cfg80211 module does not automatically determine regulatory domain

[tonyw]

On a system running Intrepid IBEX and with the Intel 4965AGN WiFi chipset, the IEEE 802 regulatory domain is always set to the restrictive US domain. This means that by default the operation in other parts of the world (e.g. Europe) can be problematic as the WiFi will not work with Base Stations that use, for example, channel 13.

It is firstly questionable as to whether a WiFi terminal, as opposed to a base station, needs to even have such a restriction. However, notwithstanding this observation, to get WiFi to work reliably in Europe, it is necessary to add the following line to /etc/modprobe.d.options

options lbm_cw_cfg80211_regdom=EU

and then reboot/reload the driver.

If it is necessary to enforce the regulatory restriction then this option should be determined from the current LOCALE and not require the user to make a low level configuration change for a widely used function. The current situation is not compatible with Ubuntu's "it just works" philosophy.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug. This bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug 288401. Please feel free to report any other bugs you find