Wi-Fi 5 GHz and national regdom setup

ARM Technical Assistance
1

Hi, I noticed that my Pinebook Pro would only connect to my Internet box on 2.4 GHz but not 5 GHz Wi-Fi so I investigated a bit.

I did :

❯ iwlist wlan0 freq
wlan0 22 channels in total; available frequencies :
Channel 01 : 2.412 GHz
Channel 02 : 2.417 GHz
Channel 03 : 2.422 GHz
Channel 04 : 2.427 GHz
Channel 05 : 2.432 GHz
Channel 06 : 2.437 GHz
Channel 07 : 2.442 GHz
Channel 08 : 2.447 GHz
Channel 09 : 2.452 GHz
Channel 10 : 2.457 GHz
Channel 11 : 2.462 GHz
Channel 12 : 2.467 GHz
Channel 13 : 2.472 GHz
Channel 36 : 5.18 GHz
Channel 40 : 5.2 GHz
Channel 44 : 5.22 GHz
Channel 48 : 5.24 GHz
Channel 149 : 5.745 GHz
Channel 153 : 5.765 GHz
Channel 157 : 5.785 GHz
Channel 161 : 5.805 GHz
Channel 165 : 5.825 GHz
Current Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)

So that’s great, I see some 5 GHz channels, then I checked my Internet box and saw its 5 GHz is on channels 108 & 112, which aren’t allowed by default on the Pineook Pro.

So I uncommented in /etc/conf.d/wireless-regdom :
WIRELESS_REGDOM=“FR”

Rebuilt initcpio and rebooted (just in case), but “iwlist wlan0 freq” still gives the same results.

Then I just turned the Wi-Fi off and on using KDE’s network icon, and then I get :

❯ iwlist wlan0 freq
wlan0 32 channels in total; available frequencies :
Channel 01 : 2.412 GHz
Channel 02 : 2.417 GHz
Channel 03 : 2.422 GHz
Channel 04 : 2.427 GHz
Channel 05 : 2.432 GHz
Channel 06 : 2.437 GHz
Channel 07 : 2.442 GHz
Channel 08 : 2.447 GHz
Channel 09 : 2.452 GHz
Channel 10 : 2.457 GHz
Channel 11 : 2.462 GHz
Channel 12 : 2.467 GHz
Channel 13 : 2.472 GHz
Channel 34 : 5.17 GHz
Channel 36 : 5.18 GHz
Channel 38 : 5.19 GHz
Channel 40 : 5.2 GHz
Channel 42 : 5.21 GHz
Channel 44 : 5.22 GHz
Channel 46 : 5.23 GHz
Channel 48 : 5.24 GHz
Channel 52 : 5.26 GHz
Channel 56 : 5.28 GHz
Channel 60 : 5.3 GHz
Channel 64 : 5.32 GHz
Channel 100 : 5.5 GHz
Channel 104 : 5.52 GHz
Channel 108 : 5.54 GHz
Channel 112 : 5.56 GHz
Channel 116 : 5.58 GHz
Channel 120 : 5.6 GHz
Channel 124 : 5.62 GHz
Current Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)

So obviously the correct channels are now applied, and it’s obvious that “something” of the wlan config is not applied properly at bootup, but gets applied when turning the Wi-Fi off then on.

So I tried to add (per Archlinux wiki) :
options cfg80211 ieee80211_regdom=FR
in a /etc/modprobe.d/cfg80211.conf file

Rebuilt initcpio and rebooted (just in case), but “iwlist wlan0 freq” still again gives the same (bad) results.

Which again may be fixed by turning Wi-Fi off then on.

Event though, I cannot see my box 5 GHz network.

So I wonder if there is some other configuration parameter that needs be fixed, or if something should be restarted that is not, for the correct region settings to be “properly” taken into account.

(A Manjaro running on an x86_64 machine just got the 5 Ghz Wi-Fi right without even specifying the regdom at all)

Any clue there would be much appreciated.

2 
iwconfig wlan0 channel 108
iwconfig wlan0 commit

That should set interface to channel 108.

3

Well in the end I found some workaround which was to configure my Internet box to some 5 GHz channels that are allowed both in the “default” config and the FR one, namely channels 44 and 48.

Then and only then my Pinebook Pro sees the 5 GHz signal, but to connect to it I need to fix the BSSID in the network parameters. If I leave an empty box (so “any”), it seems that it still will prefer 2.4 GHz.

But by forcing it to 5 GHz, it connects and apparently works (at least allowing me to type this…)

4

Hi Tomek,

Thanks for the reply.

Given that the interface is managed by the whole NetworkManager stack, fixing the channel using a low-level command is probably not what I want to do.

I basically would like the Wi-Fi adapter to come up with the proper regions settings and active channels, so the usual NetworkManager stack can work as expected and connect to available 5 GHz networks.

5

You should say that at the beginning. In that case:

nmcli connection modify <SSID> 802-11-wireless.band "a"
nmcli connection modify <SSID> 802-11-wireless.channel 108