carl9170 does not like all frequencies

[Bernd Schubert <bernd.schubert@fastmail.fm>]

Hi all,

I bought a new usb wifi device with 2 antennas to get a better
connection to my router. From point of few of connection strength that
worked out very well, from point of view of connection stability that is
total disaster so far. With Ubuntus 2.6.38-something it connects and
then entirely fails after sending a few bytes. So I checked git log and
noticed carl9170 is being used in recent kernels and connection issues
have been fixed in 3.1-git. So I compiled this kernel and now I don't
get a connection to my router at all anymore. And except of seeing my
SSID and about 10 others from my neighbors, I now only can see two
neighbor connections.

I guess that is due *lots* of messages like those:


> [ 1058.936551] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
> [ 1058.945510] cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated:
> [ 1058.945519] cfg80211:     (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
> [ 1058.945529] cfg80211:     (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
> [ 1058.945538] cfg80211:     (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
> [ 1058.945547] cfg80211:     (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
> [ 1058.945555] cfg80211:     (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
> [ 1058.945563] cfg80211:     (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
> [ 1058.945604] cfg80211: Calling CRDA for country: 97
> [ 1061.373997] ieee80211 phy1: channel change: 2417 -> 2422 failed (2).
> [ 1061.682115] ieee80211 phy1: channel change: -1 -> 2422 failed (2).
> [ 1061.682132] usb 10-1.2: restart device (7)
> [ 1062.096523] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
> [ 1062.105469] cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated:


Any idea what is going on here? Do I need a crda tool? Or is something
else failing?

Update: While writing this up and after I plugged in my zd1211rw device,
eventually also my tp-link carl9170 device connected a few minutes
later. Do I always have to wait for 20 minutes to get a connection now?


Thanks,
Bernd