wpa_supplicant: AP mode support not included in the build

[cheater]

Since Network Manager now supports internet sharing over a Wi-Fi connection using Access Point (infrastructure) rather than Hotspot (Ad-Hoc) mode, AP support is required in wpa_supplicant. This is absolutely necessary in order to share internet with most new mobile phones.

To use this, you need to edit the file for your shared internet connection, located in /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/ and under [802-11-wireless] set mode=ap. If you created a new file and it's not getting picked up, make it root:root, and only rwx to root.

Start the connection with nmcli con up id your-connection-name. To see if this is successful, check the syslog.

To see if your interface supports AP mode, run iw list.
If you have multiple interfaces, it might be necessary to select the right one by adding a "mac" line. Just set the mac in the nm-applet interface on some other connection, and you'll see how it's set.

I tested with a TP-Link TL-WN722N as the interface for AP mode and Samsung Galaxy S4 as client.

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

Moving to wpa which is the correct source package for Quantal and up.

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

Now, first need to ship that in saucy, then we can SRU to Raring, which is the lowest release this will go into, given the support in NM only lands in version 0.9.8.0

[cheater (cheater00)]

Won't Quantal get 0.9.8.0 in proposed or backports?

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

Backports maybe, but then we'd need to backport, and not SRU, wpa as well.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package wpa - 1.0-3ubuntu2

---------------
wpa (1.0-3ubuntu2) saucy; urgency=low

  * debian/config/wpasupplicant/linux:
    - Enable CONFIG_AP_MODE (AP mode support) (LP: #1209511).
    - Enable CONFIG_P2P (Wi-Fi Direct support).
 -- Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre <email address hidden> Thu, 08 Aug 2013 10:20:17 -0400

[cheater (cheater00)]

Sorry, I clicked incorrectly and set it from "Triaged" to "Fix Released". I couldn't set it back to "Triaged" so I put it on "Confirmed". Terribly sorry about messing up this ticket!

[cheater (cheater00)]

Please set the 13.04 (Raring) version to "Triaged".

[cheater (cheater00)]

I would like to report that using the Saucy package under Raring fixes my issue. I used this one: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/wpa/1.0-3ubuntu2/+build/4861169

I am able to run an AP. Cleartext and WPA are both supported.

[Benjamin Xiao (ben-r-xiao)]

Is there a way to configure AP mode from the NetworkManager gui yet? My card supports master AP mode but it doesn't appear in the GUI. GUI only shows Infrastructure and Ad-hoc.

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

raring has seen the end of its life and is no longer receiving any updates. Marking the raring task for this ticket as "Won't Fix".