Cannot Change Wifi Country Code
I Am Currently Traveling in Europe, and I Cannot See Wifi Networks Using Channel 13, Which Is Allowed Here. I Think I Should Be Able to Change My Wifi Country...
I am currently traveling in Europe, and I cannot see wifi networks using channel 13, which is allowed here.
I think I should be able to change my wifi country code to a European one in order to be able to do this, but I have been unsuccessful trying this.
Specifically, when I run
iw reg get
and it returns
global
country 00: DFS-UNSET
(2402 - 2472 @ 40), (N/A, 20), (N/A) (2457 - 2482 @ 20), (N/A, 20), (N/A), AUTO-BW, NO-IR (2474 - 2494 @ 20), (N/A, 20), (N/A), NO-OFDM, NO-IR (5170 - 5250 @ 80), (N/A, 20), (N/A), AUTO-BW, NO-IR (5250 - 5330 @ 80), (N/A, 20), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW, NO-IR (5490 - 5730 @ 160), (N/A, 20), (0 ms), DFS, NO-IR (5735 - 5835 @ 80), (N/A, 20), (N/A), NO-IR (57240 - 63720 @ 2160), (N/A, 0), (N/A)
Then, I run
iw reg set EU
as root, but when I run iw reg get, again nothing has changed. I still "country 00: DFS-UNSET"
I have also tried to change the contents of "/etc/modprobe.d/cfg80211.conf" and "/etc/modprobe.d/options" to add
options cfg80211 ieee80211_regdom="EU"
but there as no luck here either.
'iw list' returns (among other things)
Frequencies:
* 2412 MHz [1] (20.0 dBm)
* 2417 MHz [2] (20.0 dBm)
* 2422 MHz [3] (20.0 dBm)
* 2427 MHz [4] (20.0 dBm)
* 2432 MHz [5] (20.0 dBm)
* 2437 MHz [6] (20.0 dBm)
* 2442 MHz [7] (20.0 dBm)
* 2447 MHz [8] (20.0 dBm)
* 2452 MHz [9] (20.0 dBm)
* 2457 MHz [10] (20.0 dBm)
* 2462 MHz [11] (20.0 dBm)
* 2467 MHz [12] (20.0 dBm)
* 2472 MHz [13] (disabled)
* 2484 MHz [14] (disabled)
The output of lshw -C network is
description: Wireless interface
product: QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
vendor: Qualcomm Atheros
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:3a:00.0
logical name: wlp58s0
version: 32
serial: 9c:b6:d0:e2:3f:8f
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath10k_pci driverversion=4.10.0-30-generic firmware=WLAN.RM.2.0-00180-QCARMSWPZ-1 ip=192.168.1.30 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11
resources: irq:286 memory:dc000000-dc1fffff
I am running Kubuntu with Ubuntu version 17.04.
Any help would be much appreciated.
1 Answer
According to ISO 3166, the country code EU is an Exceptional Reservation:
I suspect that means that EU is reserved for future use and not yet in current use.
In the latest version of CRDA, the mechanism in Linux that provides the country code process, EU is not listed as an available country code. Here is a snip from the database file:
country ES: DFS-ETSI
(2400 - 2483.5 @ 40), (100 mW)
(5150 - 5250 @ 80), (200 mW), NO-OUTDOOR, AUTO-BW
(5250 - 5350 @ 80), (100 mW), NO-OUTDOOR, DFS, AUTO-BW
(5470 - 5725 @ 160), (500 mW), DFS
# 60 GHz band channels 1-4, ref: Etsi En 302 567
(57000 - 66000 @ 2160), (40)
country ET: DFS-ETSI
(2402 - 2482 @ 40), (20)
(5170 - 5250 @ 80), (20), AUTO-BW
(5250 - 5330 @ 80), (20), DFS, AUTO-BW
(5490 - 5710 @ 160), (27), DFS
country FI: DFS-ETSI
(2400 - 2483.5 @ 40), (20)
(5150 - 5250 @ 80), (23), NO-OUTDOOR, AUTO-BW
(5250 - 5350 @ 80), (20), NO-OUTDOOR, DFS, AUTO-BW
(5470 - 5725 @ 160), (27), DFS
# 60 GHz band channels 1-4, ref: Etsi En 302 567
I suggest that you instead try the country code for the country you are visiting, DE, FR, BE, for example.
Having said this, some wireless devices have the country code encoded at the factory, notably China, and those devices are very difficult (impossible?) to change. I doubt that yours is such a device as iw reg get would have returned, as in my example CN, rather than 00 as it did.
James Sterling reports on renewable energy developments, climate policy, ecological conservation, and green tech innovations around the globe.
