Arch Linux - NetworkManager unable to setup hotspot

Question

I have network-manager and nm-applet installed on arch linux. I'm using Gnome desktop. When I try to set-up hotspot using GUI I get an error stating "Activation of network failed". This is what I have in my /etc/NetworkManager/system-connection/Hotspot

[connection]
id=Hotspot
uuid=00b96273-0d3d-4430-bacc-280f2cd0c19d
type=wifi
autoconnect=false
permissions=
secondaries=

[wifi]
hidden=false
mac-address=AC:B5:7A:85:D2:DA
mac-address-blacklist=
mac-address-randomization=0
mode=ap
seen-bssids=
ssid=name

[wifi-security]
group=ccmp;
key-mgmt=wpa-psk
pairwise=ccmp;
proto=rsn;
psk=password

[ipv4]
dns-search=
method=shared

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

I tried connecting using nmcli con up id Hotspot but it gave me the same error. I made sure the extra services like network.service or net-auto-wireless.service are disabled (They were already disabled).

Can anyone help me setting up a hotspot with network-manager.

Thanks in advance.

Solution

I have found the solution. I was missing some dependencies required to start ad-hoc. Here is the list of dependencies that network-manager requires.

Depends On      : libnm-glib  iproute2  polkit  wpa_supplicant  libsoup  libmm-glib  libnewt  libndp  libteam
Optional Deps   : dnsmasq: connection sharing
                  bluez: Bluetooth support [installed]
                  openresolv: resolvconf support [installed]
                  ppp: dialup connection support
                  rp-pppoe: ADSL support
                  dhclient: External DHCP client
                  modemmanager: cellular network support

dnsmasq was missing in my case. After I installed it, it started working.

Comments

[grochmal]

Just checking. You are not trying to make a hotspot with the same network interface that is currently connected to a wireless network, right?

[Jyotish P]

@grochmal - No. I have ethernet connected and I need ad-hoc on wireless. Anyway it seems I found the solution. Since arch doesn't ship with some packages, it had been difficult to find what was missing. I didn't have dnsmasq installed. So, now I installed it and it works fine.

[grochmal]

Good point, you might also add the reference to the arch wiki page that points to the add-hoc dependencies.