(SOLVED)Unable to make Hotspot work

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colibris79
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(SOLVED)Unable to make Hotspot work

Post by colibris79 »

Hi, everyone. This is my first post although I have been using Mint for several months. I recently installed Mint in a Pc which has an ethernet connection. Bought a usb wifi adapter (chinese brand FAST). Through ndiswrapper I have been able to make the wifi card work but when I try to setup the hotspot (which is the reason why I bought the wifi adapter) I just can't make it work. I use the hotspot button from the net window, and in the Network manager sometimes appear and sometimes doesn't. But my devices don't detect the hotspot. Well, once, with Mint 13 Cinnamon I was able to connect, but had no internet connection. I have been trying for a couple of days, tried with hostapd and many other manuals. I also have tried with Mint 13 Maya and right now I am trying with Maya 16. The adapter works fine in Windows 7 (can activate hotspot with any device, including android cellphones). Have no idea what else to do, so that's why I am posting in the forum. Can anyone give suggestions? Could it be the adapter that simply is not supported for hotspot?
Thanks.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
pettijohne

Re: Unable to make Hotspot work

Post by pettijohne »

I'm not possitive, but I think you're wireless card has to be able to support monitor mode to use it as a hotspot. I know thats not much help, but maybe its a starting point.
allen.biggins

Re: Unable to make Hotspot work

Post by allen.biggins »

I've had exactly the same problem and despite popping a post on the forum, I didn't receive any solutions (or answers for that matter).

I was able to overcome the situation by reinstalling Mint (14, 64 bit) and stopping Win 7 from accessing the hotspot. It seems that Win 7 does something that stuffs the Network Manager up in Mint. Mine is now working fine and Win 7 can get stuffed and I use my satellite connection for that instead and it will stay that way until I am able to obtain a fix.

Good luck

Allen
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colibris79
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Re: Unable to make Hotspot work

Post by colibris79 »

Hi, thank you both for your answers.

Allen, have tried to connect from Mint in Pc to Mint 13 in netbook and didn't work.

Pettijohne, I have tried to follow this manual:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/MasterMode

I got

Code: Select all

$ sudo lsusb
[sudo] password for mik: 
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 17ef:602d Lenovo 
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 17ef:602e Lenovo 
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0bda:8179 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 05e3:0722 Genesys Logic, Inc. 

Code: Select all

sudo iwconfig
wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Bit Rate:1 Mb/s   Tx-Power:20 dBm   Sensitivity=0/3  
          RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

Code: Select all

[code]sudo iwconfig wlan0 mode master
Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :
    SET failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.

Code: Select all

iw list
nl80211 not found.
pettijohne

Re: Unable to make Hotspot work

Post by pettijohne »

what is the output for "iw list"? Also which of these is the wifi stick?

Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0bda:8179 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 05e3:0722 Genesys Logic, Inc.
colibris79
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Re: Unable to make Hotspot work

Post by colibris79 »

It is the Realtek one.

Code: Select all

iw list
nl80211 not found.
colibris79
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Re: Unable to make Hotspot work

Post by colibris79 »

colibris79
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Re: Unable to make Hotspot work

Post by colibris79 »

Have found a couple of promising options:
http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/1344

https://code.google.com/p/realtek-8188c ... untu-1304/

The first one seems to be for the v2 of the adapter, and the second one for the v1 (older ones). It seems that mine is the second one, 0bda:8179.

Still have the same problem. The wifi works but have no way to create Access Point. Another weird thing is that the module doesn't load on startup and I have to load it manually with sudo modprobe 8188.eu.

Code: Select all

wlan0     unassociated  Nickname:"<WIFI@REALTEK>"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency=2.412 GHz  [u]Access Point: Not-Associated [/u][b][/b]  
          Sensitivity:0/0  
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=0/100  Signal level=0 dBm  Noise level=0 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0
EDIT: This is what I get with iwconfig while trying to create the hotspot.

Code: Select all

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:"mik-Le"  Nickname:"<WIFI@REALTEK>"
          Mode:Ad-Hoc  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Cell: 02:11:87:C5:1A:01   
          Bit Rate:54 Mb/s   Sensitivity:0/0  
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0
After a few seconds it says that couldn't connect to network and there is no access point

And this is what I get with lsmod (in case another module may be causing this):

Code: Select all

Module                  Size  Used by
8188eu                518476  0 
ndiswrapper           192871  0 
parport_pc             32114  0 
ppdev                  12849  0 
rfcomm                 38139  0 
bnep                   17830  2 
bluetooth             158438  10 rfcomm,bnep
snd_hda_codec_realtek   174055  1 
binfmt_misc            17292  1 
snd_hda_intel          32765  3 
snd_hda_codec         109562  2 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep              13276  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm                80845  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
snd_seq_midi           13132  0 
snd_rawmidi            25424  1 snd_seq_midi
psmouse                87140  0 
joydev                 17393  0 
snd_seq_midi_event     14475  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                51567  2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer              28931  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device         14172  3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
snd                    62064  15 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
i915                  414568  3 
drm_kms_helper         45466  1 i915
drm                   197692  4 i915,drm_kms_helper
i2c_algo_bit           13199  1 i915
soundcore              14635  1 snd
video                  19068  1 i915
snd_page_alloc         14115  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
serio_raw              13027  0 
mac_hid                13077  0 
mei                    36570  0 
lp                     17455  0 
parport                40930  3 parport_pc,ppdev,lp
usbhid                 41906  0 
hid                    77367  1 usbhid
r8169                  56321  0 
usb_storage            39646  0 

Should I try with a new fresh install of Mint 13?
pettijohne

Re: Unable to make Hotspot work

Post by pettijohne »

I haven't looked into it but you might can get a cheap bluetooth card and make a hotspot with it. However, one nice thing about a wireless router is that port forwarding is usually pretty easy.
colibris79
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Re: Unable to make Hotspot work

Post by colibris79 »

Yep, that was my first idea, but I work for an university and I get my internet connection through a 802.1x connection. Don't know if it would be that easy to configure
allen.biggins

Re: Unable to make Hotspot work

Post by allen.biggins »

[quote="colibris79"]Hi, thank you both for your answers.

Allen, have tried to connect from Mint in Pc to Mint 13 in netbook and didn't work.

No. What I was doing was from Mint 14 (64 bit) which worked initially and then to win 7 (64 bit) which worked and when I returned to Mint 14 that was when I ran into trouble. I had to reinstall Mint 14 and thereafter it has worked fine but as I said earlier, Win 7 is restricted to satellite connection for the moment.

I didn't want to go from Mint 13 (32 bit) to Win 7 (64 bit) just in case Win stuffed that one up too and left me in a difficult position.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Allen
Oz
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colibris79
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Re: Unable to make Hotspot work

Post by colibris79 »

WOW, after many hours trying to make it work, finally it is working. Specially thanks to lwfinger. Check here for all the process.
https://github.com/lwfinger/rtl8188eu/issues/47
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