{"id":3985,"date":"2014-09-23T16:56:54","date_gmt":"2014-09-23T16:56:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/?p=3985"},"modified":"2024-04-22T10:04:03","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T10:04:03","slug":"wifi-hotspot-access-point-not-supported","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/2014\/09\/wifi-hotspot-access-point-not-supported\/","title":{"rendered":"Wifi Hotspot: Access Point Mode Is Not Supported By This Device"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"wireless\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This tutorial is trying to help those who want to create AP wifi hotspot in Ubuntu Laptop but stuck at “Wifi Hotspot: Access Point Mode Is Not Supported By This Device”<\/i> error message.<\/p>\n

I’ve written three tutorials about how to turn Ubuntu Laptop into a wifi hotspot for Android, and Windows phones. Access Point Mode does not support issue is one of the most asked questions from my readers. Below I will show how to fix it using Broadcom bcm4313 as example.<\/i><\/p>\n

UPDATE: THIS TUTORIAL IS OUTDATED! It does NOT work anymore in current Ubuntu releases!<\/b><\/p>\n

1.<\/b> Press Ctrl+Alt+T<\/b> on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run the command below to tell your wireless chip information:<\/p>\n

lspci | grep -i Network<\/pre>\n
In my case, it outputs:<\/p>\n
02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom<\/b> Corporation BCM4313<\/b> 802.11bgn Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The chip id is BCM4313<\/b>, manufactured by Broadcom<\/b>.<\/p>\n
2.<\/b> Check the below table. Find out the driver that works for your wireless adapter and support AP mode.<\/p>\n
For Broadcom<\/b>, there are three drivers that support AP mode, but only brcmsmac<\/b> (check link page for supported chips) support wifi chip BCM4313.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Driver<\/b><\/td>\nManufacturer<\/b><\/td>\nSupport AP Mode<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
adm8211<\/a><\/td>\nADMtek\/Infineon<\/td>\nno<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
airo<\/a><\/td>\nAironet\/Cisco<\/td>\n?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ar5523<\/a><\/td>\nAtheros<\/td>\nno<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
at76c50x-usb<\/a><\/td>\nAtmel<\/td>\nno<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ath5k<\/a><\/td>\nAtheros<\/td>\nyes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ath6kl<\/a><\/td>\nAtheros<\/td>\nno<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ath9k<\/a><\/td>\nAtheros<\/td>\nyes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ath9k_htc<\/a><\/td>\nAtheros<\/td>\nyes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ath10k<\/a><\/td>\nAtheros<\/td>\n?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
atmel<\/a><\/td>\nAtmel<\/td>\n?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
b43<\/a><\/td>\nBroadcom<\/td>\nyes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
b43legacy<\/a><\/td>\nBroadcom<\/td>\nyes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
brcmfmac<\/a><\/td>\nBroadcom<\/td>\nno<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
brcmsmac<\/a><\/td>\nBroadcom<\/td>\nyes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
carl9170<\/a><\/td>\nZyDAS\/Atheros<\/td>\nyes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
cw1200<\/a><\/td>\nST-Ericsson<\/td>\nyes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
hostap<\/a><\/td>\nIntersil\/Conexant<\/td>\n?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ipw2100<\/a><\/td>\nIntel<\/td>\nno<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ipw2200<\/a><\/td>\nIntel<\/td>\nno<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
iwlegacy<\/a><\/td>\nIntel<\/td>\nno<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00a0iwlwifi<\/a><\/td>\nIntel<\/td>\nyes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00a0libertas<\/a><\/td>\n\u00a0Marvell<\/td>\n\u00a0no<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
libertas_tf<\/a><\/td>\n\u00a0Marvell<\/td>\nyes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
mac80211_hwsim<\/a><\/td>\n\u00a0Jouni<\/td>\n\u00a0yes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
mwifiex<\/a><\/td>\n\u00a0Marvell<\/td>\n\u00a0yes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
mwl8k<\/a><\/td>\n\u00a0Marvell<\/td>\n\u00a0yes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
orinoco<\/a><\/td>\n\u00a0Agere\/Intersil\/Symbol<\/td>\nno<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00a0p54pci<\/a><\/td>\n\u00a0Intersil\/Conexant<\/td>\n\u00a0yes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
p54spi<\/a><\/td>\n\u00a0Conexant\/ST-NXP<\/td>\n\u00a0yes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
p54usb<\/a><\/td>\n\u00a0Intersil\/Conexant<\/td>\n\u00a0yes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
rndis_wlan<\/a><\/td>\n\u00a0Broadcom<\/td>\n\u00a0no<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
rt61pci<\/a><\/td>\n\u00a0Ralink<\/td>\n\u00a0yes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
rt73usb<\/a><\/td>\n\u00a0Ralink<\/td>\n\u00a0yes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
rt2400pci<\/a><\/td>\n\u00a0Ralink<\/td>\n\u00a0yes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
rt2500pci<\/a><\/td>\n\u00a0Ralink<\/td>\n\u00a0yes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
rt2500usb<\/a><\/td>\n\u00a0Ralink<\/td>\n\u00a0yes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
rt2800pci<\/a><\/td>\n\u00a0Ralink<\/td>\n\u00a0yes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
rt2800usb<\/a><\/td>\n\u00a0Ralink<\/td>\n\u00a0yes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vt6656<\/a><\/td>\n\u00a0VIA<\/td>\n\u00a0yes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
wil6210<\/a><\/td>\n\u00a0Atheros<\/td>\n\u00a0yes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00a0wl12xx<\/a><\/td>\nTexas Instruments<\/td>\n\u00a0yes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
zd1211rw<\/a><\/td>\nZyDAS\/Atheros<\/td>\n\u00a0yes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
3.<\/b> Find out current driver running on your wifi adapter by running below command:<\/p>\n
ethtool -i wlan0 | grep driver<\/pre>\n
If need, install ethtool<\/b> from Ubuntu Software Center. The command outputs something like this:<\/p>\n
driver: wl0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So in my case I need to switch wireless driver from wl0<\/b> to brcmsmac<\/b> to get AP mode support.<\/p>\n
4.<\/b> Install brcmsmac<\/b> driver.<\/p>\n
sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer<\/pre>\n
5.<\/b> After installed the new driver, try to enable it from Additional Drivers<\/b> utility (search & open it from the Unity Dash), and finally restart.<\/p>\n
6.<\/b> Finally run:<\/p>\n
iw list<\/pre>\n
Below section tells you AP mode is support now:<\/p>\n
Supported interface modes:
\n* IBSS
\n* managed
\n* AP
\n* AP\/VLAN
\n* monitor<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
For some wireless chips, run below command instead to check out supported interface modes:<\/p>\n
sudo iwconfig wlan0 mode master<\/pre>\n
7<\/b> To make this work at next boot, go to \/etc\/modprobe.d<\/b> directory in terminal:<\/p>\n
cd \/etc\/modprobe.d\/ && ls<\/pre>\n
Or in your file browser (open as root), find out and remove the line blacklist brcmsmac<\/code> that blacklist the driver in any file in that directory.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This tutorial is trying to help those who want to create AP wifi hotspot in Ubuntu Laptop but stuck at “Wifi Hotspot: Access Point Mode Is Not Supported By This Device” error message. I’ve written three tutorials about how to turn Ubuntu Laptop into a wifi hotspot for Android, and Windows phones. Access Point Mode […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1151],"class_list":["post-3985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-howtos","tag-wireless-driver"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3985\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}