Turning laptop into WAP using netgear WNA1100? (stuck at hostapd)

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I have a Netgear WNA1100 usb wifi adapter. I have installed Atheros driver from Forum Details (btw name of the file is ath9k_htc-installer.1.0.1-maverick-fixed.deb).

I wish to make a setup like connectify(windows) on ubuntu, so that I can connect my phone wirelessly to my laptop via Netgear WNA1100 (behaving as AP) and eventually use internet via my wired lan.

I have installed the above mentioned driver, hostapd and hostap-utils. Following is my hostapd.conf file.

ssid=vks
interface=wlan1 # The interface name of the card
driver=ath9k_htc # The card driver
macaddr_acl=0
accept_mac_file=/etc/hostapd.accept
deny_mac_file=/etc/hostapd.deny
ieee80211x=1 # Use 802.1X authentication
auth_algs=1
ignore_broadcast_ssid=0
wpa=2
wpa_passphrase=88888888
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
wpa_pairwise=TKIP
rsn_pairwise=CCMP

When i run 

sudo hostapd /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf

I get an error

invalid/unknown driver 'ath9k_htc # The card driver

I think the driver is installed fine, as i can see the blue led blinking on the netgear adapter, which was not blinking earlier.

  • Can someone please guide me how to achieve this setup?
  • I will appreciate an example hostapd.conf file with a simple wpa_psk security
    setup.
  • Please be detailed and descriptive with commands. How to run and end it.

Following is output from lsmod, i have only pasted the entries which had ath and ath related info. Which driver shall i use.

Module                  Size  Used by   
ath9k_htc              42903  0 
ath9k_common            2563  1   ath9k_htc   
ath9k_hw              285176  2 ath9k_htc,ath9k_common   
ath                    13001  2 ath9k_htc,ath9k_hw
cfg80211              139811  3 ath9k_htc,mac80211,ath
compat                  4020  1 cfg80211   
led_class               2633  3 ath9k_htc,thinkpad_acpi,sdhci

Thanks.

Answer

I just had a review of the ath9k_htc deb installer you’ve pointed to, it’s not a supported driver. Worse the installer is all over the place with debian errors, inconsistencies and a couple of security issues. It worries me that users and being recommended to install this package at all.

Check what kernel driver is currently loaded by using lsmod, if you can find ath9k or ath9k_htc in the list, then that’s what it’s called. Use that exactly name. If that still doesn’t work, then it’s very likely that because the htc is a non-standard driver, the hostapd just don’t know how to deal with it.

But I think it’s probably more likely that the driver is really the ath9k driver with new firmware.

Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : Vivek Sharma , Answer Author : Martin Owens -doctormo-

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