GNU bug report logs - #49611
Despite wireless-regdb being installed in my operating-system, dmesg indicates it can't find `regulatory.db`

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From: Tom Fitzhenry <tom <at> tom-fitzhenry.me.uk>
To: 49611 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#49611: Despite wireless-regdb being installed in my operating-system, dmesg indicates it can't find `regulatory.db`
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2021 09:40:11 +1000

On 20/07/2021 04:21, Katherine Cox-Buday wrote:
> I think this is because the EEPROM on the card is set as global. What
> am I missing? Do you know how Linux intend for people to notify the
> stack that this is an OK thing to do? I know projects like OpenWRT
> carry patches to the driver, but I keep thinking surely this is not
> the only way.

https://github.com/pcengines/apu2-documentation/issues/189 tracks this 
issue for PC Engines, which retails wireless cards whose EEPROM uses a 
global region.

My poor understanding is that Linux does not offer a way for end users 
to override the EEPROM, per "It should be reasonably impossible for a 
user to fail to comply with local regulations either unwittingly or by 
accident."[0]

It looks like the two supported ways to set regulatory domain are:
* a card vendor/retailer that performs certification, and flashes the 
EEPROM.
* a system integrator (e.g. off-the-shelf wireless routers, mobile 
phones, etc.) that performs certification and sets 
CONFIG_CFG80211_CERTIFICATION_ONUS.

Linux does offer a way to indicate your current region via CRDA[1], but 
this is for the "travelling in another country" usecase, and acts to 
restrict the driver to intersection(EEPROM, country).

0. https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/developers/regulatory/statement
1. https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/developers/regulatory

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