Is hostapd really necessary?

[Douglas Held]

I have been using the hostap_plx driver for some time, and using iwconfig to configure the AP.

I am running a public access wireless node.  If I am not using authentication, will I experience any benefit from using the user daemon?

In any case, hostapd does not work with my configuration.

hostapd tells me:
	ioctl(SIOCGIFINDEX): No such device
	ioctl[SIOCGIFFLAGS]: No such device

Further, I get the following in my messages file:
May  9 07:49:40 router insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/net/hostapd.o: couldn't find the kernel version the module was compiled for
May  9 07:49:40 router insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/net/hostapd.o: insmod wlan0ap failed
May  9 07:49:41 router insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/net/hostapd.o: couldn't find the kernel version the module was compiled for
May  9 07:49:41 router insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/net/hostapd.o: insmod wlan0ap failed


It seems there are workarounds are documented for the error message, but only for the pci and pc drivers.

I tried adding the extra flags ANYWAY, and it still does not work for me.  Specifically, I added EXTRA_FLAGS = "-DPRISM2_HOSTAPD" to ./hostapd/Makefile and also ./Makefile, recompiled and tried again.  The result is the same.

And insmod -f doesn't help either.

So, anyway: back to my original question: should I keep trying, or is it just fine to use iwconfig (version 25)?

--Doug