How to setup hostapd on Fedora (or any other Red Hat based systems)

[Lubomir Rintel]

On Tue, 2015-02-17 at 10:09 +0100, Kees de Jong wrote:
> I used to run hostapd on a Debian system, which worked flawless. I now
> use Fedora and that seems to be a total different deal.
> 
> Below was my Debian configuration. I had two access points on the same
> wireless interface (virtual interface). I can't seem to get this to
> work on Fedora...
> 
> # General
> logger_syslog=-1
> logger_syslog_level=2
> logger_stdout=-1
> logger_stdout_level=2
> 
> # Private
> interface=wlan0
> bssid=b8:a3:86:73:60:01
> ssid=sovereign_20
> ignore_broadcast_ssid=1
> driver=nl80211
> country_code=NL
> hw_mode=g
> channel=11
> preamble=1
> wpa=2
> wpa_ptk_rekey=600
> wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
> wpa_pairwise=TKIP CCMP
> wpa_psk_file=/etc/hostapd/20.wpa_psk
> auth_algs=1
> macaddr_acl=1
> ap_isolate=1
> accept_mac_file=/etc/hostapd/hostapd.accept
> 
> # Public
> bss=wlan1
> bssid=b8:a3:86:73:60:02
> ssid=sovereign_30
> ignore_broadcast_ssid=1
> driver=nl80211
> country_code=NL
> hw_mode=g
> channel=11
> preamble=1
> wpa=2
> wpa_ptk_rekey=600
> wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
> wpa_pairwise=TKIP CCMP
> wpa_psk_file=/etc/hostapd/30.wpa_psk
> auth_algs=1
> macaddr_acl=0
> ap_isolate=1
> 
> On Debian this was my network configuration in /etc/networking/interfaces:
> # Private wireless interface
> auto wlan0
> iface wlan0 inet static
>         address 10.20.0.1
>         network 10.20.0.0
>         broadcast 10.20.0.255
>         netmask 255.255.255.0
>         hostap /etc/hostapd.conf
> 
> # Public wireless interface
> auto wlan1
> iface wlan1 inet static
>         address 10.30.0.1
>         network 10.30.0.0
>         broadcast 10.30.0.255
>         netmask 255.255.255.0
>         hostap /etc/hostapd.conf
> 
> 
> I guess the biggest show stopper is the way Fedora manages it's
> networks. For Red Hat systems I found the most creative ways to setup
> hostapd. Mostly with scripts that configure the wireless interface
> (managed mode and IP address) and then the script loads the
> configuration into hostapd. Some scripts even do the iptables
> configurations. I can't believe that this is the way to do it...
> 
> NetworkManager on Fedora doesn't seem to be able to configure wireless
> devices. I came accross this configuration though:
> TYPE=Wireless
> DEVICE=wlan0
> BOOTPROTO=dhcp
> BROADCAST=192.168.0.255
> HWADDR=48:02:2a:91:63:90
> NETMASK=255.255.255.0
> ONBOOT=no
> ONHOTPLUG=yes
> PEERDNS=no
> USERCTL=yes
> IPV6INIT=no
> ESSID=minimallinux
> CHANNEL=6
> MODE=Managed
> RATE=150Mb/s
> 
> Which sorta looka okay. But also in that howto they refer to a start
> up script for all the configurations:
> http://minimallinux.blogspot.nl/2012/06/centos-6-wireless.html
> Here is one for Arch, same ridicules solution (script):
> https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Software_access_point
> 
> So my question comes down to this. Is hostapd only made with Debian in
> mind? Because it only seems to have a clean setup on that system.
> If it isn't meant to be exclusively on Debian, then why are all
> non-Debian systems setup with these scripts? How can I setup hostapd
> without all these script solutions?

Hi,

I would be very happy to help, but there doesn't seem to be any way to
figure what you actually did, what you expected and what happened
instead from your message.

NetworkManager not yet capable of creating multiple network interfaces
on the same phy. You need to create one with "iw ... interface add ..."
and change the MAC address (if you won't do it, NetworkManager in Fedora
will repeatedly unsuccessfully attempt to register it with supplicant; a
known bug). Aside from that your configuration seems to be a matter of
clicking "Enable a Hotspot" in GNOME... Or use a "nmcli c add ..."
instead.

If you prefer to run hostapd by itself, you can also create an ifcfg-*
file with NM_CONTROLLED=no to prevent NetworkManager from touching the
interface.

Lubo