google-sargo(pixel 3a): wlan firmware (or driver?) locked to US / DFS-FCC, breaking 5GHz in many countries

Several users including me experience issues when trying to connect to wlan networks. Forcing 2.4GHz instead of 5GHz often helps, so I checked the country code settings and it turns out that the driver or firmware locks the device to US / FCC approved frequencies, as one can see when running iw reg get:

pixel 3a

> iw reg get
global
country DE: DFS-ETSI
	(2400 - 2483 @ 40), (N/A, 20), (N/A)
	(5150 - 5250 @ 80), (N/A, 23), (N/A), NO-OUTDOOR, AUTO-BW
	(5250 - 5350 @ 80), (N/A, 20), (0 ms), NO-OUTDOOR, DFS, AUTO-BW
	(5470 - 5725 @ 160), (N/A, 26), (0 ms), DFS
	(5725 - 5875 @ 80), (N/A, 13), (N/A)
	(5945 - 6425 @ 160), (N/A, 23), (N/A), NO-OUTDOOR
	(57000 - 66000 @ 2160), (N/A, 40), (N/A)

phy#0
country US: DFS-FCC
	(902 - 904 @ 2), (N/A, 30), (N/A)
	(904 - 920 @ 16), (N/A, 30), (N/A)
	(920 - 928 @ 8), (N/A, 30), (N/A)
	(2400 - 2472 @ 40), (N/A, 30), (N/A)
	(5150 - 5250 @ 80), (N/A, 23), (N/A), AUTO-BW
	(5250 - 5350 @ 80), (N/A, 24), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW
	(5470 - 5730 @ 160), (N/A, 24), (0 ms), DFS
	(5730 - 5850 @ 80), (N/A, 30), (N/A), AUTO-BW
	(5850 - 5895 @ 40), (N/A, 27), (N/A), NO-OUTDOOR, AUTO-BW, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5925 - 7125 @ 320), (N/A, 12), (N/A), NO-OUTDOOR, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(57240 - 71000 @ 2160), (N/A, 40), (N/A)

for comparison

Intel laptop

global
country DE: DFS-ETSI
	(2400 - 2483 @ 40), (N/A, 20), (N/A)
	(5150 - 5250 @ 80), (N/A, 23), (N/A), NO-OUTDOOR, AUTO-BW
	(5250 - 5350 @ 80), (N/A, 20), (0 ms), NO-OUTDOOR, DFS, AUTO-BW
	(5470 - 5725 @ 160), (N/A, 26), (0 ms), DFS
	(5725 - 5875 @ 80), (N/A, 13), (N/A)
	(5945 - 6425 @ 160), (N/A, 23), (N/A), NO-OUTDOOR
	(57000 - 66000 @ 2160), (N/A, 40), (N/A)

phy#0 (self-managed)
country DE: DFS-UNSET
	(2402 - 2437 @ 40), (6, 22), (N/A), AUTO-BW, NO-HT40MINUS, NO-80MHZ, NO-160MHZ
	(2422 - 2462 @ 40), (6, 22), (N/A), AUTO-BW, NO-80MHZ, NO-160MHZ
	(2447 - 2482 @ 40), (6, 22), (N/A), AUTO-BW, NO-HT40PLUS, NO-80MHZ, NO-160MHZ
	(5170 - 5190 @ 80), (6, 22), (N/A), NO-OUTDOOR, AUTO-BW, IR-CONCURRENT, NO-HT40MINUS, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5190 - 5210 @ 80), (6, 22), (N/A), NO-OUTDOOR, AUTO-BW, IR-CONCURRENT, NO-HT40PLUS, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5210 - 5230 @ 80), (6, 22), (N/A), NO-OUTDOOR, AUTO-BW, IR-CONCURRENT, NO-HT40MINUS, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5230 - 5250 @ 80), (6, 22), (N/A), NO-OUTDOOR, AUTO-BW, IR-CONCURRENT, NO-HT40PLUS, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5250 - 5270 @ 80), (6, 22), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW, NO-HT40MINUS, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5270 - 5290 @ 80), (6, 22), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW, NO-HT40PLUS, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5290 - 5310 @ 80), (6, 22), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW, NO-HT40MINUS, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5310 - 5330 @ 80), (6, 22), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW, NO-HT40PLUS, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5490 - 5510 @ 80), (6, 22), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW, NO-HT40MINUS, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5510 - 5530 @ 80), (6, 22), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW, NO-HT40PLUS, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5530 - 5550 @ 80), (6, 22), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW, NO-HT40MINUS, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5550 - 5570 @ 80), (6, 22), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW, NO-HT40PLUS, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5570 - 5590 @ 80), (6, 22), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW, NO-HT40MINUS, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5590 - 5610 @ 80), (6, 22), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW, NO-HT40PLUS, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5610 - 5630 @ 80), (6, 22), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW, NO-HT40MINUS, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5630 - 5650 @ 80), (6, 22), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW, NO-HT40PLUS, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5650 - 5670 @ 80), (6, 22), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW, NO-HT40MINUS, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5670 - 5690 @ 80), (6, 22), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW, NO-HT40PLUS, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5690 - 5710 @ 80), (6, 22), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW, NO-HT40MINUS, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5710 - 5730 @ 80), (6, 22), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW, NO-HT40PLUS, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5735 - 5755 @ 80), (6, 22), (N/A), AUTO-BW, NO-HT40MINUS, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ
	(5755 - 5775 @ 80), (6, 22), (N/A), AUTO-BW, NO-HT40PLUS, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ
	(5775 - 5795 @ 80), (6, 22), (N/A), AUTO-BW, NO-HT40MINUS, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ
	(5795 - 5815 @ 80), (6, 22), (N/A), AUTO-BW, NO-HT40PLUS, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ
	(5815 - 5835 @ 20), (6, 22), (N/A), AUTO-BW, NO-HT40MINUS, NO-HT40PLUS, NO-80MHZ, NO-160MHZ, NO-320MHZ

I assume this is a firmware issue and we need to ship international instead of US firmware.

On what postmarketOS version did you encounter the issue?

• edge (master branch)

• v24.06

• I confirm that the issue still is present after running sudo apk upgrade -a

On what environment did you encounter the issue?

Environments

• GNOME Shell on Mobile
• Phosh
• Plasma Mobile
• Sxmo (Wayland/Sway) Please post the output of sxmo_version.sh
• Other: Please fill out

How did you get postmarketOS image?

• from https://images.postmarketos.org
• I built it using pmbootstrap
• It was preinstalled on my device

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Related: !5501 (merged)