Hostapd nl80211 failed to set interface -19

Question

I am trying to run hostapd on Debian linux. I am using a Realtek rtl8188 usb wifi card, on a Olimex OLinuXino A13 WiFi. However, when I run the command hostapd -dd /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf I am getting an error.

root@a13-OLinuXino:~# hostapd -dd /etc.hostapd/hostapd.conf
random: Trying to read entropy from /dev/random
Configuration file: /etc/hostapd.conf
Could not open file /sys/class/net/wlan12/phy80211/name: No such file or directory
rfkill: Cannot open RFKILL control device
nl80211: RFKILL status not available
netlink: Operstate: Linkmode=0, operstate=6
nl80211: Set mode ifindex 3 iftype 2 (STATION)
nl80211: Failed to set interface 3 to mode 2: -19 (No such device)
nl80211: Try mode change after setting interface down
nl80211: Set mode ifindex 3 iftype 2 (STATION)
nl80211: Failed to set interface 3 to mode 2: -19 (No such device)
nl80211: Interface mode change to 2 from 0 failed
nl80211 driver initialization failed.

This is the configuration file for hostapd:

root@a13-OLinuXino:~# cat /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf
interface=wlan12
bridge=br0
driver=nl80211
country_code=NL
ssid=NAME
hw_mode=g
channel=3
wpa=2
wpa_passphrase=PASSWORD
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
wpa_pairwise=TKIP
rsn_pairwise=CCMP
auth_algs=1
macaddr_acl=0

Any help is very much appreciated!

Solution

You should change the driver=nl80211 to driver=rtl871xdrv on your /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf file :

Wifi chips like RT8188C and RT8192C, recognized as RTL8188CUS (or variants thereof) do not support the standard nl80211 driver of hostapd

AP mode (via hostapd) support for wifi chips that identify themselves as RTL8188CUS (or variants thereof). If you've seen or heard someone claim that a certain wifi chip works with a special version of hostapd driver called rtl871xdrv, this is it.

Or you can install a custom hostapd version with nl80211 support :

apt-get remove hostapd
git clone https://github.com/jenssegers/RTL8188-hostapd.git
cd RTL8188-hostapd/hostapd
make
make install

Comments

[MariusMatutiae]

Does iw list return any output? If so, what?