Use hostapd to set master mode?

Ahmad Ali Tabassam ahmadthe8
Mon Feb 23 00:43:06 PST 2009


Hi Grant
As for I know, it should work for 802.11g. e.i
hw_mode=g
channel=1
But it does not work for 802.11b
Best Regards 

Ahmad Ali Tabassam
Institute Industrial IT
University of Applied Sciences, Lemgo Germany


?


________________________________

From: Grant <emailgrant at gmail.com>
To: hostap at lists.shmoo.com
Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2009 12:29:28 PM
Subject: Re: Use hostapd to set master mode?


Hi
? Can you send the following
1. which chipset?you are using. Atheros ???? like Atheros AR5212 etc.
2.?which?distribution. (for fedora see http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Download#DoIneedthisonFedora.3F)
3. which kernel?version (as for I know 2.6.28 is in Fedora 10).

My instructions may not work on fedroa 10. because its kernel does not allow.? see?detail, 
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Download#DoIneedthisonFedora.3F

By?defaut ath5k is not enabled in kernel 2.6.28
http://www.fht.lkams.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.28.tar.gz
unzip and see in the following file. /net/mac80211/cfg.c 

Lastly, as for I know for ath5k two?for Atheros AR5xxx series?patches are requried
1).

--- wireless-testing.orig/net/mac80211/cfg.c 2008-10-28 10:32:35.000000000 +0200
+++ wireless-testing/net/mac80211/cfg.c 2008-10-28 10:32:40.000000000 +0200
@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@
#ifdef CONFIG_MAC80211_MESH
case NL80211_IFTYPE_MESH_POINT:
#endif
+ case NL80211_IFTYPE_AP:
+ case NL80211_IFTYPE_AP_VLAN:
case NL80211_IFTYPE_WDS:
return true;
default:
?
2.)
--- wireless-testing/drivers/net/wireless/ath5k/base.c? ? ? 2009-02-10 06:11:43.186470883 +0100
+++ wireless-testing/drivers/net/wireless/ath5k/base.c.old? ? ? 2008-11-14?09:36:40.000000000 +0100
@@ -522,6 +501,7 @@
??????? hw->wiphy->interface_modes =
??????????????? BIT(NL80211_IFTYPE_STATION) |
??????????????? BIT(NL80211_IFTYPE_ADHOC) |
?+? ? ? ? ? ? ? BIT(NL80211_IFTYPE_AP) |
??????????????? BIT(NL80211_IFTYPE_MESH_POINT);

??????? hw->extra_tx_headroom = 2;
?
As the 1). is already in compat-wireless and I informed about the 2.).

Best Regards 

Ahmad Ali Tabassam
Institute Industrial IT
University of Applied Sciences, Lemgo Germany


?



________________________________
From: Grant <emailgrant at gmail.com>
To: Ahmad Ali Tabassam <ahmadthe8 at yahoo.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2009 4:12:37 PM
Subject: Re: Use hostapd to set master mode?

>> I'm on 2.6.28
>
> As I know 2.6.28 has the support for ath5k, but it has to be enabled in the
> kerenel. I suggest an easy way.
>
> The easy way to use the ath5k (Atheros) with nl80211 (driver), just download
> the compat-wireless for kernels >= 2.6.27 here: It will be nice if you
> follow the following steps.
>
> 1-download
>
> http://wireless.kernel.org/download/compat-wireless-2.6/compat-wireless-2.6.tar.bz2
>
> or download compat-wireless-old for kernels <= 2.6.26 here:
>
> http://wireless.kernel.org/download/compat-wireless-2.6/compat-wireless-old.tar.bz2
>
> 2-Add the following line if you want to use the ath5k with nl80211 as the
> master mode.
>
> --- wireless-testing/drivers/net/wireless/ath5k/base.c? ? ? 2009-02-10
> 06:11:43.186470883 +0100
> +++ wireless-testing/drivers/net/wireless/ath5k/base.c.old? ? ? 2008-11-14
> 09:36:40.000000000 +0100
> @@ -522,6 +501,7 @@
>? ? ? ? hw->wiphy->interface_modes =
>? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? BIT(NL80211_IFTYPE_STATION) |
>? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? BIT(NL80211_IFTYPE_ADHOC) |
> +? ? ? ? ? ? ? BIT(NL80211_IFTYPE_AP) |
>? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? BIT(NL80211_IFTYPE_MESH_POINT);
>
>? ? ? ? hw->extra_tx_headroom = 2;
>
> Note. If you are expert in the linux kernel, than you can understand it
> easily. Otherwise with out doing into the detail, jut follow.
>
> a-? ? Unzip the compat-wireless-XXX.tar
>
> b-? ? Add the line with plus (+) in the
> compat-wireless-XXX/drivers/net/wireless/ath5k/base.c. it should be in the
> same place as shown above.
>
> c-? ? Build and compile the compat-wireless-XXX. (make and make install)
>
>
>
> 3-? ? ? Then build and compile the hostapd for nl80211, I am sure you will
> have it working
>
> # Driver interface for drivers using the nl80211 kernel interface
>
>? ? CONFIG_DRIVER_NL80211=y
>
> The linbnl must be installed on your distribution
>
> Note. I was working on it (ath5k), without adding the line it does not work
>
> For more informations.
>
> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Download
>
> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath5k
>
> Best Regards
>
> Ahmad Ali Tabassam

Thank you for that, but after following your instructions I still get
the same "Failed to set interface ath0 to master mode" error.

- Grant


>>>>> I'm being told in #madwifi that I need to use hostapd to set master
>>>>> mode with ath5k since iwconfig gives me:
>>>>>
>>>>> ath0 does not support setting the mode to "master"
>>>>>
>>>>> I've always set master mode with iwconfig and then started hostapd to
>>>>> control authentication.? How can I use hostapd to set master mode?
>>>>
>>>> By starting it.. Just set driver=nl80211 in hostapd.conf and hostapd
>>>> takes care of the details.
>>>
>>> I just tried that but I get:
>>>
>>> Failed to set interface ath0 to master mode.
>>> nl80211 driver initialization failed.
>>> rmdir[ctrl_interface]: No such file or directory
>>> ELOOP: remaining socket: sock=5 eloop_data=...
>>>
>>> Could the problem be that my udev renames wlan0 to ath0, or is that
>>> just an arbitrary label?
>>>
>>
>>
>> What version kernel do you have?? nl80211 requires a pretty recent one.
>
> I'm on 2.6.28.? I've read that should do it but it doesn't seem to.? Any
> ideas?
>
> - Grant


>> i am plumbing to get an AP with hostapd and nl80211 working too, in my
>> case with driver p54_pci.
>> in order to get an interface in master mode, i have to use
>> # iw phy phy0 interface add myap type __ap
>> this gets me a seperate virtual interface that i can then use with
>> hostapd.
> No you can do this much easier..
> just load the driver and run hostapd.
> (Of course you have to set interface=wlan0 (depends on your setup) in hostapd.conf before)

Thanks to Ahmad, my interface will go into master mode after another
kernel patch, but I'm getting a new
error.? Depending on the channel I set in hostapd.conf, I get either:

"ioctl[SIOCSIFFLAGS]: Operation not permitted"

or:

"could not set channel for kernel driver"

and hostapd fails to start.? Do you know how to fix this?

- Grant


>> unfortunately it is still not operational.
>> i don't know if there is a better way to achieve the? same effect.
>> i? would be interested in one.
>> i am using kernel 2.6.29_rc5, iw 0.9.9 and hostapd 0.6.8.
>
> no error messages, no crda, no logs?
>
> Regards,
>? ? ? ? Chr
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