nl80211: Failed to set interface 6 to mode 3

[0x54726F6E]

Hi,

I'm trying to get this driver to create a wireless ap with hostapd. Kernel 4.1.15, Firmware included from debian stable package firmware-realtek. ( https://packages.debian.org/jessie/firmware-realtek )

The device is present in iwlist, ip a, etc... althout I can't run "iw wlan0 info" : (command failed: No such device (-19))

root@xxxx:/home/xxxx# iwconfig wlan0 mode master root@xxxx:/home/xxxx# echo $? 0

.... seems to be working.

But it seems hostapd is relying on the same interface as iw, as I get the following output when trying to start it:

root@xxxx:/home/xxxx# hostapd -dd /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf random: Trying to read entropy from /dev/random Configuration file: /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf rfkill: initial event: idx=0 type=1 op=0 soft=0 hard=0 nl80211: Supported cipher 00-0f-ac:1 nl80211: Supported cipher 00-0f-ac:5 nl80211: Supported cipher 00-0f-ac:2 nl80211: Supported cipher 00-0f-ac:4 nl80211: Supported cipher 00-0f-ac:10 nl80211: Supported cipher 00-0f-ac:8 nl80211: Supported cipher 00-0f-ac:9 nl80211: Using driver-based off-channel TX nl80211: interface wlan0 in phy phy0 nl80211: Set mode ifindex 6 iftype 3 (AP) nl80211: Failed to set interface 6 to mode 3: -19 (No such device) nl80211: Could not configure driver mode nl80211: Remove monitor interface: refcount=0 netlink: Operstate: ifindex=6 linkmode=0 (kernel-control), operstate=6 (IF_OPER_UP) nl80211: Set mode ifindex 6 iftype 2 (STATION) nl80211: Failed to set interface 6 to mode 2: -19 (No such device) nl80211 driver initialization failed. hostapd_interface_deinit_free(0x806839f0) hostapd_interface_deinit_free: num_bss=1 conf->num_bss=1 hostapd_interface_deinit(0x806839f0) hostapd_bss_deinit: deinit bss wlan0 hostapd_cleanup(hapd=0x80684620 (wlan0)) hostapd_free_hapd_data: Interface wlan0 wasn't started hostapd_interface_deinit_free: driver=(nil) drv_priv=(nil) -> hapd_deinit hostapd_interface_free(0x806839f0) hostapd_interface_free: free hapd 0x80684620 hostapd_cleanup_iface(0x806839f0) hostapd_cleanup_iface_partial(0x806839f0) hostapd_cleanup_iface: free iface=0x806839f0

ip a output:

6: wlan0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq master br0 state DOWN group default qlen 1000 link/ether 64:d1:a3:3a:c2:7e brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

iwconfig output:

root@xxxx:/home/xxxx# iwconfig wlan0 wlan0 unassociated Nickname:"WIFI@REALTEK" Mode:Master Frequency=2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Sensitivity:0/0
Retry:off 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

Can you explain how this is happening and if unsolvable, I would offer any help I can give. There seems to be a patched version that can run the ap from this driver, but I'm quite reluctant to download a random binary and install it in my system as you might imagine.

May I assume the cfg80211 parts are not working as expected? If you require any more data, I will happily provide it.

Thanks alot for looking into it!

0x54726f6e

[0x54726F6E]

Update: the referenced information is this:

EDIT: Picture because linking to the blog directly is forbidden :/

The vendor seems to have included the modified binary files in his driver package. I'm not a very experienced reverser, but I would certainly try to find the differences if that would help. :X

[0x54726F6E]

Okay, so sorry to spam here again: Another update. I have no idea about wireless driver coding and the likes, but I have found and diffed the hostapd source code (for the custom binary) and diff'ed it with its original version source. I have attached the diff file, and I will have a look at the changes once I find more time for this. :)

hostapd-0.7.2.diff.txt