Can't use hostapd with resinOS 2.0

zain · March 16, 2017, 5:58am

I am broadcasting a wifi network on my RPi3 that lets users connect and configure settings on the Pi.

I am running into a weird issue with hostapd on ResinOS 2.0. The hostapd wifi access point starts up without any problems and works for a couple of minutes, but then it just stops working – existing clients are disconnected and the wifi network is no longer available.

Interestingly, resin-wifi-connect doesn’t have this same problem. I ran through your code and the only real difference I can see is that you are turning off NetworkManager.service using dbus right here. Do you think this is the culprit? If so, how do I do that? And will that make my USB cellular modem stop working?

Here are the logs from hostapd’s debug mode at the moment when the wifi stops working:

hostapd debug log

nl80211: Drv Event 20 (NL80211_CMD_DEL_STATION) received for wlan0
nl80211: Delete station 2c:f0:a2:19:92:b3
wlan0: Event DISASSOC (1) received
wlan0: STA 2c:f0:a2:19:92:b3 IEEE 802.11: disassociated
wlan0: AP-STA-DISCONNECTED 2c:f0:a2:19:92:b3
wlan0: STA 2c:f0:a2:19:92:b3 WPA: event 2 notification
wpa_driver_nl80211_set_key: ifindex=3 (wlan0) alg=0 addr=0x55b1dcc8 key_idx=0 set_tx=1 seq_len=0 key_len=0
   addr=2c:f0:a2:19:92:b3
nl80211: set_key failed; err=-100 Network is down)
WPA: 2c:f0:a2:19:92:b3 WPA_PTK entering state DISCONNECTED
WPA: 2c:f0:a2:19:92:b3 WPA_PTK entering state INITIALIZE
wpa_driver_nl80211_set_key: ifindex=3 (wlan0) alg=0 addr=0x55b1dcc8 key_idx=0 set_tx=1 seq_len=0 key_len=0
   addr=2c:f0:a2:19:92:b3
nl80211: set_key failed; err=-100 Network is down)
nl80211: Set STA flags - ifname=wlan0 addr=2c:f0:a2:19:92:b3 total_flags=0x0 flags_or=0x0 flags_and=0xfffffffe authorized=0
wlan0: STA 2c:f0:a2:19:92:b3 IEEE 802.1X: unauthorizing port
Could not set station 2c:f0:a2:19:92:b3 flags for kernel driver (errno=11).
nl80211: sta_remove -> DEL_STATION wlan0 2c:f0:a2:19:92:b3 --> -100 (Network is down)
ap_free_sta: cancel ap_handle_timer for 2c:f0:a2:19:92:b3
RTM_NEWLINK: ifi_index=3 ifname=wlan0 operstate=2 linkmode=0 ifi_family=0 ifi_flags=0x1002 ()
nl80211: Interface down
wlan0: Event INTERFACE_DISABLED (29) received
Unknown event 29
nl80211: Drv Event 20 (NL80211_CMD_DEL_STATION) received for wlan0
nl80211: Delete station 00:00:00:00:00:00
wlan0: Event DISASSOC (1) received
wlan0: STA 00:00:00:00:00:00 IEEE 802.11: disassociated
Disassociation notification for unknown STA 00:00:00:00:00:00
l2_packet_receive - recvfrom: Network is down
VLAN: vlan_newlink(wlan0)
nl80211: Drv Event 16 (NL80211_CMD_STOP_AP) received for wlan0
wlan0: Event INTERFACE_UNAVAILABLE (31) received
Interface wlan0 is unavailable -- stopped
RTM_NEWLINK: ifi_index=3 ifname=wlan0 operstate=2 linkmode=0 ifi_family=0 ifi_flags=0x1002 ()
VLAN: vlan_newlink(wlan0)
RTM_NEWLINK: ifi_index=3 ifname=wlan0 operstate=2 linkmode=0 ifi_family=0 ifi_flags=0x1003 ([UP])
nl80211: Own MAC address on ifindex 3 (wlan0) changed from 8e:99:96:a4:5e:93 to 3e:06:5a:49:ca:68
nl80211: Interface up
wlan0: Event INTERFACE_ENABLED (28) received
Unknown event 28
VLAN: vlan_newlink(wlan0)
nl80211: Drv Event 33 (NL80211_CMD_TRIGGER_SCAN) received for wlan0
wlan0: nl80211: Scan trigger
wlan0: Event SCAN_STARTED (49) received
Unknown event 49
RTM_NEWLINK: ifi_index=3 ifname=wlan0 wext ifi_family=0 ifi_flags=0x1003 ([UP])
nl80211: Drv Event 34 (NL80211_CMD_NEW_SCAN_RESULTS) received for wlan0
wlan0: nl80211: New scan results available
nl80211: Scan probed for SSID ''
nl80211: Scan probed for SSID 'My_Wifi_Ssid'
nl80211: Scan included frequencies: 2412 2417 2422 2427 2432 2437 2442 2447 2452 2457 2462
wlan0: Event SCAN_RESULTS (3) received
VLAN: vlan_newlink(wlan0)

If you’d like to reproduce this, I made a minimal test case:

files to repro

Dockerfile:

FROM resin/raspberrypi3-python:3.6.0-20170308

RUN apt-get update && \
    apt-get install -y hostapd dnsmasq rng-tools \
    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

COPY interface /etc/network/interfaces.d/wlan0
COPY hostapd.conf /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf
COPY dnsmasq.conf /etc/dnsmasq.conf

CMD ["hostapd", "-ddKt", "/etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf"]

interface:

# /etc/network/interfaces.d/wlan0
# configure a static IP for the wifi bridge
allow-hotplug wlan0  
iface wlan0 inet static  
    address 172.24.1.1
    netmask 255.255.255.0
    broadcast 172.24.1.255

hostapd:

# /etc/default/hostapd
DAEMON_CONF="/etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf"

hostapd.conf:

interface=wlan0
ssid=ResinWiFiTest
channel=6

dnsmasq.conf:

interface=wlan0      # Use interface wlan0
listen-address=172.24.1.1 # Explicitly specify the address to listen on
bind-interfaces      # Bind to the interface to make sure we aren't sending things elsewhere
server=8.8.8.8       # Forward DNS requests to Google DNS
domain-needed        # Don't forward short names
bogus-priv           # Never forward addresses in the non-routed address spaces
dhcp-range=172.24.1.50,172.24.1.150,2h  # Assign IP addresses between 172.24.1.50 and 172.24.1.150 with a 2 hour lease time

nghiant2710 · March 16, 2017, 7:13am

Hey @zain,

I don’t have much experience with the network on ResinOS 2.0 but I think my colleague @joe (maintainer of resin-wifi-connect) will be able to help you with this issue.

cmoss · March 16, 2017, 7:19am

Hi @zain,

Don’t turn off network manager - you’ll break things

We have exactly the same setup as you, with the host NM managing our LTE connection. Here’s how we disable the NM wireless, so that hostapd can take over:

DBUS_SYSTEM_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/host_run/dbus/system_bus_socket \
dbus-send --system --print-reply \
            --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager \
            /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager \
            org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Set \
            string:"org.freedesktop.NetworkManager" \
            string:"WirelessEnabled" \
            variant:boolean:false

If you’re going to be working with dbus / NM a lot, then I highly recommend you use this python package:

It makes life a lot easier.

cmoss · March 16, 2017, 7:21am

Sorry, forgot to add you’ll most likely need to re-enable wifi from within your container straight after disabling NM wifi control:

rfkill unblock wlan

josephroberts · March 21, 2017, 1:41pm

Hi @zain

I created a demo project and checked I can remain connected.

Let me know if it helps.

josephroberts · April 3, 2017, 2:57pm

I found a much easier way to set up a hotspot with Network Manager on ResinOS 2.x

Just drop the below example configuration into a file inside the /boot/system-connections directory on the SD card and name it resin-hotspot, next use the Network Manager DBUS API to disable the connection called resin-wifi and enable the connection called resin-hotspot.

You will then be able to connect to the hotspot using resin-hotspot as both the SSID and password.

As a bonus this hotspot method automatically bridges the connection!

[connection]
id=resin-hotspot
uuid=36060c57-aebd-4ccf-aba4-ef75121b5f77
type=wifi
autoconnect=false
interface-name=wlan0
permissions=
secondaries=

[wifi]
band=bg
mac-address-blacklist=
mac-address-randomization=0
mode=ap
seen-bssids=
ssid=resin-hotspot

[wifi-security]
group=
key-mgmt=wpa-psk
pairwise=
proto=
psk=resin-hotspot

[ipv4]
dns-search=
method=shared

[ipv6]
addr-gen-mode=stable-privacy
dns-search=
method=auto

zain · April 3, 2017, 8:56pm

whoa, good find joe! I will give that a shot.

And for the record, @cmoss’s recomendations worked great as well thanks for the help.