How to get legal WiFi settings without iw?

Zsar · 2025-03-05 09:56:01

Installing a fresh Arch Linux from USB I went from Installation Guide | Network Configuration to Network configuration/Wireless where I read

Managing a wireless connection can be accomplished using [...] iwd directly. For lower level configuring, or if you are using a legacy driver or a legacy authentication method, there [is] iw[.]

So I now have iwd installed and it works perfectly fine:

If I am connected with an SSID it will reconnect on reboot.
When connecting it sets up the network configuration via DHCP.
Otherwise it does nothing until I tell it to.

Continuing to read the Wireless article I see pretty far down Respecting the regulatory domain and that does sound like something I should do.

Problem: The only package recommended there is wireless-regdb but wireless-regdb depends on iw.

(This seems to be a false dependency?

The kernel loads the database directly when wireless-regdb is installed.

)

As iw does nothing I need, can I get my device compliant without installing wireless-regdb and/or should I tell pacman to install it without iw, as alledgedly it will work anyway?

Currently it seems that the advice to "use iwd directly" is not really good, if I also have to install the alternative?

... FWIW: I am currently using iwd's 'EnableNetworkConfiguration=true' for DHCP and DNS support and still have to complete the necessary steps to get a solution that also works for Ethernet. There I set up ifplugd as another "simple solution", but that one only duplicates features I'd get again if I went for the "all green" in Network Managers, just like iwd duplicates features of iw.

As it seems that I am moving further and further away from "the simple solution", would it be, in summa, better to ditch iwd and ifplugd? - If I have to duplicates everything they do anyway, they would not be 'simple' but rather superfluous.

Last edited by Zsar (2025-03-05 09:56:32)

Lone_Wolf · 2025-03-05 11:32:36

The iw reg command allows setting/getting the regulatory domain .
As far as I know it's the only utility with that functionality.

Why do you think iwd is a replacement/competitor of iw ?

seth · 2025-03-05 14:42:16

Both wpa_supplicant and iwd can set/hint the regulatory domain (you cannot really overwrite the hardware against its will, regardless of tool)
What's the problem here? Does it not work (w/o installing wireless-regdb)?

(This seems to be a false dependency?)

cat /usr/bin/set-wireless-regdom

Looks like a pretty fucking hard dependency to me.

Edit: btw, iw is the swiss-army knife to get/set wireless stuff with a minimal footprint.
Even if you feel you don't "need" it, you probably *want* it around just in case.

Last edited by seth (2025-03-05 14:54:52)

Zsar · 2025-03-07 08:10:31

seth wrote:

[...] iwd can set/hint the regulatory domain [...]
What's the problem here? Does it not work (w/o installing wireless-regdb)?

Could you please point me towards the pertinent documentation? I'll update the Wiki articles (Network configuration/Wireless §5 and iwd §4) if I can get it to work.

I do not know if it works, because I do not know how it works, because the Wiki lists commands only for iw, not for iwd/iwctl.

When I search the man pages of iwd and iwctl for 'regulat' or 'domain' I get 0 hits.
There is no '/etc/conf.d/wireless-regdom', as mentioned in the Wiki, so presumably iwd does not use the same file or I'd first have to create it myself.
When I search the internet for 'iwd regulatory domain', this topic is the third hit. The first one uses iw and is thence offtopic, the second one would appear to be a false positive.
(I do not see anything pertaining to the regulatory domain in there.)

You have just confirmed that the functionality does indeed exist. But I still need to know how to access it. The usual documents have no mention of this capability, as far as I can see.
(I could be blind. It has certainly happened before. But when both my eyes and my Google Fu fail, I am inclined to believe that at least their joint statement should be considered valid.)

seth wrote:

cat /usr/bin/set-wireless-regdom
Looks like a pretty fucking hard dependency to me.

$ cat /usr/bin/set-wireless-regdom
cat: /usr/bin/set-wireless-regdom: No such file or directory

I... do not think that should have been enlightening.

Interestingly the file is listed as part of the wireless-regdb package but when I check the link to source over here I cannot find it.
(Cloned the repo, grepped for it, presuming that if the file does not exist, some script must create it dynamically. No dough.)
- Maybe that is another mystery for another day though.

Last edited by Zsar (2025-03-07 08:11:10)

seth · 2025-03-07 08:43:31

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Networ … ory_domain - wpa_supplicant is mentioned there.
ctrl+f on https://man.archlinux.org/man/extra/iwd/iwd.config.5.en for the same key

https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … less-regdb
It's pretty much a downstream package, only the db is from an upstream source.

It'll of course help to install it to cat the file.

Arch Linux

#1 2025-03-05 09:56:01

How to get legal WiFi settings without iw?

#2 2025-03-05 11:32:36

Re: How to get legal WiFi settings without iw?

#3 2025-03-05 14:42:16

Re: How to get legal WiFi settings without iw?

#4 2025-03-07 08:10:31

Re: How to get legal WiFi settings without iw?

#5 2025-03-07 08:43:31

Re: How to get legal WiFi settings without iw?

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