Access Point is STOPPED always

Networking WiFi
1

Hello, friends

I tested two different models wifi cards one by one. Their setup config (BLUE) was ok, applied and restarted, tried to change the country code, HW Mode and the channel, also tested very simple 8-digit passwords, reinstall hostapd, but the last step always failed - the access point module could not be started even manually with start button (green arrow on the pic). The IPFire version is 2.27.i586-full-core 162, last 32-bit version. My adapter configuration is RED-GREEN-BLUE. All of the system updated logs are empty. Please, give me any advise to fix this problem. I didn’t find anything about it. I attached a screenshot.

Thank you in advance for the help.

Untitleeeed
Untitleeeed973Ă—992 48.2 KB

2

According to hostapd --help, tried:

# hostapd -B /etc/hostapd.conf

nl80211: Could not configure driver mode
nl80211: Driver initialization failed

Can I do anything else in this case?

3

hey Petro,

I am new here myself and encountered the same (right now), I was googling for a solution. I tried putting off WPA-2/3 and that worked out for me. Of course I will put it back on, but there is most likely something with the password you are setting that is not compatible or something of this kind. I am still figuring out myself what the difference is, however my access point is now working.

4

Which hardware did you use?

Any messages logged in /var/log/messages like missing firmware or similar?

Please post the output of
iw list
lspci or lsusb …

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5

After posting the above, the access point still went down. I needed to change channels and hardware mode - a/b/g/gn worked - for the others, the same persisted.

Hope that helps.

6

You need to put in HT Caps and VHT Caps to use AC-mode, otherwise the AP will turn off right after you turned it on.

Here are some examples for “CAPS” (search for “list of flags”).

https://w1.fi/cgit/hostap/plain/hostapd/hostapd.conf

You’ll find the definitely supported capabilities of your WiFi-device with “iw list”. Maybe there are more “CAPS” applicable to your device than listed there, but this would be trial and error. And you will get no indication if an “option” is really “active” (so it is with my compex-module and the suggested CAPS on the ipfire-wiki).

Apart from that:

I also had trouble with devices that do not support WPA3, when I configured “WPA2+WPA3”. Then the network will be treated like an SAE-network, which requires username and password (like WPA-Enterprise).

So for the very first connection, I had to put the AP in “WPA3”-only mode, then connect every device which supports it. After that I switched to “WPA2”-only and connect every device, which is not capable of WPA3. Finally, after every device was connected once, get back to “WPA2+WPA3” and everything will work out.

Also you have to put “Management Frame Protection” to “optional” (or disabled) but NOT “force”.

Good luck! :slight_smile:

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