On Sun, Apr 27, 2025 at 01:48:33AM +0200, megi xff wrote: > Hello, > > I've spent a better part of a day chasing a weird perhaps regulatory related > issue in rtw89 driver, which I think may be useful reporting on. :) > > I have a dual wifi card system, with both cards serving as APs: RTL8852AE > and RTL8852CE. > > I observe two things: > > - hostapd fails to start 5G AP on either RTL8852AE or RTL8852CE with this in the > log: > > wlan-5g: interface state UNINITIALIZED->COUNTRY_UPDATE > Frequency 5180 (primary) not allowed for AP mode, flags: 0x11873 NO-IR > Primary frequency not allowed > wlan-5g: IEEE 802.11 Configured channel (36) or frequency (5180) > (secondary_channel=1) not found from the channel list of the current mode (2) > IEEE 802.11a > wlan-5g: IEEE 802.11 Hardware does not support configured channel > Could not select hw_mode and channel. (-3) > wlan-5g: interface state COUNTRY_UPDATE->DISABLED > wlan-5g: AP-DISABLED > wlan-5g: Unable to setup interface. > wlan-5g: interface state DISABLED->DISABLED > wlan-5g: AP-DISABLED > wlan-5g: CTRL-EVENT-TERMINATING > hostapd_free_hapd_data: Interface wlan-5g wasn't started > nl80211: deinit ifname=wlan-5g disabled_11b_rates=0 > wlan-5g: IEEE 802.11 Configured channel (36) or frequency (5180) > (secondary_channel=1) not found from the channel list of the current mode (2) > IEEE 802.11a > wlan-5g: IEEE 802.11 Hardware does not support configured channel > > (previously it worked fine) > > - I can see this in `iw phy` output for both cards: > > Frequencies: > * 5180.0 MHz [36] (20.0 dBm) (no IR) > * 5200.0 MHz [40] (20.0 dBm) (no IR) > * 5220.0 MHz [44] (20.0 dBm) (no IR) > * 5240.0 MHz [48] (20.0 dBm) (no IR) > > - And now the interesting thing. no IR flag is only present, when both cards > are installed at once in the system. > > - When I remove either one of the cards, "no IR" flags are gone from > 5G band channels in `iw phy` output and hostapd starts successfully. And I managed to track this down to static channel data re-use between devices. :) See: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-wireless/20250427002414.410791-1-megi@xxxxxx/T/#u Using this patch fixes the breakage and both cards can now serve as APs at once. Thanks, o. > - Both cards have \xff\xff in efuse.country_code (so they are WW roaming cards, > I guess) > > - Interestingly this did not happen when I was using RTL8822AE instead of > RTL8852CE in this system. So this seem to be somehow triggered by using > two cards driven by rtw89 driver. > > `iw reg get` always returns in any case (and hostapd is set up with country_code=CZ > for both cards): > > global > country CZ: DFS-ETSI > (2400 - 2483 @ 40), (N/A, 20), (N/A) > (5150 - 5250 @ 80), (N/A, 23), (N/A), NO-OUTDOOR, AUTO-BW > (5250 - 5350 @ 80), (N/A, 20), (0 ms), NO-OUTDOOR, DFS, AUTO-BW > (5470 - 5725 @ 160), (N/A, 26), (0 ms), DFS > (5725 - 5875 @ 80), (N/A, 13), (N/A) > (5945 - 6425 @ 320), (N/A, 23), (N/A), NO-OUTDOOR > (57000 - 66000 @ 2160), (N/A, 40), (N/A) > > I'm wondering how "no IR" flag can appear on 5G channels when I have two > cards in one system, and disappear when I have just one installed, all other > things being equal. :) > > Best regards, > Ondrej
