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GNUser

Member

Registered: 2017-03-16

Posts: 577  

Re: [SOLVED] GNU/Linux laptop as router, vpn router, or wifi repeater

Hello again, mtbvfr. The nmcli command (see reply #25 just above) made the "handle_probe_req: send failed" messages disappear on my ThinkPad X230 with Devuan Daedalus Now the hotspot created with skinny-create-ap is completely stable.

I updated the script in reply #18 to include the nmcli command. I will go ahead and mark the thread as "Solved" (almost 7 years later--haha).

P.S. Please let me know if the nmcli command fixes things on your Lenovo L540. As for your other laptops, I'll leave those for you and other users to troubleshoot. I suggest scrutinizing the wifi hardware (not all hardware supports AP mode), excluding interference from network managers, and excluding interference from other software (e.g., rfkill).

Last edited by GNUser (2024-02-19 18:44:50)

mtbvfr

Member

Registered: 2017-07-29

Posts: 154  

Re: [SOLVED] GNU/Linux laptop as router, vpn router, or wifi repeater

Hi Bruno,

NetworkManager is installed and running when I experience the handle_probe_req: send failed issue.

If I run nmcli dev set wlan0 managed no, how do I undo the effects of this when I've finished using the Access Point or does the command sudo pkill hostapd; sudo pkill -f 'dnsmasq.*/tmp/dnsmasq.conf' take care of this?

Is wicd a viable alternative to NetworkManager?

I will try testing tomorrow.

Thanks, MTB.

GNUser

Member

Registered: 2017-03-16

Posts: 577  

Re: [SOLVED] GNU/Linux laptop as router, vpn router, or wifi repeater

If I run nmcli dev set wlan0 managed no, how do I undo the effects of this when I've finished using the Access Point

With nmcli dev set wlan0 managed yes

or does the command sudo pkill hostapd; sudo pkill -f 'dnsmasq.*/tmp/dnsmasq.conf' take care of this?

No.

Regarding wicd, its last stable release was in 2016 and last merge request from 2019. You could try it but the software is unmaintained.

mtbvfr

Member

Registered: 2017-07-29

Posts: 154  

Re: [SOLVED] GNU/Linux laptop as router, vpn router, or wifi repeater

Hi Bruno et al,

The nmcli command fixes things on the Lenovo L540.

After I enter my sudo password for running v2.3 of skinny-create-ap, there is no more output in the Terminal app. It simply returns to the Command Prompt.

Thanks! again, MTB.

GNUser

Member

Registered: 2017-03-16

Posts: 577  

Re: [SOLVED] GNU/Linux laptop as router, vpn router, or wifi repeater

Just a quick follow-up regarding haveged.

TL;DR version:
    With modern linux kernels (5.6 or later) there is no need to install haveged on a GNU/Linux box being used as a wireless router.

Detailed version:
    Entropy is needed for fast communication between wireless router and wireless clients (due to wpa2 cryptography operations). It used to be recommended to run cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail on the router and, if result was less than 1000, to install haveged and run it as a daemon to augment router's entropy pool.
    Turns out that linux 5.6 incorporated a haveged-inspired mechanism that generates entropy extremely quickly (~200 MiB/s), making the haveged daemon obsolete for this use case (fast entropy generation). Also, result of cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail is now meaningless (the command always returns "256").

Ref: https://github.com/jirka-h/haveged/issues/57

P.S. Would the forum moderator kindly delete haveged from Reply #18 (two places) and Reply #21 (one place)? I tried to delete it myself, but was denied ("You do not have permission to access this page").

Last edited by GNUser (2024-03-12 19:31:23)

mtbvfr

Member

Registered: 2017-07-29

Posts: 154  

Re: [SOLVED] GNU/Linux laptop as router, vpn router, or wifi repeater

Hi Folks,

Looks like the script has been broken by dnsmasq in the setup_dhcp() procedure.

I get the following output:

dnsmasq: failed to create listening socket for 192.168.50.1: Address already in use

The best I can do to help pinpoint the problem is the following.

sudo ss -tulpn | grep "192.168.50.1" provides the following output:

udp   UNCONN 0      0        192.168.50.1:137        0.0.0.0:*    users:(("nmbd",pid=2996,fd=21))        
udp   UNCONN 0      0        192.168.50.1:138        0.0.0.0:*    users:(("nmbd",pid=2996,fd=23))

pid=2996 refers to "nmbd -D"

TIA!!