Hi,
I am a software tester who decided to experiment with hostap.
I am not a C++ programmer, but I have general understanding of that
language.
My Linux distro is Fedora 27.
My goal is to test network connections with various authentication methods
between a simulated Wi-Fi access point and a station.
I would like to test on a physical/virtual machine without Wi-Fi adapter.
One testing machine contains both - the access point and the station.
What I did so far?
I read the documentation...
https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/documentation/hostapd
http://w1.fi/hostapd/
https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers/mac80211_hwsim
I installed hostap:
yum install hostapd
I loaded the module:
modprobe mac80211_hwsim
I check network devices:
# nmcli device
DEVICE TYPE STATE CONNECTION
virbr0 bridge connected virbr0
enp7s0 ethernet connected enp7s0
vnet0 tun connected vnet0
wlan0 wifi disconnected --
wlan1 wifi disconnected --
lo loopback unmanaged --
virbr0-nic tun unmanaged --
hwsim0 unknown unmanaged --
When I follow the steps from the
https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers/mac80211_hwsim#simple_example[simple
example] from the documentation
then I receive message:
Configuration file: hostapd.conf
nl80211: Could not configure driver mode
nl80211: deinit ifname=wlan0 disabled_11b_rates=0
nl80211 driver initialization failed.
wlan0: interface state UNINITIALIZED->DISABLED
wlan0: AP-DISABLED
hostapd_free_hapd_data: Interface wlan0 wasn't started
When I try to load module nl80211 manually
then I see:
modprobe: FATAL: Module nl80211 not found in directory
/lib/modules/4.13.16-302.fc27.x86_64
I try another configuration taken from gitweb:
http://w1.fi/cgit/hostap/tree/tests/hwsim
When I load hostapd with configuration "bss-1.conf"
then I receive message:
Configuration file: bss-1.conf
Could not read interface wlan3 flags: No such device
nl80211: Driver does not support authentication/association or connect
commands
nl80211: deinit ifname=wlan3 disabled_11b_rates=0
Could not read interface wlan3 flags: No such device
nl80211 driver initialization failed.
wlan3: interface state UNINITIALIZED->DISABLED
wlan3: AP-DISABLED
hostapd_free_hapd_data: Interface wlan3 wasn't started
When I replace interface wlan3 with wlan0
and I run hostapd with configuration "bss-1.conf"
then I receive message:
Configuration file: bss-1.conf
nl80211: Could not configure driver mode
nl80211: deinit ifname=wlan0 disabled_11b_rates=0
nl80211 driver initialization failed.
wlan0: interface state UNINITIALIZED->DISABLED
wlan0: AP-DISABLED
hostapd_free_hapd_data: Interface wlan0 wasn't started
Questions
1. Why does hostapd fail to start?
2. Which of the interfaces wlan0 and wlan1 should be the AP?
3. What configuration should be taken as example for simulated AP and
station?
4. How to troubleshoot the initial loading of hostapd?
Details
kernel-4.13.16-302.fc27.x86_64
hostapd-2.6-9.fc27.x86_64
Thank you in advance for any advice.
Pavlin