Persisting the wireless regulatory domain across reboots

English Network/Internet
1

There was a somewhat similar thread recently: https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/518471-Set-wireless-regulatory-domain. But that one was about Tumbleweed and the situation was also a bit different, so I decided to start another one.

I’m using the following USB wifi adapter:


$lsusb
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0cf3:9271 Atheros Communications, Inc. AR9271 802.11n

I can’t find a way to have wireless regulatory domain setting persist across reboots. When my system starts up, “iw reg get” shows the following:

global
country CN: DFS-FCC
        (2402 - 2482 @ 40), (N/A, 20), (N/A)
        (5170 - 5250 @ 80), (N/A, 23), (N/A), AUTO-BW
        (5250 - 5330 @ 80), (N/A, 23), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW
        (5735 - 5835 @ 80), (N/A, 30), (N/A)
        (57240 - 59400 @ 2160), (N/A, 28), (N/A)
        (59400 - 63720 @ 2160), (N/A, 44), (N/A)
        (63720 - 65880 @ 2160), (N/A, 28), (N/A)

phy#0
country CN: DFS-FCC
        (2402 - 2482 @ 40), (N/A, 20), (N/A)
        (5170 - 5250 @ 80), (N/A, 23), (N/A), AUTO-BW
        (5250 - 5330 @ 80), (N/A, 23), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW
        (5735 - 5835 @ 80), (N/A, 30), (N/A)
        (57240 - 59400 @ 2160), (N/A, 28), (N/A)
        (59400 - 63720 @ 2160), (N/A, 44), (N/A)
        (63720 - 65880 @ 2160), (N/A, 28), (N/A)

I can successfully run “iw reg set EE” and this changes the setting of phy#0 from CN to EE, but after reboot the original situation is restored.

I have tried two ways

Some articles I have found suggest creating a file /etc/default/crda, containing:

REGDOMAIN=EE

I have tried that, and it does not help. Looking at journal messages during boot, I see no difference from situation where /etc/default/crda does not exist.

Then I tried to add a parameter to cfg80211 module in /etc/modprobe.d/99-local.conf


options cfg80211 ieee80211_regdom=EE

This at least has some effect. Looking at journal messages during boot, I can see that regulatory domain gets set to EE but then immediately it is changed back to CN:


Jul 20 07:28:41 susa kernel: cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
Jul 20 07:28:41 susa kernel: cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
Jul 20 07:28:41 susa kernel: cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated:
Jul 20 07:28:41 susa kernel: cfg80211:  DFS Master region: unset
Jul 20 07:28:41 susa kernel: cfg80211:   (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp), (dfs_cac_time)
Jul 20 07:28:41 susa kernel: cfg80211:   (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
Jul 20 07:28:41 susa kernel: cfg80211:   (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
Jul 20 07:28:41 susa kernel: cfg80211:   (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
Jul 20 07:28:41 susa kernel: cfg80211:   (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 80000 KHz, 160000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
Jul 20 07:28:41 susa kernel: cfg80211:   (5250000 KHz - 5330000 KHz @ 80000 KHz, 160000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (0 s)
Jul 20 07:28:41 susa kernel: cfg80211:   (5490000 KHz - 5730000 KHz @ 160000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (0 s)
Jul 20 07:28:41 susa kernel: cfg80211:   (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 80000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
Jul 20 07:28:41 susa kernel: cfg80211:   (57240000 KHz - 63720000 KHz @ 2160000 KHz), (N/A, 0 mBm), (N/A)
Jul 20 07:28:41 susa kernel: cfg80211: Calling CRDA for country: EE
Jul 20 07:28:41 susa kernel: cfg80211: Regulatory domain changed to country: EE
Jul 20 07:28:41 susa kernel: cfg80211:  DFS Master region: ETSI
Jul 20 07:28:41 susa kernel: cfg80211:   (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp), (dfs_cac_time)
Jul 20 07:28:41 susa kernel: cfg80211:   (2402000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
Jul 20 07:28:41 susa kernel: cfg80211:   (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 80000 KHz, 160000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
Jul 20 07:28:41 susa kernel: cfg80211:   (5250000 KHz - 5330000 KHz @ 80000 KHz, 160000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (0 s)
Jul 20 07:28:41 susa kernel: cfg80211:   (5490000 KHz - 5710000 KHz @ 160000 KHz), (N/A, 2700 mBm), (0 s)
Jul 20 07:28:41 susa kernel: cfg80211:   (57000000 KHz - 66000000 KHz @ 2160000 KHz), (N/A, 4000 mBm), (N/A)
Jul 20 07:28:42 susa kernel: ath9k_htc 1-5:1.0: ath9k_htc: HTC initialized with 33 credits
Jul 20 07:28:43 susa kernel: ath9k_htc 1-5:1.0: ath9k_htc: FW Version: 1.3
Jul 20 07:28:43 susa kernel: ath9k_htc 1-5:1.0: FW RMW support: Off
Jul 20 07:28:43 susa kernel: ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x809c
Jul 20 07:28:43 susa kernel: ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a country code
Jul 20 07:28:43 susa kernel: ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
Jul 20 07:28:43 susa kernel: ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x52
Jul 20 07:28:43 susa kernel: ath: Country alpha2 being used: CN
Jul 20 07:28:43 susa kernel: ath: Regpair used: 0x52
Jul 20 07:28:43 susa systemd[1]: Starting system-systemd\x2drfkill.slice.
Jul 20 07:28:43 susa systemd[1]: Created slice system-systemd\x2drfkill.slice.
Jul 20 07:28:43 susa kernel: ieee80211 phy0: Atheros AR9271 Rev:1
Jul 20 07:28:43 susa kernel: cfg80211: Calling CRDA for country: CN
Jul 20 07:28:43 susa kernel: ath9k_htc 1-5:1.0 wlan1: renamed from wlan0
Jul 20 07:28:43 susa kernel: cfg80211: Current regulatory domain intersected:
Jul 20 07:28:43 susa kernel: cfg80211:  DFS Master region: unset
Jul 20 07:28:43 susa kernel: cfg80211:   (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp), (dfs_cac_time)
Jul 20 07:28:43 susa kernel: cfg80211:   (2402000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
Jul 20 07:28:43 susa kernel: cfg80211:   (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 80000 KHz, 160000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
Jul 20 07:28:43 susa kernel: cfg80211:   (5250000 KHz - 5330000 KHz @ 80000 KHz, 160000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (0 s)
Jul 20 07:28:43 susa kernel: cfg80211:   (57240000 KHz - 59400000 KHz @ 2160000 KHz), (N/A, 2800 mBm), (N/A)
Jul 20 07:28:43 susa kernel: cfg80211:   (59400000 KHz - 63720000 KHz @ 2160000 KHz), (N/A, 4000 mBm), (N/A)
Jul 20 07:28:43 susa kernel: cfg80211:   (63720000 KHz - 65880000 KHz @ 2160000 KHz), (N/A, 2800 mBm), (N/A)

So, the end result is still the same - regulatory domain is wrong.

The following command that I have tried for troubleshooting also results in error:

#COUNTRY=EE /sbin/crda
Failed to set regulatory domain: -7

Any suggestions in how to resolve this?

2

Amongst other things, be aware of the following…

However, setting the regdomain may not alter your settings. Some devices have a regdomain set in firmware/EEPROM, which dictates the limits of the device, meaning that setting regdomain in software can only increase restrictions, not decrease them. For example, a CN device could be set in software to the US regdomain, but because CN has an EIRP maximum of 20dBm, the device will not be able to transmit at the US maximum of 30dBm.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wireless_network_configuration#Respecting_the_regulatory_domain

The above notwithstanding, the same reference also mentions…

A more permanent configuration of the regdomain can be achieved through editing /etc/conf.d/wireless-regdom and uncommenting the appropriate domain. wpa_supplicant can also use a regdomain in the country= line of /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf.