The ath9k driver is setting its own regulatory restrictions based on
>> >its EEPROM.  Setting the domain from userland can only further restrict
>> >the regulatory settings.  The '98' value represents a synthesized
>> >regulatory domain, based on the intersection of the available source
>> >of regulatory information (which can include the EEPROM, the userland
>> >setting, and a country IE from your AP).
>>
>> Is there any way to get/set these raw settings (like, whatever it has in EEPROM)?
>>
>> I expect we may ship some of these systems overseas, and would like the flexibility
>> to set the country-code for testing purposes, if nothing else.
>
> I'll leave it to the Atheros guys to address this.

Your "expectation" of having the freedom to modify the EEPROM is valid
as I agree with it too but current legislation does not allow for it.
So to support upstream drivers we just cannot allow for those type of
changes. You won't get any support if you try to mess with that stuff
unless we get a change in legislation that says otherwise. Please
refer to:

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/vendors/VendorSupport
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/developers/Regulatory/statement
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/developers/Regulatory

  Luis

>> Is there any documentation as to what '98' really means, or do we just ignore that
>> value and look at the info printed out after that?
>
> '98' pretty much means "look at the info" :-)

Maybe userspace should be changed to interpret these. I'm on vacation
right now though, patch welcomed for iw.

  Luis