Okay so using a compat-wireless build of 3.2.5-1, I get the command to
succeed (ie: no more error message) but when I look at the advertised
rates using "iwlist scanning" it certainly looks like the command does
not take effect.

COMMAND USED:
# iw dev wlan0 set bitrates legacy-2.4 1 2 5.5 11

RESULT OF "iwlist scanning":
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
                              9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                    Bit Rates:24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s

  These Bit Rates are the same as they were before the "iw   set
bitrates" command.  I haven't actually captured the packets in
wireshark yet; I assume the output of "iwlist" is reliable enough.

  Can anyone comment on what is wrong?  Why don't the advertised rates change?

-Patrick


On Mon, Aug 27, 2012 at 7:54 AM, Larry Finger [off-list ref] wrote:

On 08/27/2012 08:50 AM, Patrick Connolly wrote:

quoted

So can anybody comment on whether kernel 2.6.32 is recent enough to
support "iw" version 0.9.22 ?

It is not; however, you can build compat-wireless for that kernel and get
code that will.

Larry

quoted

On Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 4:54 PM, Larry Finger [off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

On 08/24/2012 06:38 PM, Patrick Connolly wrote:

quoted

Okay so I built "iw" version 0.9.22 successfully (after much grief).
The help page shows that "set bitrates" is now supported:

         dev <devname> set bitrates [legacy-<2.4|5> <legacy rate in
Mbps>*]


  but when I try to use it I get:

        # iw dev wlan0 set bitrates legacy-2.4 1 2 5.5 11
        command failed: Operation not supported (-95)

...so what does this mean?  Is it "iw" or the driver that lacks the
support?

I would think that your kernel is too old. What version are you running?

Larry