(replying to an old thread:

https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-wireless/patch/20210422030413.9738-2-pkshih@realtek.com/ )


Brian Norris [off-list ref] writes:

On Thu, Apr 22, 2021 at 11:04:13AM +0800, Ping-Ke Shih wrote:

quoted

From: Yu-Yen Ting <redacted>

The management frame with high rate e.g. 24M may not be transmitted
smoothly in long range environment.
Add a debugfs to force to use the lowest basic rate
in order to debug the reachability of transmitting management frame.

obtain current setting
cat /sys/kernel/debug/ieee80211/phyX/rtw88/basic_rates

force lowest rate:
echo 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/ieee80211/phyX/rtw88/basic_rates

Signed-off-by: Yu-Yen Ting <redacted>
Signed-off-by: Ping-Ke Shih <pkshih@realtek.com>

I believe some initial objection to this was because it was unclear if
this is for "production" use (e.g., recommending distros to play with
this) or for debugging. I'll admit, I requested the feature for patch 1,
because I've seen that for those networks where people *do* configure
odd Basic Rates, they intend for stations to follow those, and not use
the lowest (and most airtime-hogging) rates.

And I can say, I don't see why distributions should be turning that back
off. If the Basic Rates setting is wrong, then the that's up to the
network admin to fix.

All that is to say: I agree that this patch is purely for debugging, as
stated, and that it belongs in debugfs. I also maintain a distribution,
and I don't plan on using this beyond debugging.

Therefore:

Reviewed-by: Brian Norris <briannorris@chromium.org>

Ok, fair enough as long as this will not end up normal users using it. I
still would prefer to have extensive bitrate handling via nl80211 but
clearly it's not going anywhere.

But could the debugfs filename be more descriptive, for example
force_basic_rates or something like that?

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