[Cooker] [2009.1] What is wireless regulatory domain nl80211?

[Steve Morris-5]

I am having issues whereby periodically when I boot I am losing dns
resolution even though /etc/resolv.conf appears to be fine albeit with
some strange entries. When I shut resolvconf and network down and
restart them to try to fix the issue I get regulatory domain failures
for the wireless network restart and the dns resolution failure is not
resolved.

/etc/resolv.conf:
# Dynamic resolv.conf(5) file for glibc resolver(3) generated by
resolvconf(8)
#     DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE BY HAND -- YOUR CHANGES WILL BE OVERWRITTEN
nameserver 192.168.0.1
search local

service network start/restart output:
Shutting down interface wlan0:                                  [  OK  ]
Shutting down loopback interface:                               [  OK  ]
Bringing up loopback interface:                                 [  OK  ]
Configuring wireless regulatory domain  nl80211 not found.
                                                                 [FAILED]
Bringing up interface wlan0:  nl80211 not found.
Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
     SET failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.
                                                                 [  OK  ]

Now more critically as I have discovered, if I leave the system running
for half an hour why does it suddenly fix itself and re-activate dns
resolution?

regards,
Steve


[samorris.vcf]

---

begin:vcard
fn:Steve Morris
n:Morris;Steve
email;internet:samorris@...
x-mozilla-html:TRUE
version:2.1
end:vcard

---

[Frank Griffin-4]

Steve Morris wrote:
> Bringing up loopback interface:                                 [  OK  ]
> Configuring wireless regulatory domain  nl80211 not found.
>                                                                 [FAILED]
>

You're misreading a concatenation of two messages without an LF
separating them.  It should read:

     Configuring wireless regulatory domain
     nl80211 not found

Googling this found the following statement by someone: "nl80211 is
removed from mac80211 for kernels 2.6.23 and earlier"

Since I know you run backleveled kernels, perhaps that's the issue ?
Something expects nl80211 to be in the kernel, i.e. expects a kernel
newer than 2.6.23, but yours is older ?

> Now more critically as I have discovered, if I leave the system
> running for half an hour why does it suddenly fix itself and
> re-activate dns resolution?

No idea.  Maybe you're eventually picking up nl80211 from wherever
2.6.23 and earlier kernels get it.

On Wednesday 08 of July 2009 00:54:12 Steve Morris wrote:
> I am having issues whereby periodically when I boot I am losing dns
> resolution even though /etc/resolv.conf appears to be fine albeit
> with some strange entries. When I shut resolvconf and network down
> and restart them to try to fix the issue I get regulatory domain
> failures for the wireless network restart and the dns resolution
> failure is not resolved.

Using WPA? What "wpa_cli status" tells you in this case?

[Götz Waschk]

Hi,

I get the same message but it is harmless here. It is caused by my
wlan card that does not support WPA. You can suppress it by removing
the CRDA_DOMAIN from /etc/sysconfig/network

Regards, Götz

--
AL I:40: Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

[mangoo]

Götz Waschk wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I get the same message but it is harmless here. It is caused by my
> wlan card that does not support WPA. You can suppress it by removing
> the CRDA_DOMAIN from /etc/sysconfig/network
>
> Regards, Götz

And why is CRDA_DOMAIN added for wired networking?


I had it added for my e1000e card.


--
Tomasz Chmielewski
http://wpkg.org

[Frederik Himpe]

On wo, 2009-07-08 at 11:30 +0200, Tomasz Chmielewski wrote:

> Götz Waschk wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I get the same message but it is harmless here. It is caused by my
> > wlan card that does not support WPA. You can suppress it by removing
> > the CRDA_DOMAIN from /etc/sysconfig/network
> >
> > Regards, Götz
>
> And why is CRDA_DOMAIN added for wired networking?
>
>
> I had it added for my e1000e card.

That was a bug which has been fixed in the meantime (see MDVA-2009:126
update).

--
Frederik Himpe <fhimpe@...>

[Steve Morris-5]

On 08/07/09 07:10, Frank Griffin wrote:

> Steve Morris wrote:
>    
>> Bringing up loopback interface:                                 [  OK  ]
>> Configuring wireless regulatory domain  nl80211 not found.
>>                                                                  [FAILED]
>>
>>      
> You're misreading a concatenation of two messages without an LF
> separating them.  It should read:
>
>       Configuring wireless regulatory domain
>       nl80211 not found
>    

That could be true, but if that is the way it should be displayed should

the messages be fixed so they display correctly? After all it is
Mandriva's production system.
> Googling this found the following statement by someone: "nl80211 is
> removed from mac80211 for kernels 2.6.23 and earlier"
>
> Since I know you run backleveled kernels, perhaps that's the issue ?
> Something expects nl80211 to be in the kernel, i.e. expects a kernel
> newer than 2.6.23, but yours is older ?
>    
No, this is not the issue. I am running a fresh install of 2009.1
updated to the current level from the repositories, and I am running
kernel 2.6.29.3 which is the latest kernel as far as I am aware.
>    
>> Now more critically as I have discovered, if I leave the system
>> running for half an hour why does it suddenly fix itself and
>> re-activate dns resolution?
>>      
> No idea.  Maybe you're eventually picking up nl80211 from wherever
> 2.6.23 and earlier kernels get it.
>    
It is possible something could be could be picking it up from the
2.6.29.1 kernel modules, as I have that installed but it is not the
active kernel.

regards,
Steve

>    

[samorris.vcf]

---

begin:vcard
fn:Steve Morris
n:Morris;Steve
email;internet:samorris@...
x-mozilla-html:TRUE
version:2.1
end:vcard

---

[Steve Morris-5]

On 08/07/09 13:01, Andrey Borzenkov wrote:

> On Wednesday 08 of July 2009 00:54:12 Steve Morris wrote:
>    
>> I am having issues whereby periodically when I boot I am losing dns
>> resolution even though /etc/resolv.conf appears to be fine albeit
>> with some strange entries. When I shut resolvconf and network down
>> and restart them to try to fix the issue I get regulatory domain
>> failures for the wireless network restart and the dns resolution
>> failure is not resolved.
>>      
> Using WPA? What "wpa_cli status" tells you in this case?
>    

I am and I have just issued this command on a system where everything is

fine and it is telling me everything I know, so I will try it on the
failed system when it occurs again.

regards,
Steve


[samorris.vcf]

---

begin:vcard
fn:Steve Morris
n:Morris;Steve
email;internet:samorris@...
x-mozilla-html:TRUE
version:2.1
end:vcard

---

[Steve Morris-5]

On 08/07/09 19:27, Götz Waschk wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I get the same message but it is harmless here. It is caused by my
> wlan card that does not support WPA. You can suppress it by removing
> the CRDA_DOMAIN from /etc/sysconfig/network
>    
But what should the situation be if the wlan card does support wpa and
should be using it because the wireless modem/router is using it? Or are
you distinguishing between wpa and wpa2?

regards,
Steve

> Regards, Götz
>
>    

[samorris.vcf]

---

begin:vcard
fn:Steve Morris
n:Morris;Steve
email;internet:samorris@...
x-mozilla-html:TRUE
version:2.1
end:vcard

---

[Frank Griffin-4]

Steve Morris wrote:
> That could be true, but if that is the way it should be displayed
> should the messages be fixed so they display correctly? After all it
> is Mandriva's production system.

File a bug.

>> Googling this found the following statement by someone: "nl80211 is
>> removed from mac80211 for kernels 2.6.23 and earlier"
>>
>> Since I know you run backleveled kernels, perhaps that's the issue ?
>> Something expects nl80211 to be in the kernel, i.e. expects a kernel
>> newer than 2.6.23, but yours is older ?
>>    
> No, this is not the issue. I am running a fresh install of 2009.1
> updated to the current level from the repositories, and I am running
> kernel 2.6.29.3 which is the latest kernel as far as I am aware.
>>  
>>> Now more critically as I have discovered, if I leave the system
>>> running for half an hour why does it suddenly fix itself and
>>> re-activate dns resolution?
>>>      
>> No idea.  Maybe you're eventually picking up nl80211 from wherever
>> 2.6.23 and earlier kernels get it.
>>    
> It is possible something could be could be picking it up from the
> 2.6.29.1 kernel modules, as I have that installed but it is not the
> active kernel.

Doubtful.  2.6.23 is way earlier than 2.6.29.anything.  Again, file a bug.

[Steve Morris-5]

On 10/07/09 07:11, Frank Griffin wrote:

> Steve Morris wrote:
>    
>> That could be true, but if that is the way it should be displayed
>> should the messages be fixed so they display correctly? After all it
>> is Mandriva's production system.
>>      
> File a bug.
>
>    
>>> Googling this found the following statement by someone: "nl80211 is
>>> removed from mac80211 for kernels 2.6.23 and earlier"
>>>
>>> Since I know you run backleveled kernels, perhaps that's the issue ?
>>> Something expects nl80211 to be in the kernel, i.e. expects a kernel
>>> newer than 2.6.23, but yours is older ?
>>>
>>>        
>> No, this is not the issue. I am running a fresh install of 2009.1
>> updated to the current level from the repositories, and I am running
>> kernel 2.6.29.3 which is the latest kernel as far as I am aware.
>>      
>>>
>>>        
>>>> Now more critically as I have discovered, if I leave the system
>>>> running for half an hour why does it suddenly fix itself and
>>>> re-activate dns resolution?
>>>>
>>>>          
>>> No idea.  Maybe you're eventually picking up nl80211 from wherever
>>> 2.6.23 and earlier kernels get it.
>>>
>>>        
>> It is possible something could be could be picking it up from the
>> 2.6.29.1 kernel modules, as I have that installed but it is not the
>> active kernel.
>>      
> Doubtful.  2.6.23 is way earlier than 2.6.29.anything.  Again, file a bug.
>
>    

No problems, will do.

[samorris.vcf]

---

begin:vcard
fn:Steve Morris
n:Morris;Steve
email;internet:samorris@...
x-mozilla-html:TRUE
version:2.1
end:vcard

---

[Fabrice FACORAT]

2009/7/9 Steve Morris <samorris@...>:
> On 08/07/09 07:10, Frank Griffin wrote:

>>      Configuring wireless regulatory domain
>>      nl80211 not found

>>
>> No idea.  Maybe you're eventually picking up nl80211 from wherever
>> 2.6.23 and earlier kernels get it.
>>
>
> It is possible something could be could be picking it up from the 2.6.29.1
> kernel modules, as I have that installed but it is not the active kernel.

This comes from drakroam or draknetcenter.
If at one time you open draknetcenter, and then go in the advanced
settings, you will then add the cofniguration for the regulatory
domain. If you don't have a wireless card, then you will have the
error message at boot.


--
Close the World, Open the Net
http://www.linux-wizard.net

[Steve Morris-5]

On 13/07/09 23:05, Fabrice Facorat wrote:

> 2009/7/9 Steve Morris<samorris@...>:
>    
>> On 08/07/09 07:10, Frank Griffin wrote:
>>      
>    
>>>       Configuring wireless regulatory domain
>>>       nl80211 not found
>>>        
>    
>>> No idea.  Maybe you're eventually picking up nl80211 from wherever
>>> 2.6.23 and earlier kernels get it.
>>>
>>>        
>> It is possible something could be could be picking it up from the 2.6.29.1
>> kernel modules, as I have that installed but it is not the active kernel.
>>      
> This comes from drakroam or draknetcenter.
> If at one time you open draknetcenter, and then go in the advanced
> settings, you will then add the cofniguration for the regulatory
> domain. If you don't have a wireless card, then you will have the
> error message at boot.
>    

The reason I am raising the issue is that I am getting the error message

on the network activation of the wireless card, and when I do it
destroys dns resolution, but the other issue is the occurrence of it is
random.

regards,
Steve

>
>    

[samorris.vcf]

---

begin:vcard
fn:Steve Morris
n:Morris;Steve
email;internet:samorris@...
x-mozilla-html:TRUE
version:2.1
end:vcard

---

[Eugeni Dodonov]

Steve Morris wrote:
> I am having issues whereby periodically when I boot I am losing dns
> resolution even though /etc/resolv.conf appears to be fine albeit with
> some strange entries. When I shut resolvconf and network down and
> restart them to try to fix the issue I get regulatory domain failures
> for the wireless network restart and the dns resolution failure is not
> resolved.

Are you using DHCP? It happened a few times with me because of the
entries the server sent. Could you sent an example of such resolv.conf
file with strange entries?

> service network start/restart output:
> Shutting down interface wlan0:                                  [  OK  ]
> Shutting down loopback interface:                               [  OK  ]
> Bringing up loopback interface:                                 [  OK  ]
> Configuring wireless regulatory domain  nl80211 not found.
>                                                                 [FAILED]
> Bringing up interface wlan0:  nl80211 not found.

This is actually not related. This nl80211 message appears because the
network card does not supports the wireless regulatory domain mechanism
which was added in latest kernels. In this case, this warning is
harmless - but it is still informative, as it tells you that the
country-specific wireless configuration was not sent on your card, as
your card does not supports the feature.

The 'nl80211' is the kernel mechanism for setting specific parameters on
different wireless devices, which was introduced not that long ago. It
is supposed to replace the Wireless Extensions, which were present in
older kernels. As not all wireless cards were yet ported to it, and as
Wireless Extensions do not support the setting of regulatory domain on a
network card, it fails with such devices.

This message appears a second time because both /etc/rc.d/init.d/network
and /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-wireless attempt to set the
wireless domain. I fixed it in SVN.

> Now more critically as I have discovered, if I leave the system running
> for half an hour why does it suddenly fix itself and re-activate dns
> resolution?

Probably because the access point/dhcp server sent you a new address
with valid DNS configuration.


--
Eugeni Dodonov

[Steve Morris-5]

On 14/07/09 12:11, Eugeni Dodonov wrote:

> Steve Morris wrote:
>    
>> I am having issues whereby periodically when I boot I am losing dns
>> resolution even though /etc/resolv.conf appears to be fine albeit with
>> some strange entries. When I shut resolvconf and network down and
>> restart them to try to fix the issue I get regulatory domain failures
>> for the wireless network restart and the dns resolution failure is not
>> resolved.
>>      
> Are you using DHCP? It happened a few times with me because of the
> entries the server sent. Could you sent an example of such resolv.conf
> file with strange entries?
>    

I am using dhcp. The example of the strange entries is in the original

email but I can include them here:

nameserver 192.168.0.1
search local

The statement that is an issue to me that seems to be present when dns
resolution fails and not when things are working normally, is the search
statement.

>    
>> service network start/restart output:
>> Shutting down interface wlan0:                                  [  OK  ]
>> Shutting down loopback interface:                               [  OK  ]
>> Bringing up loopback interface:                                 [  OK  ]
>> Configuring wireless regulatory domain  nl80211 not found.
>>                                                                  [FAILED]
>> Bringing up interface wlan0:  nl80211 not found.
>>      
> This is actually not related. This nl80211 message appears because the
> network card does not supports the wireless regulatory domain mechanism
> which was added in latest kernels. In this case, this warning is
> harmless - but it is still informative, as it tells you that the
> country-specific wireless configuration was not sent on your card, as
> your card does not supports the feature.
>
> The 'nl80211' is the kernel mechanism for setting specific parameters on
> different wireless devices, which was introduced not that long ago. It
> is supposed to replace the Wireless Extensions, which were present in
> older kernels. As not all wireless cards were yet ported to it, and as
> Wireless Extensions do not support the setting of regulatory domain on a
> network card, it fails with such devices.
>
> This message appears a second time because both /etc/rc.d/init.d/network
> and /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-wireless attempt to set the
> wireless domain. I fixed it in SVN.
>    

No problems. I had seen threads relating to cooker indicating that

regulatory domains should potentially not be being used so I am
surprised it was migrated to the production release.
>    
>> Now more critically as I have discovered, if I leave the system running
>> for half an hour why does it suddenly fix itself and re-activate dns
>> resolution?
>>      
> Probably because the access point/dhcp server sent you a new address
> with valid DNS configuration.
>    
As far as I am aware the ip address didn't change, but I can't be sure
because I didn't really check for that.

regards,
Steve

>
>    

[samorris.vcf]

---

begin:vcard
fn:Steve Morris
n:Morris;Steve
email;internet:samorris@...
x-mozilla-html:TRUE
version:2.1
end:vcard

---

[Frank Griffin-4]

Steve Morris wrote:
> On 14/07/09 12:11, Eugeni Dodonov wrote:
>> Are you using DHCP? It happened a few times with me because of the
>> entries the server sent. Could you sent an example of such resolv.conf
>> file with strange entries?
>>    
> I am using dhcp.

What DHCP servers are you two using ?  Router-based, or a software one ?

[Steve Morris-5]

On 15/07/09 21:21, Frank Griffin wrote:

> Steve Morris wrote:
>    
>> On 14/07/09 12:11, Eugeni Dodonov wrote:
>>      
>>> Are you using DHCP? It happened a few times with me because of the
>>> entries the server sent. Could you sent an example of such resolv.conf
>>> file with strange entries?
>>>
>>>        
>> I am using dhcp.
>>      
> What DHCP servers are you two using ?  Router-based, or a software one ?
>
>    

Router based.

regards,
Steve

>
>    

[samorris.vcf]

---

begin:vcard
fn:Steve Morris
n:Morris;Steve
email;internet:samorris@...
x-mozilla-html:TRUE
version:2.1
end:vcard

---

[Frank Griffin-4]

Steve Morris wrote:
> On 15/07/09 21:21, Frank Griffin wrote:
>> What DHCP servers are you two using ?  Router-based, or a software one ?
>>
>>    
> Router based.
>

Then it's unlikely to be a server configuration error, especially since
it corrects itself on renewal.

Try switching your DHCP client from whichever you're using to the other
{dhcpd-client, dhclient} and see if it goes away.