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I need help with wifi mesh on a linux machine.

According to iw phy ph0 info the combination of AP and mesh point shall be possible on my device:

        valid interface combinations:
                 * #{ managed } <= 2, #{ AP, mesh point, P2P-client, P2P-GO } <= 1, #{ P2P-device } <= 1,
                   total <= 3, #channels <= 2
                 * #{ AP } <= 2, #{ mesh point } <= 1, #{ P2P-device } <= 1,
                   total <= 2, #channels <= 1, radar detect widths: { 20 MHz (no HT), 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz }

Using iw command, I create a second wifi interface:

# iw dev wlan0 interface add mesh0 type mesh addr 12:34:56:78:ab:cd
# iw dev
phy#0
        Interface mesh0
                ifindex 10
                wdev 0x3
                addr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
                type managed
                txpower 0.00 dBm
        Unnamed/non-netdev interface
                wdev 0x2
                addr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
                type P2P-device
                txpower 0.00 dBm
        Interface wlan0
                ifindex 9
                wdev 0x1
                addr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
                type managed
                txpower 0.00 dBm

Then, I create 2 connections, 1 AP + mesh point using NetworkManager:

# nmcli c add type wifi ifname mesh0 ssid testmesh 802-11-wireless.mode mesh 802-11-wireless.band bg 802-11-wireless.channel 1 connection.id testmesh ipv4.addresses 192.168.201.2/24 ipv4.method manual

# nmcli dev wifi hotspot ifname wlan0 ssid $(hostname) password "xxxxxxxxx"

Now, if I try to bring up both connections, following error occurs:

# nmcli c u testmesh
Connection successfully activated (D-Bus active path: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/15)
# nmcli c u Hotspot
Error: Connection activation failed: 802.1X supplicant took too long to authenticate

Does anybody know why it fails? Has anyone tried to create a mesh point and a mesh access point using NetworkManager?

Update:

I started the wpa_supplicant with debug option and saw some errors:

...
nl80211: Beacon set failed: -16 (Device or resource busy)
Failed to set beacon parameters
...
nl80211: Frame command failed: ret=-16 (Device or resource busy) (freq=2412 wait=0)
...
Interface initialization failed
wlan0: interface state UNINITIALIZED->DISABLED
wlan0: AP-DISABLED
wlan0: Unable to setup interface.
Failed to initialize AP interface
...
nl80211: Frame command failed: ret=-16 (Device or resource busy) (freq=2412 wait=0)
...
nl80211: Failed to set interface 9 to mode 2: -16 (Device or resource busy)

Can someone help me?

2
  • Is your hotspot on channel 1? Commented May 4, 2021 at 15:08
  • @user1686 Yes it is 802-11-wireless.band: bg 802-11-wireless.channel: 1
    – alex
    Commented May 5, 2021 at 5:13

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