Software AP in Linux

[buoyant sinew]

Hey, i was wondering how can windows easily create AP with my usb wifi dongle using ethernet, "iw list" shows no AP support.
Is it possible to replicate the same in arch or linux in general?

iw list

Wiphy phy0
...
        Supported Ciphers:
                * WEP40 (00-0f-ac:1)
                * WEP104 (00-0f-ac:5)
                * TKIP (00-0f-ac:2)
                * CCMP-128 (00-0f-ac:4)
                * CCMP-256 (00-0f-ac:10)
                * GCMP-128 (00-0f-ac:8)
                * GCMP-256 (00-0f-ac:9)
                * CMAC (00-0f-ac:6)
                * CMAC-256 (00-0f-ac:13)
                * GMAC-128 (00-0f-ac:11)
                * GMAC-256 (00-0f-ac:12)
        Available Antennas: TX 0 RX 0
        Supported interface modes:
                 * managed
                 * monitor

[proud stream]

does it work if you create it on windows

because windows did create an ap on my main laptop, but it never worked because my wifi card does not know how to ap

otherwise it might be a driver issue

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Software_access_point

[buoyant sinew]

Yes the default windows hotspot works pretty well

[hardy laurel]

on DEs like GNOME and KDE, it's just a toggle
otherwise
https://gist.github.com/narate/d3f001c97e1c981a59f94cd76f041140

hotspot wifi

[buoyant sinew]

how does that work, it should require AP support right?

[hardy laurel]

all you need is a wireless network controller

[buoyant sinew]

i see

[hardy laurel]

actually idk, just try and see how it goes

[buoyant sinew]

UUID=$(grep uuid /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/Hotspot | cut -d= -f2)
nmcli con up uuid $UUID

i dont understand how this command gets the UUID, the file doesn't exist for me. Following the stackoverflow post the answer post created it

of what the UUID is exactly?

[hardy laurel]

what desktop are you using?

jus try it in desktop's netowrk settings before you try the CLI method

[buoyant sinew]

Dwm

I have tried with hostapd in the past and the create_ap script

[hardy laurel]

file exists, just you have to be root

[buoyant sinew]

[sudo] password for oc:
Sorry, try again.
[sudo] password for oc:
cat: /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/Hotspot: No such file or directory```

┌──(oc㉿ArchOp)-[~]
└─$ sudo ls /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/

┌──(oc㉿ArchOp)-[~]
└─$

[hardy laurel]

it's Hotspot.nmconnection

better just see it via nmcli connection show | grep Hotspot

[buoyant sinew]

cat: /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/Hotspot.nmconnection: No such file or directory```

└─$ nmcli connection show | grep Hotspot

┌──(oc㉿ArchOp)-[~]
└─$

[hardy laurel]

did you name it hotspot or not

[buoyant sinew]

name what

[hardy laurel]

the connection

[buoyant sinew]

i may be missing something lemme read more

"I created a Hotspot with the GNOME Network-Manager. The problem was, that I can not configure the SSID and password in GUI. If you create the Hotspot with the Network-Manager GUI, it creates the file /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/Hotspot. In that file it is possible to edit the SSID and the password."

ah i see

how do i create from CLI

im not usinmg GNOME

@hardy laurel

[hardy laurel]

your coming to the wrong conclusions

[buoyant sinew]

ah correct me pls

[hardy laurel]

run history | tail -n 15

[buoyant sinew]

what exactly are you looking for in my commands history?

 2019* sudo UUID=$(grep uuid /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/Hotspot | cut -d= -f2)\nnmcli con up uuid $UUID\n
 2020* grep uuid /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/Hotspot
 2021* sudo grep uuid /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/Hotspot
 2023* sudo vim /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/Hotspot
 2024* nmcli con up Hotspot ifname ArchOp
 2025* ip a
 2026* nmcli con up Hotspot ifname wlp0s20f0u2
 2029* sudo ls /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/
 2030* cat /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/Hotspot
 2031* cat ~/Documents/L.txt| xclip -selection clipboard
 2032* sudo cat /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/Hotspot
 2033  sudo cat /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/Hotspot.nmconnection
 2034  nmcli connection show | grep Hotspot
 2035  nmcli d

[hardy laurel]

okay let's go further in the history

[buoyant sinew]

networkmanager "hotspot" uses AP mode too, right?

so i don't see how that would be useful

to my understanding of how such hotspot works it must support AP, correct?

[buoyant sinew]

sorry I didn't follow the whole post if that's what you assumed

[hardy laurel]

oh rip

is the usb wireless dongle the only wireless interface you have?

[buoyant sinew]

creating the hotspot from NM gui seems to be the starting of the solution, that's why i asked how do i create it using CLI.

[hardy laurel]

the post tells you, you don't need to touch gui

[buoyant sinew]

yh seems to be, doesn't list AP as a supported feature

[buoyant sinew]

oh my bad

[hardy laurel]

let's just make sure a little
ip link

[buoyant sinew]

nmcli connection modify con-name 802-11-wireless.mode ap 802-11-wireless-security.key-mgmt wpa-psk ipv4.method shared 802-11-wireless-security.psk 'PASSWORD'
nmcli connection up con-name```

are you referring to this?

[hardy laurel]

yeah

[buoyant sinew]

did you mean ip list sir

[hardy laurel]

ip link

[buoyant sinew]

wait

uh

iw list*

[hardy laurel]

ip link

[buoyant sinew]

    link/ether 62:a3:82:12:1d:a6 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff permaddr 20:e7:16:00:8e:28```

is the wifi dongle one

[hardy laurel]

yes, then to get UUID```
nmcli connection show | grep local-ap

or via the `/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/local-ap.nmconnection` file

[buoyant sinew]

└─$ nmcli connection show | grep local-ap


┌──(oc㉿ArchOp)-[~]
└─$ sudo cat /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/local-ap.nmconnection
[sudo] password for oc:
cat: /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/local-ap.nmconnection: No such file or directory```

[hardy laurel]

you know what, give me all the nmcli connection show output

[buoyant sinew]

lo                  1a84903b-8b76-473e-942b-262c7a29ebc9  loopback  lo

rest is just cloudflare and docker

[hardy laurel]

give me the wifi type connections

[buoyant sinew]

what do you mean by that

[hardy laurel]

see the Type column?

[buoyant sinew]

yes but the wifi one is not listed there

althought it is listed in nmcli d what does that command show?

[hardy laurel]

i see, sorry, should've asked this from the start, whats the wi-fi dongle

could be a driver problem why it doesn't have AP

[buoyant sinew]

7601 Ralink Technology, Corp. MT7601U Wireless Adapter

[hardy laurel]

Network controller: MEDIATEK Corp. MT7921K (RZ608) Wi-Fi 6E 80MHz
damn, mediatek like mine

[buoyant sinew]

it uses mt7601u driver probably

im blind, don't mind me

https://github.com/Anthony96922/mt7601u-ap

[hardy laurel]

just realized, this is your command as is right besides the password part?
it didn't get created cause you ran it all wrong
in the first lines it's ifname wlp0s20f0u2
and then on the modify bit to add password it's modify local-ap

[hardy laurel]

yay

see if there's an aur for it first before manually installing

[buoyant sinew]

i never ran those commands, i referenced them to ask if that was what you were refering me to

[buoyant sinew]

nope

using make

/home/oc/mt7601u-ap/include/os/rt_linux.h:55:10: fatal error: asm/unaligned.h: No such file or directory
   55 | #include <asm/unaligned.h>      /* for get_unaligned() */
      |          ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

uh

https://github.com/Anthony96922/mt7601u-ap/issues/40

either way it seems to be broken from kernel 6.1

[hardy laurel]

you are missing dependencies

[hardy laurel]

sad, maybe it works for 6.12?

[buoyant sinew]

which ones

[hardy laurel]

linux-headers

or linux-zen-headres, depends on your kernel

[buoyant sinew]

pretty sure i did install them

──(oc㉿ArchOp)-[~]
└─$ yay -Qi linux-headers
Name : linux-headers

yh i have them

or do i

that command shows package info only prob

nvm

[hardy laurel]

i see, then we'll need to modify the source code ourselves
try to edit the include/rt_linux.h file in the source code and delete asm/

[hardy laurel]

-Q shows local packages, meaning it's installed

[buoyant sinew]

it wasn't listed in yay -Qt so i got confused, i do have it installed

[buoyant sinew]

hmm

[buoyant sinew]

asm/?

[hardy laurel]

enter the file an modify parts of the code

[buoyant sinew]

you know what, scratch this i don't have this kinda time now

[hardy laurel]

an di'm sayign change ```
#include <asm/unaligned.h>

 to ```
#include <unaligned.h>
```or ```
#include <linux/unaligned.h>

[buoyant sinew]

thanks for your time