Re: Compex WLE200NX: regdomain sanitized regression

From: Sebastian Bachmann <hello@reox.at>
To: ath10k@lists.infradead.org
Subject: Re: Compex WLE200NX: regdomain sanitized regression
Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2021 14:25:48 +0100	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <9fca928a-522e-8fc7-69c0-454cb434cf13@reox.at> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <YaIix40KaVlxT+XG@eq.uc.pt>

On 27.11.2021 13:21, Nuno Oliveira wrote:
> After June 2020 there were other users also affected by this change (see 
> e.g., 
> https://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/ath10k/2021-August/012802.html).
> Users were complaining that this change was too restrictive since it 
> meant that the intersection of restrictions for regdomains 0x00, 0x64,
> US, and their local domain, together with a cumulative mode of applying 
> these constraints meant that, in practice, they would not be able to use 
> their world domain cards anymore as APs in the 5GHz band, for certain 
> regdomains where they were located.

Thanks for hinting me to this thread, I have not seen that before. I 
read in this thread and the linked ones and understand the issue now a 
bit better.
It seems like that basically many (all ?) Compex cards are affected by 
this, and probably many pcengines users (like me).

Reading also this: 
https://web.archive.org/web/20150117040022/http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel.wireless.general/38410
gives me the impression that in this case, I would have to ask 
pcengines/compex for a custom regulatory.bin. Has anyone tried that already?
It also sounds like that many vendors have used this value completely 
wrong. Does anyone know if new Compex cards have the same issue?
Or in other words: what would be the correct value to put there, because 
it seems there are only two options: ship a custom regulatory.bin or 
ship the card with the country burned in it, where the card shall be used.

> A more robust option would be to go the OpenWRT way, and use their 
> patches to make this country selection a parameter for the kernel 
> module. This way, you would just reload the kernel module to change to a 
> new regdomain, subject to the restrictions of your hardware / firmware. 
> I have not looked into that. Please let me know if you isolate these 
> patches.

There is this patch: 
https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/blob/master/package/kernel/mac80211/patches/ath/402-ath_regd_optional.patch
However, it simply disables it completely.
I have not found the patch, which would enable a parameter to set it 
during loading of the module so far though.

> 
> In any case it seems difficult to escape a kernel recompile, due to this 
> small, entirely legitimate, yet remarkable decision by the driver 
> maintainers.

Yes, for me this is sad. My setup worked for over seven years and broke 
because of an update. Of course I can now start to build kernels every 
time...
It sounds like I should throw away the Compex card and buy an 
off-the-shelf access point... I was thinking about buying a new card, 
but as there are so many reports regarding Compex cards, I have no hope 
that it will work then.

Regards,
Sebastian

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