Cannot see WiFi channels above 11 despite setting region

Question

I'm unable to see WiFi networks with channels above 11, despite having set my regulatory region to one in which channels 12 and 13 are allowed.

I followed the advice in the question 'How to use Wi-Fi channels above 11?' and set added a module parameter for my region. I have verified that the parameter has been accepted:

> cat /sys/module/cfg80211/parameters/ieee80211_regdom
ES

> iw reg get
country ES:
    (2402 - 2482 @ 40), (N/A, 20)
    (5170 - 5250 @ 40), (N/A, 20)
    (5250 - 5330 @ 40), (N/A, 20), DFS
    (5490 - 5710 @ 40), (N/A, 27), DFS

Yet still Wifi networks above 11 are not visible.

I'm running Ubuntu 12.04 on a Dell Precision M6300 which has a Broadcom BCM4312 Wifi adapter. I can connect to Wifi networks on channel 12 using another OS on the same computer, so the problem is not with the hardware.

I have two other machines running Ubuntu which can see networks on channels above 11 with the default regulatory settings as below. The problem machine also has these settings by default yet they do not allow it to see channels 11 and 12.

> cat /sys/module/cfg80211/parameters/ieee80211_regdom
00

> iw reg get
country 00:
    (2402 - 2472 @ 40), (3, 20)
    (2457 - 2482 @ 40), (3, 20), PASSIVE-SCAN, NO-IBSS
    (2474 - 2494 @ 20), (3, 20), NO-OFDM, PASSIVE-SCAN, NO-IBSS
    (5170 - 5250 @ 40), (3, 20), PASSIVE-SCAN, NO-IBSS
    (5735 - 5835 @ 40), (3, 20), PASSIVE-SCAN, NO-IBSS

I'm not sure whether it's relevant, but regardless of the module parameter, running crda on all three machine reports:

COUNTRY environment variable not set.

What else can I try to allow the machine to see networks on channels 12 and 13?

Edit

> sudo iwlist eth2 chan
eth2      32 channels in total; available frequencies :
          Channel 01 : 2.412 GHz
          Channel 02 : 2.417 GHz
          Channel 03 : 2.422 GHz
          Channel 04 : 2.427 GHz
          Channel 05 : 2.432 GHz
          Channel 06 : 2.437 GHz
          Channel 07 : 2.442 GHz
          Channel 08 : 2.447 GHz
          Channel 09 : 2.452 GHz
          Channel 10 : 2.457 GHz
          Channel 11 : 2.462 GHz
          Channel 12 : 2.467 GHz
          Channel 13 : 2.472 GHz
          Channel 36 : 5.18 GHz
          Channel 38 : 5.19 GHz
          Channel 40 : 5.2 GHz
          Channel 42 : 5.21 GHz
          Channel 44 : 5.22 GHz
          Channel 46 : 5.23 GHz
          Channel 48 : 5.24 GHz
          Channel 52 : 5.26 GHz
          Channel 56 : 5.28 GHz
          Channel 60 : 5.3 GHz
          Channel 64 : 5.32 GHz
          Channel 100 : 5.5 GHz
          Channel 104 : 5.52 GHz
          Channel 108 : 5.54 GHz
          Channel 112 : 5.56 GHz
          Channel 116 : 5.58 GHz
          Channel 120 : 5.6 GHz
          Channel 124 : 5.62 GHz
          Channel 128 : 5.64 GHz

Please edit your question to add the result of: sudo iwlist wlan0 chan. Substitute wlan1 or eth1 or whatever your wireless interface is, if not wlan0. — chili555, Dec 18 '13 at 15:57

score 9 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 17 '18 at 17:50

9

I solved this problem by uninstalling the proprietary wl driver module and installing the open source b43 instead:

sudo rmmod wl
sudo apt-get remove bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer  # or firmware-b43-lpphy-installer
sudo modprobe b43

edited Mar 17 '18 at 17:50

Zanna

70,465

answered Dec 19 '13 at 12:03

Ian Mackinnon

1,272

Works on Xubuntu LTS 14.04 too! Thanks. – Serge Stroobandt Oct 09 '14 at 08:27

Cannot see WiFi channels above 11 despite setting region

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