netdev - Re: [cfg80211 / iwlwifi] setting wireless regulatory domain doesn't work.

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Message-ID: <1254825772.20131217224914@eikelenboom.it>
Date:	Tue, 17 Dec 2013 22:49:14 +0100
From:	Sander Eikelenboom <linux@...elenboom.it>
To:	Ben Hutchings <ben@...adent.org.uk>
CC:	Julian Calaby <julian.calaby@...il.com>,
	Arend van Spriel <arend@...adcom.com>,
	"Luis R. Rodriguez" <mcgrof@...not-panic.com>,
	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	"Berg, Johannes" <johannes.berg@...el.com>,
	"Grumbach, Emmanuel" <emmanuel.grumbach@...el.com>,
	"linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	"ilw@...ux.intel.com" <ilw@...ux.intel.com>,
	"netdev@...r.kernel.org" <netdev@...r.kernel.org>,
	"linux-wireless@...r.kernel.org" <linux-wireless@...r.kernel.org>,
	"John W. Linville" <linville@...driver.com>,
	Avinash Patil <avinashapatil@...il.com>
Subject: Re: [cfg80211 / iwlwifi] setting wireless regulatory domain doesn't work.


Tuesday, December 17, 2013, 10:27:09 PM, you wrote:

> On Tue, Dec 17, 2013 at 09:33:19PM +0100, Sander Eikelenboom wrote:
> [...]
>> > It's the official Debian package.
> [...]
>> > I will report back when i have tested converting the wireless stuff to loadable modules / seeing if i can put the CRDA stuff in initrd.
>> 
>> With all the wireless stuff switched to loadable modules it *does* work.
>> 
>> So the problem is that:
>> The current code blocks all future regulatory domain setting attempts forever (till the next reboot)
>> when it can't find the CRDA. This can and does happen when the modules are compiled in and the CRDA is not in initrd.
>> 
>> So from the question department:
>> 
>> A) Why doesn't the code timeout the processing of a regulatory domain hint and remove the pending request when it aborts ?
>> B) Why isn't the CRDA treated as firmware and placed in /lib/firmware, which has a much greater chance of automagically appearing in initrd ?
> [...]

> It doesn't make any logical sense to put a userland program in
> /lib/firmware, and it wouldn't have any effect on the initramfs
> builders I'm familiar with (which look at module metadata to work
> out which files to include from /lib/firmware).

Ah yes of course stupid, it's not just a blob of the regdb but
a userland program.

> Debian official kernels use modular drivers, and neither
> initramfs-tools nor dracut includes wireless drivers in the initramfs.
> If you build a custom kernel with built-in drivers then you most
> likely don't need an initramfs at all.

> As maintainer of crda in Debian, I could add an initramfs hook that
> would include it in an initramfs.  But I don't understand why it would
> be worth doing so.  Why is it so useful to have wireless drivers
> built-in *and* an initramfs?  If you think I should do this then open
> a bug (reportbug crda).

Indeed, I looked for a crda hook for initramfs-tools but didn't find it, so skipped that idea
for the moment.

So if i combine the two .. it's essentially just a very bad idea to compile the wireless stuff in.
It needs a access to a userland program at module load time, or it will block forever.

> Ben.


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