Re: how to disable WiFi / wpa-supplicant so hostapd can be used ?

[Thomas Haller <thaller redhat com>]

On Tue, 2021-07-20 at 22:04 +0100, Jason Vas Dias via networkmanager-
list wrote:
> If I do :
>   # nmcli radio wifi off
> , it disassociates the PHY for the device and I have to
>   'rfkill $id unblock' .
>   If I reenable wireless, and  do
>   # systemctl stop wpa_supplicant
>   # mv /usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant /usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant.bin
>  after starting NM, then I can run hostapd .
> I have to remember to move wpa_supplicant back after I stop
> using hostapd .
> Please add support for enabling either hostapd or wpa_supplicant,
> not both, to NM = or is there some way of disabling running the
> wpa_supplicant service only, without rfkill ?

Hi,


configure the device as unmanaged.

Temporarily, with `nmcli device set wlan0 managed no`


Permanently, there are several means (udev rules, config files). the
best seems to be a file

  /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/90-wlan-unmanaged.conf

with

  [device-90-wlan-unmanaged]
  match-device=interface-name:wlan0
  managed=0

see `man NetworkManager.conf`.


If you do it that way, you can still override it at runtime with `nmcli
device set wlan0 managed yes`.



I think `nmcli device set wlan0 managed yes` may not sufficiently
instruct wpa_supplicant to let go of the device. That means, you still
might need `systemctl stop wpa_supplicant.service`. Patch welcome to
properly handle the release of a device by setting it unmanaged.



best,
Thomas


> On 20/07/2021, Jason Vas Dias <jason vas dias gmail com> wrote:
> > Good day -
> >
> >  Whenever I try to run hostapd, NM still runs wpa-supplicant,
> >  which periodically tries to put the WiFi interface into scanning
> >  mode, which messes up the hostapd session .
> >
> >  Please is there a config file setting or applet interaction
> >  to disable wpa-supplicant (and maybe configure & run hostapd) ?
> >
> >  I'd like NM to start dhclient on my Wired interface, and
> >  be able to bring up my L2TP VPN, but leave the Wireless
> >  interface entirely alone.
> >
> >  Any way to do this in NetworkManager.conf or GUI ?
> >
> > Thanks in advance for any replies,
> > Best Regards,
> > Jason
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