Introduction

hotspotd is a daemon to create a wifi hotspot on GNU/Linux. It depends on hostapd for AP provisioning and dnsmasq to assign IP addresses to devices.

Install

Install dependencies on Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install hostapd dnsmasq  rfkill -y

Install dependencies on RHEL/CentOS/Fedora:

sudo yum install hostapd dnsmasq rfkill -y

Other distros

Make sure to have following packages installed:

• dnsmasq
• hostapd
• rfkill
• Python-3.6 with setuptools

To install hotspotd,

sudo pip install https://github.com/psachin/hotspotd/raw/py3/dist/hotspotd-0.1.8.tar.gz

Uninstall/Remove

sudo pip uninstall hotspotd

Following dependencies should be removed manually(Optional)

• dnsmasq
• hostapd
• rfkill

Usage

• Configure

  Please configure hotspot before you start for first time using,

   sudo hotspotd configure
  

  Note: Everytime 'configure' is run, new settings will take effect.

• To start hotspot:

   sudo hotspotd start
  

• To stop hotspot:

   sudo hotspotd stop
  

Troubleshooting

• hotspotd will dump logs on /var/log/hotspotd.log. Use for debugging and attaching logs while openinig issues.

• hotspotd creates the NAT by manipulating iptables rules. So if you have any other firewall software that manipulates the iptables rules (such as the firewalld on fedora), make sure you disable that.

• To create a hotspot, your wifi must support AP mode. To find that out, use this process:

  • Find your kernel driver module in use by issuing the below command:

     lspci -k | grep -A 3 -i network
    

    (example module: ath9k)

  • Now, use the below command to find out your wifi capabilities (replace ath9k by your kernel mmodule):

     modinfo ath9k | grep depend
    

  • If the above output includes mac80211 then it means your wifi card will support the AP mode.

Test status

This package has been tested on the following GNU/Linux distributions:

• Ubuntu 12.04 LTS(Qualcomm Atheros adapter)
• Ubuntu 14.04 LTS(Qualcomm Atheros adapter)
• Slackware 14.1(Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller)
• Fedora 26 & 27(Intel Corporation Wireless 7260)
• Manjaro-4.14.x(Arch Linux). Need to install wireless_tools & hostapd using pacman -S wireless_tools hostapd
• RaspberryPi 2(Model B V1.1) with raspbian

In theory, it should work with all other distros too (on machines having wifi adapters supported by hostapd), but you will have to try that out and tell me!

Notes

• Replace sudo with su or su -c if you manage superuser access in that manner.
• PyPI home page could be found at https://pypi.python.org/pypi/hotspotd
• I need someone to test this daemon across various linux distros. If you are interested in testing of open-source apps, please create an issue