"Hardware does not support configured mode" on AR9285 / ath9k

[Jouni Malinen]

On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 05:41:27PM +0100, Peter Michelis wrote:

> I am trying to build an access point with an Atheros AR9285 Card. The 
> lspci-id is 168c:002b (rev 01).
> 
> I am using an Ubuntu Distribution with the shipped kernel 
> 2.6.31-16-generic-pae and hostapd 0.6.9.

I would recommend using hostapd 0.7.0 or a snapshot from the
development branch when using any mac80211-based driver like ath9k.

> I configured the hostapd to use the nl80211 driver.  When I start 
> hostapd on the wlan0 interface with "hostapd -d hostapd.conf" i get:

> Hardware does not support configured mode
> wlan0: IEEE 802.11 Hardware does not support configured mode (2)
> Could not select hw_mode and channel. (-1)

How did you configure the channel in hostapd.conf (both hw_mode and
channel values)? Based on the "(2)" there, it looks like you tried to
use 5 GHz band (hw_mode=a) and the driver did not allow AP mode
operation on the channel. You can use "iw list" to get a list of
channels that the driver reports as supported (AP mode cannot currently
be enabled on channels that require radar detection or do not allow
IBSS/Beaconing). I would assume that you will have better luck if you
were to start with 2.4 GHz band (hw_mode=g and channel 1..11).

-- 
Jouni Malinen                                            PGP id EFC895FA