WLE600VX, Arch Linux, and 5GHz

  • Hi, has anyone managed to get the WLE600VX working in AP mode on a 5GHz channel on Arch Linux? I had this set up with hostapd on my apu2d4, and it was working well until very recently. I'll list some basic details about my system below.


    BIOS version & kernel version (latest at the time of posting):

    Code
    1. # dmidecode -s bios-version
    2. v4.17.0.1
    3. # uname -r
    4. 5.18.9-arch1-1

    Userspace regulatory domain:

    5GHz channel list (from "iw list"; everything is either disabled or no IR):

    Relevant kernel logs:

    Code
    1. kernel: ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x0
    2. kernel: ath: EEPROM indicates default country code should be used
    3. kernel: ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
    4. kernel: ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x3a
    5. kernel: ath: Country alpha2 being used: US
    6. kernel: ath: Regpair used: 0x3a

    hostapd configuration:

    hostapd log:

    Some other things to note:

    • I did recently experience a power event at my location which caused an outage/possible surge, but the device is behind a surge protector. I wouldn't expect the card to be operational at all if it was damaged by this, but I figured it was worth mentioning.
    • Previously, I had the ieee80211h setting disabled because it wasn't working for some reason. In this case, ACS fails immediately if I don't include it.
    • I'm still able to get the card working on a 2.4GHz channel.
    • I did a full system upgrade which included a kernel update from 5.16.14.arch1-1 to 5.18.9.arch1-1. Admittedly this system had been neglected for a while, so a lot of other packages were upgraded in the process. I can try to narrow down the list to possibly relevant packages if necessary, but I'm mainly wondering if anyone on an up-to-date Arch installation is able to get this card working in 5GHz mode.

    Any input is appreciated - thanks!

  • Hi Saucyfox,

    I had the same issue after upgrading an apu2 box from Ubuntu 20.04.5 towards 22.04.1. Suddenly my 5 Gb AP did not work anymore.


    Some research shows the regulatory issue. APs in the 5GHz MUST work according the ieee80211h standard. The wle600vx or wle200nx HW offered by pcengines does not full fill this requirement.

    With the driver upgrade the option of an AP in 5GHz is gone. I did a fallback to 2.4GHz, too. See your Logs I had the same entries. .


    I did not find HW supporting ieee80211h for APU2 so far.