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Linux Intel WiFi driver broken with 5&6GHz bands for longer than three years

bugzilla.kernel.org

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Re: Linux Intel WiFi driver broken with 5&6GHz bands for longer than three years

#121

Post by rvba »

supertrope wrote: post #118
aidenn0 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The reality is that these WiFi chips should probably have some fuse in them that decides what regulatory region they were made for and then run off that, but you can see the business people losing their mind over that: now you need to have a hundred different SKUs and worse you need to understand your distribution chain. So a software setting it is, and then you see why the FCC is upset. So you need to travel with…

Governments and businesses make international travel more inconvenient through the trade offs they make because most people don’t travel. Selling a solution to these cross border problems is another revenue stream. Some appliances aren’t 100-240V. Geolocation enforces region based pricing. Cell phone plan costs vary by several orders of magnitude.

Can this "open" option to switch firmware even cause any real damage? Millions of people travel each year with those chips and nothing happens?

Re: Linux Intel WiFi driver broken with 5&6GHz bands for longer than three years

#122

Post by formerly_proven »

stametseater wrote: post #24
amiga-workbench wrote: post #14

I'm so relieved to find that its not just me going crazy all this time. Its gotten so bad that I've had to install a bloody MediaTek WiFi card in my ThinkPad just to make it work reliably. I remember when the 8000 series radios were the gold standard for mobile wireless, all the newer AX cards have been nothing but pain and suffering.

> all the newer AX cards have been nothing but pain and suffering. This is surprising for me to hear. My AX201 hasn't given me any trouble at all, ever. Maybe I've been getting lucky.

I've had I think the same AX card in two different laptops.

The thinkpad had lots of issues especially with 5G, firmware lockups, iwlwifi getting the kernel stuck etc.

The LG is rock-solid, no problems at all.

Either they are not the same card, or there are issues in the interplay of these cards with certain hardware.

Re: Linux Intel WiFi driver broken with 5&6GHz bands for longer than three years

#123

Post by causality0 »

trifurcate wrote: post #114
csdvrx wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The FAA raised a huge stink recently because they weren’t ready for 5G rollout and were worried that the altimeter radar would give false readings on approach to landing. If the FAA didn't do its job and certified altimeters that shouldn't have been, as the 5G rollout was announced and previsible, maybe they should start working instead of complaining that others help them do their job? Also, if all it takes to mes…

> Also, if all it takes to mess with altimeters is a rogue 5G cell, the right approach is to harden the altimeters, instead of hoping no 5G cell ever will be misconfigured or pushed wrong configuation parameters by a enemy country or ransomware hacker group. Wow, that is a lot of misconception about the threat model and real issue at hand packed into a single sentence. First of all, great, let's say you're right. How…

You should do some reading on the altimeters in question. They were operating well outside their defined limits and parameters. If they had conformed to the specifications under which they were legally certified there would never have been a problem.

How do you harden the existing altimeters out there, equipped on thousands of aircraft?

What is the correct course of action when you discover thousands of pieces of vital equipment are badly defective? An immediate recall for all defective altimeters and, hopefully, fines for the vendors.

Re: Linux Intel WiFi driver broken with 5&6GHz bands for longer than three years

#124

Post by zelon88 »

stefan_ wrote: post #50
csdvrx wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a patch for the kernel 6 line to add back the lar_disable functionality?

This was the patch that removed it: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/f06021a18fcf8d8a1e7... But this commit message is burying the lede a bit. There are two problems here: 1) you can revert the change, but a large part of the regulatory logic lives in the firmware blob running on the chip and you can not change this. 2) the FCC doesn't look kindly upon functionality that ignores regulatory limits being availa…

The problem with using a fuse instead of software is that with software you can modify the regulatory value later. Like when a device leaves one regulatory domain and enters a different one.

Re: Linux Intel WiFi driver broken with 5&6GHz bands for longer than three years

#125

Post by wtallis »

jrockway wrote: post #102
magila wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Qualcomm's Atheros descended chips are generally the best bet for Linux support, especially for use in an AP. In other words you want a chip supported by the ath10k or ath11k driver depending on which generation of wifi you want. 10k = 802.11ac, 11k = 802.11ax.

ath10k isn't current hardware, though. We used that for Google Fiber wifi back in 2015. The world now has "Wifi 6" and other such nonsense.

You could just as easily say that gigabit Ethernet isn't current, either. But gigE clearly isn't obsolete in the way a processor from the mid-2000s is obsolete, and likewise 802.11ac is still at least a few years away from being one of those radio standards that's so inefficient and outdated that it ought to be aggressively retired.

Re: Linux Intel WiFi driver broken with 5&6GHz bands for longer than three years

#126

Post by CameronNemo »

ac29 wrote: post #116
CameronNemo wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Embarrassing decision. All in the pursuit of a slightly thinner chassis, I imagine.

My guess is they are using Intel CNVi ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNVi ), which moves some of the WiFi/Bluetooth hardware into the CPU/Chipset. It saves money.

What do you mean by saves money? Couldn't Intel be using shenanigans (i.e. anticompetitive price incentives) to get device makers to use this type of card, so the device makers are then tied to Intel wifi and can't switch without redesigning their motherboard?

Re: Linux Intel WiFi driver broken with 5&6GHz bands for longer than three years

#127

Post by CameronNemo »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #81
CameronNemo wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with realtek chipsets is that many of them just have no in-kernel driver, so you have to use some questionably maintained out of tree driver from github or whatever. Soundslike you got one of the chipsets that has in-kernel support, so that is good.

No I don't think it's in kernel support, I think that Nobara linux has been patched to support it. It's not a recommendation to go and buy a Realtek card, I was just sharing my anecdote.

Ok so yeah that is my main complaint about the Realtek cards.

If the out of tree driver becomes unmaintained / incompatible with future kernels, you are SoL. Also dkms is kind of a headache to deal with. Not sure if Nobara builds the module for you, but on traditional distros you would have to build the module via dkms on each kernel update, which again I have to repeat is not guaranteed to actually succeed.

Re: Linux Intel WiFi driver broken with 5&6GHz bands for longer than three years

#128

Post by hakfoo »

stefan_ wrote: post #50
csdvrx wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a patch for the kernel 6 line to add back the lar_disable functionality?

This was the patch that removed it: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/f06021a18fcf8d8a1e7... But this commit message is burying the lede a bit. There are two problems here: 1) you can revert the change, but a large part of the regulatory logic lives in the firmware blob running on the chip and you can not change this. 2) the FCC doesn't look kindly upon functionality that ignores regulatory limits being availa…

Wouldn't 10 cents worth of EPROM be a suitable choice? First boot, it supports the least-common-denominator channels, and you run an application with a big clicky flag icon to specify the regulatory environment. The OEM could even run this before shipment since he knows where the device is being shipped to. If you move, or travel, run the program and click a different flag.

It's not unreasonable to expect the customer to know which country he currently resides in.

Re: Linux Intel WiFi driver broken with 5&6GHz bands for longer than three years

#129

Post by throwaway5959 »

sofixa wrote: post #66
throwaway5959 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Macs are not a replacement for a Linux desktop, laptop or a server. They do not provide the same options nor allow you do the same things. There is some overlap, but same as you wouldn't use a Linux desktop to run the Adobe suite, Macs are poorly suited for servers, development , power users, etc. - outside of the Apple ecosystem of course, because it's literally the only choice. For anything else, any recent Linux d…

Did you really need to flag my post? I don’t think it’s fair to flag a post just because you disagree with me.

Re: Linux Intel WiFi driver broken with 5&6GHz bands for longer than three years

#130

Post by throwaway5959 »

sofixa wrote: post #120
culturestate wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Macs are poorly suited for … development, power users… Am I misunderstanding you or does this not describe the vast majority of Mac users in Silicon Valley?

Nope, you're not misunderstanding me. Lots of people are using Macs to develop, same as Windows. That doesn't make it a good platform for modern development outside of their respective platform's niches.

I’ve used Macs for Frontend, backend, DS/ML and embedded (Pi, Arduino, ESP32). What other platform are you speaking of?
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