Hi, On Sunday 17 June 2012 12:15:47 Julian Calaby wrote: > There are two places where the country codes and their associated > restrictions come from: > 1. The user, by saying "iw reg set XX" or having some other program > set that for them. > 2. The driver, by asking the card which country it's been configured for. > > The kernel regulatory framework then takes these two sets of > regulatory data, finds the intersection of them, and restricts the > channels and options available for the card based on that. > > Why? > > I'm not sure of the exact details, but I know that most wireless cards > are configured, by which I mean calibrated, adjusted and tuned to work > in a particular country. Some are configured for the entire world, but > most are configured for a single country's requirements. The driver > cannot assume that if it asks the card to do anything outside the > country it's been configured for, that it will perform predictably. > So, for example, if the driver asks your card to use a channel that is > outside the US's regulatory requirements, the driver cannot guarantee > that, even if it instructs the card how to use that channel correctly, > it will actually use that channel in a manner consistent with > Belgium's regulatory requirements. > > The driver's behaviour when it encounters the unset regulatory > information on the card will be to use the default information for > that card. Which in this case is the US regulatory restrictions. > > I hate to say it, but the issue here is *not* the driver itself. The > supplier of that card has not set it up correctly for Belgium, and the > driver is compensating for that as best as it can. > > I have a similar card at home in Australia, it's configured for use in > China, and thankfully the intersection of China's and Australia's > regulatory requirements are such that I can use it for the purpose I > purchased it for. > Ow., this is new to me. Thanks a lot for the explanation, now I see why things are like they are! Thanks a lot! Erwin -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-wireless" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
