Use hostapd to set master mode?

Grant emailgrant
Mon Feb 23 09:09:05 PST 2009


> Hi Grant
>
> As for I know, it should work for 802.11g. e.i
>
> hw_mode=g
>
> channel=1

Thanks Ahmad, I tried those settings but I still get one of these two
errors when I try to start hostapd:

"ioctl[SIOCSIFFLAGS]: Operation not permitted"

or:

"could not set channel for kernel driver"

- Grant


> 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?
>
>>> 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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> HostAP at lists.shmoo.com
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>
> 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



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