If you have a single wired Internet connection, you can easily setup an ad-hoc wireless network with Ubuntu and share the Internet connection among multiple devices. Unfortunately, some devices including Android & Windows Phones may not support ad-hoc wireless networks.
UPDATE 2024: This tutorial is outdated! It may no longer works in current Ubuntu releases!
So this tutorial is going to show you how to turn your Ubuntu laptop into a wireless access point in another way with Android phones support.
To get started, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the commands below one by one to install ap-hotspot.
Ap-hotspot is an open-source project that automatically creates an infrastructure (Access Point mode) wireless hotspot in Ubuntu that should work with Android and Windows Phone devices
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8 sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install ap-hotspot
Supports for Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04 and Ubuntu 14.04. download & install the ap-hotspot deb for saucy at this page.
For Ubuntu 14.04, due to bug you need to downgrade hostapd to make ap-hotspot work.
- First uninstall the buggy
hostapdin Ubuntu 14.04 via:sudo apt-get remove hostapd
- Copy and paste the command below into terminal that matches your OS type – check out via System Setting -> Details – and hit run to download, install, and hold the old version of hostapd.While running the commands below, type in your user password in terminal when prompt.
For 64-bit system:
cd /tmp && wget http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/w/wpa/hostapd_1.0-3ubuntu2.1_amd64.deb && sudo dpkg -i hostapd*.deb && sudo apt-mark hold hostapd
For 32-bit system:
cd /tmp && wget http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/w/wpa/hostapd_1.0-3ubuntu2.1_i386.deb && sudo dpkg -i hostapd*.deb && sudo apt-mark hold hostapd
Once installed, execute below command to configure your wifi hotspot:
sudo ap-hotspot configure
It will detect the wired & wireless interfaces and ask you to confirm that if they are correct (run ifconfig if you’re not sure). Then you’ll be asked to enter a wifi hotspot name and setup a password.
Finally start the wireless hotspot via:
sudo ap-hotspot start
Now you’re able to connect to wifi hotspot via your Android phone!
To stop the wireless hotspot, execute this command in Ubuntu terminal:
sudo ap-hotspot stop
UPDATE: Please report issues at: https://github.com/hotice/AP-Hotspot/.
Tip: For the error “Access Point Mode is not supported by this device”, you may take a look at this page.
