On Thu, Jun 04, 2015 at 03:45:32PM -0000, Jason Gerard DeRose wrote: > @sforshee - I'm trying to better understand the consequences of Ubuntu > currently having an "an old regulatory database version", as some > System76 customers are having WiFi problems when connecting to AC > routers with an Intel 7265 and `sudo iw reg set US` seems to fix their > issues. > > In particular, should a regulatory domain be set automatically once the > database is updated? Currently I'm seeing the world-regulatory domain > (ie, not set), which seems to be an intersection of all domains and > means some band that could be used aren't (in the US anyway).
The answer is a bit complicated. iwlwifi will actually read out a set of custom regulatory rules from the firmware and supply those to the wireless core. This becomes the "default" set of rules rather than the generic world domain when no specific regulatory domain has been supplied. This could be a similarly conservative set of rules meant to be "safe" around the world, or it could reflect the rules of the country where the device was intended to be sold (I'm not sure off the top of my head which it is for this card, but my best recollection is that it's the former). To emphasize the point - even though the kernel has retrieved the world domain from crda, prints them in dmesg, and outputs them in response to 'iw reg get', these rules are *not* being used for an Intel wireless card unless the user has manually loaded those rules (e.g. 'iw reg set 00'). Instead the kernel is using the rules it was given by the device's firmware. When a specific regulatory domain is set a process in userspace (crda) will read the rules for that domain from the regulatory database and load them into the kernel, and those rules will be used instead of the ones the driver supplied. Sometimes the access point will broadcast information about the regulatory domain in its beacon frames, in which case the regulatory rules for the country will be loaded automatically when connecting to that AP. More often (in my experience at least) the AP does not provide this information. The update to the database will change nothing about this process. The same rules are going to be supplied by iwlwifi, and country-specific rules will still be loaded or not loaded automatically based on what the AP is broadcasting exactly as before. All it will change is the rules which get loaded into the kernel for a given regulatory domain. You aren't specific about what kind of problems your customers are experiencing. One possibility is that the AP is using a channel that the default rules says is not allowed but the US rules do allow, and that loading the US rules opens up use on that channel. If this is the problem then it will not be fixed by updating the database. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Kernel Packages, which is subscribed to wireless-regdb in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1437913 Title: 8086:095b [Lenovo ThinkPad X250] Wifi unstable on vivid with Intel 7265 Status in The Linux Kernel: Unknown Status in linux package in Ubuntu: Invalid Status in wireless-regdb package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Status in linux source package in Trusty: Invalid Status in wireless-regdb source package in Trusty: Confirmed Status in linux source package in Vivid: Invalid Status in wireless-regdb source package in Vivid: Confirmed Status in linux source package in Wily: Invalid Status in wireless-regdb source package in Wily: Confirmed Bug description: After upgrading from utopic to vivid beta, wifi on the Intel 7265 on my Thinkpad X250 has become unstable (linux-image 3.19.0-10.10, linux-firmware 1.143): 03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Wireless 7265 [8086:095b] (rev 59) Subsystem: Intel Corporation Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265 [8086:5210] I'm seeing two primary problems: * On 5GHz 802.11ac, I'll get DEAUTH_LEAVING almost exactly every minute, followed by an immediate reconnect. * On both 2.4GHz and 5GHz, all network activity will cease after 10-20 minutes. A manual reconnect will temporarily fix network activity. This is complicated by the fact that the newer firmware requires kernel 3.19 and kernel 3.19 requires the iwlwifi-7265D*.ucode firmware instead of the old iwlwifi-7265*.ucode firmware, so it's not possible to mix/match older/newer kernel/firmware combinations, nor do a kernel bisect. FAOD, the latest utopic kernel/firmware combination (linux-image 3.16.0-33.44, linux-firmware 1.138.1) works fine, which I can use in vivid if I manually install them. I have tested ~kernel-ppa/mainline 3.19.3-031903.201503261036 and 4.0.0-040000rc5.201503230035, which exhibit the same problems. WORKAROUND: iw reg set US ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.04 Package: linux-image-3.19.0-10-generic 3.19.0-10.10 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.19.0-10.10-generic 3.19.2 Uname: Linux 3.19.0-10-generic x86_64 ApportVersion: 2.16.2-0ubuntu5 Architecture: amd64 AudioDevicesInUse: USER PID ACCESS COMMAND /dev/snd/controlC0: ryan 1862 F.... pulseaudio /dev/snd/controlC1: ryan 1862 F.... pulseaudio CurrentDesktop: Unity Date: Sun Mar 29 11:42:13 2015 HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=c21a0227-27e2-4c4f-8bd9-30793932acbc InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-03-07 (22 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.10 "Utopic Unicorn" - Release amd64 (20141022.1) MachineType: LENOVO 20CMCTO1WW ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-3.19.0-10-generic root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root ro acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=vendor psmouse.proto=imps quiet splash vt.handoff=7 RelatedPackageVersions: linux-restricted-modules-3.19.0-10-generic N/A linux-backports-modules-3.19.0-10-generic N/A linux-firmware 1.143 SourcePackage: linux UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to vivid on 2015-03-29 (0 days ago) dmi.bios.date: 01/23/2015 dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO dmi.bios.version: N10ET28W (1.05 ) dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available dmi.board.name: 20CMCTO1WW dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO dmi.board.version: SDK0E50512 STD dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information dmi.chassis.type: 10 dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO dmi.chassis.version: None dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvrN10ET28W(1.05):bd01/23/2015:svnLENOVO:pn20CMCTO1WW:pvrThinkPadX250:rvnLENOVO:rn20CMCTO1WW:rvrSDK0E50512STD:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNone: dmi.product.name: 20CMCTO1WW dmi.product.version: ThinkPad X250 dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/linux/+bug/1437913/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages Post to : kernel-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
