Raspberry Pi 3 access-point-setup

rPi3-ap-setup.sh

#!/bin/bash
#
# This version uses September 2017 august stretch image, please use this image
#

if [ "$EUID" -ne 0 ]
	then echo "Must be root"
	exit
fi

if [[ $# -lt 1 ]]; 
	then echo "You need to pass a password!"
	echo "Usage:"
	echo "sudo $0 yourChosenPassword [apName]"
	exit
fi

APPASS="$1"
APSSID="rPi3"

if [[ $# -eq 2 ]]; then
	APSSID=$2
fi

apt-get remove --purge hostapd -yqq
apt-get update -yqq
apt-get upgrade -yqq
apt-get install hostapd dnsmasq -yqq

cat > /etc/dnsmasq.conf <<EOF
interface=wlan0
dhcp-range=10.0.0.2,10.0.0.5,255.255.255.0,12h
EOF

cat > /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf <<EOF
interface=wlan0
hw_mode=g
channel=10
auth_algs=1
wpa=2
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
wpa_pairwise=CCMP
rsn_pairwise=CCMP
wpa_passphrase=$APPASS
ssid=$APSSID
ieee80211n=1
wmm_enabled=1
ht_capab=[HT40][SHORT-GI-20][DSSS_CCK-40]
EOF

sed -i -- 's/allow-hotplug wlan0//g' /etc/network/interfaces
sed -i -- 's/iface wlan0 inet manual//g' /etc/network/interfaces
sed -i -- 's/    wpa-conf \/etc\/wpa_supplicant\/wpa_supplicant.conf//g' /etc/network/interfaces
sed -i -- 's/#DAEMON_CONF=""/DAEMON_CONF="\/etc\/hostapd\/hostapd.conf"/g' /etc/default/hostapd

cat >> /etc/network/interfaces <<EOF
# Added by rPi Access Point Setup
allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet static
	address 10.0.0.1
	netmask 255.255.255.0
	network 10.0.0.0
	broadcast 10.0.0.255

EOF

echo "denyinterfaces wlan0" >> /etc/dhcpcd.conf

systemctl enable hostapd
systemctl enable dnsmasq

sudo service hostapd start
sudo service dnsmasq start

echo "All done! Please reboot"

This is specifically for the raspberry pi 3. The script should work with any wireless card setup as wlan0 that does not require a driver, please provide feedback, let me know any issues.

The use-case is setting up a private network, maybe for some rPi zero's to connect to, but the sky is the limit; you could bolt on a dns-server and provide a walled-garden internet experience like facebook (please don't), or host your personal project to showcase at interview.

Now allows you to specify the Access point (AP) name, so it does not have to be whatever it was before.

I suggest to share the eth0 connection that you add
net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
in /etc/sysctl.conf
and execute the following iptables command:
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE

This will allow the traffic to pass through the wifi AP and out via the ethernet connection.

Hi @vhgarandil,

Thanks for the suggestions, this is not a script to setup a wireless->ethernet bridge, however it is a good idea for an additional script to allow using a device (doesn't matter really if it's ethernet or another wifi dongle).

The main purpose of this script is to provide an access point with guest network (for now). But I may consider adding this, as many have asked for it

I am a very very new user having just received my rPi3 running Raspbian. In at the deep end I know but I thought this function would be useful. I have been able to compile the script and even run it, but am at a loss at getting past "you need a password!"
How do I respond to the usage advice line? I have tried to input a password but cannot get beyond causing the error 'command not found'. What am I missing?

Can you give me a prod in the right directions? Thanks if you can take the time to no doubt tell me the obvious!

I find this very useful. Could you add some options to help the user to share the eth0 connection through wifi.

Hi @ipplepen

So once you run the script, you can run
sudo rPi3-ap-setup.sh password wifiapname
and it will setup with the password "password", and the SSID "wifiapname"

@bitterypaul

Thanks, I'm looking right now at releasing something separate for that, so that you can share eth0, or any other networking device; I believe @vhgarandil suggestion (see above) will work for bridging eth0 as the primary connection, but to make a script do this; I think they should be separate scripts for people like me that don't want a bridge or repeater station.

I have some problems with this script.
Mind you, I am a total beginner with linux
On line 19 there is a var $APSSID (should that be APSSID ?) whilst on line 40 I see ssid=$APNAME (shouldn't that be $APSSID ?)

The other thing is an error I get on line 50 (when I remove the redirection that is)
Failed to create interface mon.wlan0 :-95 (Operation not supported)
wlan0 could not connect to kernel driver

What am I doing wrong please?

@elck nice catch on APSSID vs APNAME, must have renamed a var and forgot to copy to / update all lines (managing this via git might have been a better idea)

can I ask if you are using this on a raspberry Pi 3 using raspbian?

Most of the steps are entirely applicable on any debian based Linux on the Pi3, but raspbian has the official rPi3 hardware libs; so I'd advise using that (they have a lite edition now)

Thanks for the feedback, keep me updated

I have tried this script. All seems to be ok on the RPI3 side. But non of my devices at home are able to connect to the AP.

Any help would be appreciated.

can I ask the exact commands you ran?

Most devices should be able to connect to the rPi3, although it's not an internet pass-through Access-Point; it's so you can access your Pi to help to configure it with fewer wires

Good code you have here, but it just does not work for me,even though i am using raspbian. I've been trying for a few days to get the Pi3 AP working but it's always the same thing, saying that it could not start mon.wlan0 but the AP is enabled(i've attached a screenshot). Even so i can not connect with any device to the ap. Perhaps is there something i haven't installed?

Hello,

i copy the code. and type chmod-R 755
if i start it. i get the following error:

root@HaRuVerhuur-Matrix:/home# ./rpi3-ap-setup.sh testing aptest
You need to pass a password!
Usage:
sudo ./rpi3-ap-setup.sh yourChosenPassword [apName]

Grees Ruben Dijk

@RubenDijk
Try changing line 8 to:

if [[ $# -lt 1 ]];

The current code checks if the number of command line parameters is not equal to one (-ne 1). Since you specify the optional apName parameter, you have two parameters which causes the test to fail and hence the 'You need to pass a password!' error message.
Even better would be to test for less than one or greater than two, but I leave that as an exercise for @Lewiscowles1986 :)

_Author FYI_
I won't be taking part in "exercises" or assignments 😉

This works for me, but only if I add the following line to rc.local:

service hostapd start

I put it right before the "service dnsmasq restart".

Syntax error: "fi" unexpected (expecting "then")
why？

Hi,
How can switch wifi from "access point" mode to "standard" mode ?
Is it enough if i just remove lines from rc.local file and reboot?
Is there any other service like "dnsmasq" that needs to be swicthed off in "standard" mode?

I have this problem.
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo python rPi3-ap-setup.sh
File "rPi3-ap-setup.sh", line 3
if [ "$EUID" -ne 0 ]
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
pi@raspberrypi:~ $

@lvhailong This is a shell script as denoted by the shebang at the top and .sh extension.

Thanks @usertaken

@navaneetharaopy you would have to edit the /etc/rc.local, but also disable hostapd and dnsmasq services

sed -i -- 's/wlan0/wlan999/g' /etc/rc.local should do for rc.local, then sed -i -- 's/wlan999/wlan0/g' /etc/rc.local if you want to restore on wlan0

@csatt

This works for me, but only if I add the following line to rc.local:

service hostapd start

I put it right before the "service dnsmasq restart".

that should not be required as dnsmasq is started on the next line. Hostapd is started within the script too!

I see where dnsmasq is started. Where is hostapd started? The "hostapd - B ..." command on the last line fails (for me) unless the service is started first. Do you have to run "sudo update-rc.d hostapd enable" or something like that for it to work without explicitly starting the service in rc.local?

@adiroman

I'm having a really similar problem, getting the errors

Failed to create interface mon.wlan0: 95 (Operation not supported)
and
wlan0: could not connect to kernel driver

but not the other stuff.

Anyone have a solution?

I tried sudo hostapd /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf
Then i got

drv->ifindex=3
l2_sock_recv==l2_sock_xmit=0x0xfc5648
ioctl[SIOCSIWMODE]: Invalid argument
Could not set interface to mode(3)!
Could not set interface to master mode!
rtl871xdrv driver initialization failed.

No one can help with @adiroman, @SammoMate AND my problem?

@marianomarini @adiroman @SammoMate I just used the script on a fresh jessie-lite image from the raspberry pi website. The only issue I encountered was one line for the access-point name which should now be fixed. This works with fresh jessie-lite image, not sure what could be interfering

Everything works perfectly, but I can not access the internet on my phone when connected to my pi. What should I change in order to be able to connect to the internet?

Many thanks @lewiscoles1986 - worked out of the box! Thank you :)

(If the bridge script were to come along that would be fantastic :))

I'll add the bridge script soon and link here

Not work for me .

root@kali:~/git/ap# ./rPi3-ap-setup.sh  testtest mehran
./rPi3-ap-setup.sh: line 19: rPi3=mehran: command not found
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  freeglut3 libgnutls-deb0-28 libpng12-0 libpoppler57
Use 'apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  hostapd*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 446 not upgraded.
After this operation, 981 kB disk space will be freed.
(Reading database ... 233701 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing hostapd (1:2.5-2+v2.4-2) ...
Purging configuration files for hostapd (1:2.5-2+v2.4-2) ...
dpkg: warning: while removing hostapd, directory '/etc/hostapd' not empty so not removed
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
Processing triggers for systemd (230-7) ...
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
dnsmasq is already the newest version (2.76-4).
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  freeglut3 libgnutls-deb0-28 libpng12-0 libpoppler57
Use 'apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  hostapd
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 446 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/491 kB of archives.
After this operation, 981 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Selecting previously unselected package hostapd.
(Reading database ... 233677 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../hostapd_1%3a2.5-2+v2.4-2_armhf.deb ...
Unpacking hostapd (1:2.5-2+v2.4-2) ...
Processing triggers for systemd (230-7) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
Setting up hostapd (1:2.5-2+v2.4-2) ...
update-rc.d: We have no instructions for the hostapd init script.
update-rc.d: It looks like a network service, we disable it.
insserv: warning: current start runlevel(s) (empty) of script `hostapd' overrides LSB defaults (2 3 4 5).
insserv: warning: current stop runlevel(s) (0 1 2 3 4 5 6) of script `hostapd' overrides LSB defaults (0 1 6).
Processing triggers for systemd (230-7) ...
All done!

root@kali yeah, looks like raspbian @mehranexpert... this is for specific hardware and software _RASPBERRY PI 3 & OFFICIAL RASPBIAN_

You might want to checkout resin.io

I have the same issue than @adiroman

I install the latest version of RASPBIAN JESSIE LITE on my Raspberry Pi Model 3
I ssh into it and run:

wget https://gist.githubusercontent.com/Lewiscowles1986/fecd4de0b45b2029c390/raw/71a732423f7302cd7dd441e9c98f38a7ec471b4c/rPi3-ap-setup.sh
chmod +x rPi3-ap-setup.sh
sudo apt-get update
sudo ./rPi3-ap-setup.sh password apname

All seems to be good, but when I run sudo /usr/sbin/hostapd /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf

This is the output:

Configuration file: /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf
Failed to create interface mon.wlan0: -95 (Operation not supported)
wlan0: Could not connect to kernel driver
Using interface wlan0 with hwaddr b8:27:eb:fc:f9:b4 and ssid "dmcom-mad"
wlan0: interface state UNINITIALIZED->ENABLED
wlan0: AP-ENABLED

why are you running anything, just reboot the pi, it should automatically start... I'm going to make a slightly modified one using systemd service instead of hacky approach to /etc/rc.local, but I've just run this successfully on the pixel release and the latest jessie lite release.

_.bash_history_

ping google.com
cd /boot
ls
sudo reboot
sudo cp /boot/wpa_supplicant.conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/
sudo reboot
wget http://bit.ly/2cOGZuL
chmod +x  2cOGZuL
sudo apt update
sudo 2cOGZuL password apname
reboot

I did see some error messages on boot, but I still have the apname show up in my list (which is new for me, as I generally pick one)

Also there is now a newer version using systemd, and this companion script for anyone wanting to pass through an adapter.

Hello everyone, i'll always receive "errors were encountered while processing:hoastapd" during the setup.
Do you have any idea?
Thanks in advance,
Simone

Dear All,

I want to use Rpi 3's wifi in both Access Point and Station mode simultaneously or at a time one but without reconfigure(reboot the pi).And now, i did to both mode individual configure and work its fine but problem is every time configure change for individual mode.
Please guide me.

How to setting up a kind of bridge between eth0 and wlan0 like @vhgarandil told. I don't get it it's not working for me. Please you upload a kind of other script just for doing a bridge? (I'd like to access to internet by the AP) I'm still waiting for it. Keep updating i like what you do @Lewiscowles1986!

@nenoork, there is another script linked above... Please go to this url https://gist.github.com/Lewiscowles1986/f303d66676340d9aa3cf6ef1b672c0c9

@PratikGajera I'm really sorry I don't understand what you are asking

I am asking about that which way to configure wifi that run it both mode station and Access Point.

Script runs great, but how do you revert back to station mode?

systemctl disable hostapd
systemctl disable dnsmasq

and adding

wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf to /etc/interfaces should do it. Really at the point you are doing that this quick and dirty version won't work too well for you

Just ran this on my raspberry pi 3 and now I no longer have a wifi interface in raspbian. Does this require having another usb wifi adapter plugged in?

Also, How do I completely remove this?

@goodpunk6 this does not require a second wifi adapter unless using as a range extender...

@goodpunk6 to remove this try the following

sudo apt-get remove --purge hostapd dnsmasq

then add wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf to /etc/interfaces inside the /dev/wlan0 section

alternatively backup your home folder and re-flash the jessie-pixel or jessie-lite image

It would be really nice to have a way to automacally revert the chages made by this script, so that one could get back to normal use of your RPi as easily.

@goodpunk6 I've got the same problem as you: no wireless interfaces found

how i connect rspi3 to a network?

@heniotierra. More than happy to see a fork that does. I don't think shell is a good place to do this, it's more of a DSC deal where existing tools could take this and make for example an ansible playbook that stacks little scripts like this to specify a desired state of a raspberry pi

I'm having the same issue as @adiroman and @doktor500.
Apologies if I missed it but did either of you get a resolution to your problem?

GREAT JOB my firend!!
I was struggling among a lot of sligtly different directions to get my Rpi3 working as an AP.
Some of them didn't work at all, some just get the Rpi3 working as AP ignoring the other commands to route traffic to share the eth0 internet connection.
Your script worked at first shot and combined with your other script at
https://gist.github.com/Lewiscowles1986/f303d66676340d9aa3cf6ef1b672c0c9
I got it working also as a AP with traffic forwarding,...

...but my question is:

Can the Rpi3 work like any other 'out of the box' AP on the market?

I mean, 'transparent' like any AP I can buy on store shelfs? So, the wifi devices connected to the AP 'share' the same IP class as the primary router. Or, even better, get the IP address from the DHCP working on the primary router?

I am quite out of the IP configurations world, and I am just wondering if I can set the static IP class of the wlan0 to join my home lan configuration and have wireless devices on the same subnet of the primary router.

This because I need to send/receive some UDP packets to devices 'wifi connected' to the lan through the Rpi (on other ports than the 80)
Any idea is welcome...

And, once again, thank you very very much for sharing your code!

@Clint67 thanks 👍

You can alter the dnsmasq config file to allocate to the same subnet if that is what you'd like. You could also adjust the mask or change the rules from the other script but I've never attempted nor have the inclination to make it compete with AP makers. Fork it and share your changes with the world!

😉

Hi Lewis,

First off thank you for creating such an easy to use script and helping troubleshoot. I'm trying to set up a new Pi3 to create a local network for several other Pi3s and I stumbled upon your script (among several sketchy or out-of-date tutorials). I ran the script on a brand new installation of Rasbian using NOOBS but I'm having a couple issues. If I don't reboot after the script runs then I can see the newly created AP on my phone and laptop, but they are not being assigned an IP address. If I reboot the Pi3 then the AP doesn't even show up.

I'm a bit of a Linux noob so I'm unsure of how to go about troubleshooting; it appears as though hostapd and dnsmasq are both running after the reboot but they aren't functioning properly. Do these programs create a log file or anything I can look at? Is there any monitoring feature so I can see error/other messages in real-time?

Thanks again!

Great script! Only thing I had to configure was the following:

sudo nano /etc/default/hostapd
DAEMON_CONF="/etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf"

Otherwise the systemd service would exit right away. Not sure why, because the config is passed as a parameter.

@tverboon that is strange, as you say we specify hostapd inside the service we completely generate from scratch

@dfarley1 this wasn't written for NOOBS and hasn't been tested on NOOBS, it's written for jessie pixel and jessie lite

On logging I haven't set it up, but try sudo ls -lhaR /var/log it should recursively list all log files. If there are not specific logs it may end up in syslog (I Have to admit I pretty much record what I do to get working, I'm by no means an expert with either. Much like yourself I became fed-up of tutorials asking people to attend the installation and have more than minimal input)

Thanks for the script!
I ran it step by step on a minibian https://minibianpi.wordpress.com/ after having installed the wifi https://minibianpi.wordpress.com/how-to/rpi3/
Nevertheless, I didn't use the line 67, because it does not make sense to me.
@adiroman, @doktor500, @botzen67 I encountered the same error, but it disappeared after a couple of reboot
NB: the length of the password must be at least 8 characters
I added a command to prevent energy saver from stopping the wifi interface: http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/43473

Thank you for this script. I was having trouble getting this to work after boot using 'hypriot'. If I manually restarted the service I could see the SSID but after a fresh reboot it just wouldn't show up. There were no errors in the logs and the output look exactly the same as when it worked manually. I figured it was a timing issue with the startup sequence. I finally got it to work by changing line 3 of the Systemd unit file to this instead:
After=network.target
It now shows up just fine after a reboot.

How to disable the AP script after use?

This is great! I ran into a problem however because the password length must be at least 8 character. It'd be great to add a check like:

if [ $APPASS -lt 8 ]
then
  echo "Password must be greater than 8 characters"
  exit
fi

Otherwise one must manually run /usr/sbin/hostapd -B /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf -P /var/run/hostapd.pid to see the error (and the AP will silently fail to start).

Unsolicited advice

reinhart1010, I copied the dhcpcd.conf and interfaces files to dhcpcd.conf.station and interfaces.station before I ran the script
and then copied them to dhcpcd.conf.access_point and interfaces.access_point after I ran the script. Then I have two little scripts in the same directory I can run to switch back and forth:

restart_station

#
cp dhcpcd.conf.station /etc/dhcpcd.conf
cp interfaces.station /etc/network/interfaces
systemctl disable hostapd
shutdown -r now

restart_access_point

#
cp dhcpcd.conf.access_point /etc/dhcpcd.conf
cp interfaces.access_point /etc/network/interfaces
systemctl enable hostapd
shutdown -r now

@Clint67
Did you succeed with this setup? if so, could you share what you did?

when running:
sudo /usr/sbin/hostapd /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf
I got:

Configuration file: /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf
Failed to create interface mon.wlan0: -95 (Operation not supported)
wlan0: Could not connect to kernel driver
Using interface wlan0 with hwaddr b8:27:eb:69:ae:44 and ssid "testing"
wlan0: interface state UNINITIALIZED->ENABLED
wlan0: AP-ENABLED

The AP is working, I can connect to it but there is no internet access.

I use an RPI3 with the build-in wireless and the latest Raspbian with Pixel

Help will be very much appreciated, Thnk you

Thank you! This worked for me. Also, thank you for not adding the wireless->ethernet bridge. A lot of people want this but in my case, I'm only providing an interface to my device.

Setting up captive portal would be helpful, so that a browser automatically opens and loads the main page from the server running on the RPi.

For captive portal, try adding in dnsmasq.conf

address=/#/<address of your ap>

Hi there! I was wondering how I could make the SSID hidden, as in it isn't broadcast to all computers and you have to manually enter the SSID on the connecting devices.

ignore_broadcast_ssid=0 in /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf should hide the SSID.

hi,
thank you very much for sharing this! :)
but i've and error :

rPi3-ap-setup.sh: 6: [: Illegal number: rPi3-ap-setup.sh: 11: rPi3-ap-setup.sh: [[: not found rPi3-ap-setup.sh: 21: rPi3-ap-setup.sh: [[: not found Reading package lists... Done
how can I resolve this ?

don't know what people are running to get some of these errors. I run stock raspbian-lite, and have now got this working with the stretch distro

I copy a wpa_supplicant.conf to the pi with my wifi details, create a file named ssh both on /boot, power it on, wait a few seconds

From my PC I then run

ssh pi@raspberrypi.local  -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null

Once connected to the Pi I run

curl -sSL https://gist.github.com/Lewiscowles1986/fecd4de0b45b2029c390/raw/0c8b3af3530a35db9ab958defe9629cb5ea99972/rPi3-ap-setup.sh | sudo bash $0 password rPi3AP

sudo wget -q https://gist.githubusercontent.com/Lewiscowles1986/390d4d423a08c4663c0ada0adfe04cdb/raw/5b41bc95d1d483b48e119db64e0603eefaec57ff/dhcpcd.sh -O /usr/lib/dhcpcd5/dhcpcd
sudo chmod +x /usr/lib/dhcpcd5/dhcpcd

Then I reboot and it works

Hi, does it have a feature that if I connect ethernet cable on RPi3 and it gives internet connection like a router?

@mrsimple97 it's not a bridge or wifi range extender, it's just an access point. I use it to make fake internet / network.

You can try combining with https://gist.github.com/Lewiscowles1986/f303d66676340d9aa3cf6ef1b672c0c9 to make this a bridge, however, YMMV depending upon interface names

Hello, I have tried to run your script but eth0 disappear. I have also written a script with the same base and eth0 also disappear. Have you an idea where is the trouble?

@jonathandreyer do you have a .bash_history I can look at. Also what is the output of ip -a command (it's the new ifconfig). Please attach to a gist or pastebin and link that here 😉

This script works fine with Ubuntu Mate 16.04.3 LTS on rpi3.
Edit: I wanted to use this to trick my chromecast, but it is a No Go. Ho on earth do i reverse what the script did to have wlan works as before script was applied?
Edit: Please forgive my noobieness.

Edit: Figured it out :-D

👍 @buckster123 glad you worked it out. Do you think this would benefit from an uninstall action?

This works well for me, correctly setting up the wireless AP, but I also lose my ethernet connection. If I comment out the lines added in the /etc/network/interfaces file and reboot, the AP goes down as expected and I get ethernet back.

Here's a pastebin of my ifconfig -a. Running on a rpi3 on Raspbian Stretch with desktop. Thanks.

Edit: I got the ethernet working again after adding these lines to /etc/network/interfaces:
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

At the very top

# This version uses September 2017 august stretch image, please use this image

So which exact release date is meant with that? 2017-09-07 or 2017-08-16

Thanks for clarification!

Spent a good couple of hours trying to do all this manually searching Google then stumbled across this script. Thanks!

I had previously setup bridging between eth0 and wlan0 with the iptables commands but after rebooting from running the script I noticed my eth0 disappeared from ifconfig so I added the following to /etc/network/interfaces underneath what your script added in there and it worked. Seems related to what @JddAndrewLauren mentioned.

auto eth0
    allow-hotplug eth0
    iface eth0 inet dhcp

Oh btw https://gist.github.com/Lewiscowles1986/390d4d423a08c4663c0ada0adfe04cdb fixes stretch release network config (which sucks)

Thanks for the script. Getting an AP up on an rpi3 w/ stretch is a BEAR. I used most of your initial script (above) and your most recent script on the stretch network config (here) BUT had to add hostapd -dd /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf > /dev/null to my rc.local file. Without it the pi boots up and hostapd shows up as "active" "exited" and the AP never starts. Thanks again.

Worked perfect until now. Stuck at obtaining IP address. Do You know what it might be?

@stsdc try changing this:
ieee80211n=1
to this:
ieee80211ac=1
Seemed to work for me. I think it has to do with compatibility of different WiFi devices.

@Lewiscowles1986 This script works well! I noticed though that now it disables scanning for other APs on wlan0. I understand that this is necessary to start the AP but is there a way to disable the AP temporarily to access WiFi? I noticed that the AP starts at reboot so I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do.

Not sure it matters, but when I ran this just now, the first output I saw after a bit was this:

E: Failed to fetch http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/dists/stretch/main/binary-armhf/Packages.gz  Hash Sum mismatch
   Hashes of expected file:
    - Filesize:122952 [weak]
    - SHA256:5ec0dba10fe405527b7a5cea245c60d33f6b8d10f0042b0a0046b4b203e33d3c
    - SHA1:b219b21de30952d1b3813fc1942544a63847ddd7 [weak]
    - MD5Sum:e4f5f4b020d75bf7ab5411093d34af8e [weak]
   Hashes of received file:
    - SHA256:753dccd1ae7a297ed4d484bafbe6d9e385489346ce898880e1d951ebddbf1267
    - SHA1:90c0f040f4d4d1d81f8e60d400026a88683503b9 [weak]
    - MD5Sum:a551bc63947e667bb483b8dd528f4b3c [weak]
    - Filesize:98304 [weak]
   Last modification reported: Tue, 31 Oct 2017 12:39:08 +0000
   Release file created at: Tue, 31 Oct 2017 12:26:45 +0000
E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

To be clear this didn't seem to have any adverse effects, and I did a sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade afterwards to be on the safe side.

This even worked on the tinkerboard right out of the box, thanks a lot!

It hosts ap, but if i try to connect to it from other devices, i cant.. it just sais connecting...

Hi there. Fantastic script! I have tried countless tutorial on how to get the AP set up in stretch and none of them worked. This script is the first to show an ssid at all! And I can connect to it. I only have one thing to sort ou to fit my needs and Im a bit confused.

I'm also creating a captive portal on the pi. I want a client to connect to the pi and be able to access the portal. Hopefully it can open automatically using the solution I saw in the comments when a client connects to the AP.

I dont want the client that is connected to the AP (pi) to have internet access so no bridging required.

I do however need the AP (pi) to have an internet connection also via wifi so that it can connect to the internet. I have a mifi router which it has to connect to. It would be fantastic if it would also connect through ethernet. I basically need the onboard wifi to connect to a router as well as provide an access point. I saw someone in the comments asking about the same thing (simultanious station/AP mode)

I have installed this script and it works great but it remòves the internet connection via wifi. I have tried some of the solutions in the comments after installing this script such as adding the wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf file to /etc/network/interfaces file under wlan0 and all the static IP stuff but I cannot get the internet connection back.

When I add wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf, the access point disappears, iw wlan0 link shows its connected to my router but I still don't have internet access.

When I add wpa-roam /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf, the access point is still available but iw wlan0 link show not connected and you guessed int, no internet connection.

Any help on how to get the internet connection back with an available wifi AP would be much appreciated.

Thanks again for these awesome scripts!

Many thanks for your script that looks exactly like what I need to run a remote desktop for my RPi3 using an android device on the field, away of wifi networks.
But I'm afraid I need a bit more of help...

I have downloaded and run rPi3-ap-setup.sh, then downloaded dhcpcd.sh and copied it to /usr/lib/dhcpcd5/dhcpcd (as you mention in your comment of 12 Oct).
Unfortunately, I reboot but I get no AP: the 2 arrows sign has two "X" and indicates "eth0: link is down", with no mention to wlan0.
The network defined at running rPi3-ap-setup.sh is not visible by any other machine.
I guess there is something I'm missing.
I'm running raspbian stretch 9.3 released 2017-11-29 kernel version 4.9
Thanks for your help

Thanks for the useful script. I wanted eth0 working with internet and wireless AP without internet access. I my case, after reboot Wireless AP created as I needed but eth0 didnot work.
Then I changed /etc/network/interfaces as below:

source-directory /etc/network/interfaces.d
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet static
address 10.0.0.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 10.0.0.0
broadcast 10.0.0.255

And sudo raspi-config > Advanced Options > Network interface names > Yes

And finally edited /lib/udev/rules.d/73-usb-net-by-mac.rules by changing NAME="$env{ID_NET_NAME_MAC}" to NAME="eth0".

After Reboot all is good as I needed.

@Lexicographical

To disable AP mode after install

sudo update-rc.d hostpad disable
sudo update-rc.d dnsmasq disable

To enable AP mode after install

sudo update-rc.d hostpad enable
sudo update-rc.d dnsmasq enable

You'd also have to edit /etc/network/interfaces. The easiest way to do this would be to copy the file before running this script to somewhere safe, using links to link to the config you need

sudo mkdir -p /etc/pi-ap
sudo cp /etc/network/interfaces /etc/pi-ap/standard-config

wget https://gist.github.com/Lewiscowles1986/fecd4de0b45b2029c390/raw/0c8b3af3530a35db9ab958defe9629cb5ea99972/rPi3-ap-setup.sh
chmod +x rPi3-ap-setup.sh
sudo apt-get update
sudo ./rPi3-ap-setup.sh password apname

sudo cp /etc/network/interfaces /etc/pi-ap/ap-mode-config

sudo rm /etc/network/interfaces
sudo ln -f /etc/pi-ap/ap-mode-config /etc/network/interfaces

# Probably reboot here

then as well as the above for enabling and disabling, you can exchange link targets between ap-mode and stock /etc/network/interfaces file. It's a bit advanced, but doable.

You, sir, are awesome. I've been fighting AP configuration for months, and NOTHING. WAS. WORKING.
But I ran this script on a fresh Raspbian-Stretch-Lite image and it worked in one shot. Fantastic.
I'd buy you a beer if I could.

Hi there , can you please tell how can I undo all the settings done by this code?

This file has resulted in no internet connectivity to my raspberry pi. It says Connection to dhcpcd lost. I'm totally clueless what to do now. Pleaseeeee helllpppp!!!! Plus the raspberry pi didn't become the access point

Awww. spam :removed: 😉

@Aimma did you follow the guide like 2 comments above your question?

@lucascrandle removed for spam, please don't do that again. I've just re-tested (again), the script works on raspberry pi 3's (it's designed platform) using raspbian (as designed). Start a blog elsewhere if you want to post links. I don't want people to be confused further.

@dereksnyder42v2 cheers 👍

Thanks Lewis!
13-Mar-2018 -- Pi-day-eve.
I thought I'd contribute a tiny bit back by sharing what I had to do to employ this on the 2017-11-09 version of Raspian Lite (Stretch) on my first generation Model B Raspberry Pi.
I added an empty file named "ssh" to the root folder of my SD card in order to enable SSH to my headless Pi.
I prepended "net.ifnames=0 " to the contents of /boot/cmdline.txt in order to get old-school interface names back.
I installed the policykit-1 package after running your rPi3-ap-setup.sh script (above) and having it break my eth0 interface, thus preventing me from SSH-ing back into the Pi after reboot. So I suggest doing a "sudo apt-get install policykit-1" on this version of Raspian BEFORE running rPi3-ap-setup.sh. Policykit-1 allowed eth0 to come back online after the next reboot.
I ran rPi3-ap-setup.sh, of course.
I received the cryptic error about dhcpcd failing due to /etc/network/interfaces defining some interfaces that will use a DHCP client or static address. I spent hours trying to understand all the parts of that, and stumbled across another of your scripts (thank you again) -- dhcpcd.sh, here.
I copied dhcpcd.sh to its intended home "sudo cp dhcpcd.sh /usr/lib/dhcpcd5/dhcpcd" and rebooted. All now works as intended. Yeah!

Question: After employing this solution on the 2017-11-09 version of Raspian Lite (Stretch), it seems like I may have two competing DHCP clients running.
"pi@raspberrypi:~ $ dpkg -l | grep dhcp"
returns

• ii dhcpcd5 1:6.11.5-1+rpt4 armhf DHCPv4, IPv6RA and DHCPv6 client with IPv4LL support
• ii isc-dhcp-client 4.3.5-3 armhf DHCP client for automatically obtaining an IP address
• ii isc-dhcp-common 4.3.5-3 armhf common manpages relevant to all of the isc-dhcp packages

Am I interpreting that correctly? And if so, is the answer to simply uninstall ics-dhcp-client? Aside from this question, I'm convinced it is all working as intended on this platform.

I get this error:

pi@raspberrypi:~/Desktop $ sudo bash ./rPi3-ap-setup.sh password apname
E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), is another process using it?
E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), is another process using it?
E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), is another process using it?
./rPi3-ap-setup.sh: line 35: /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf: No such file or directory
sed: can't read /etc/default/hostapd: No such file or directory
Failed to enable unit: File hostapd.service: No such file or directory
Failed to enable unit: File dnsmasq.service: No such file or directory
Failed to start hostapd.service: Unit hostapd.service not found.
Failed to start dnsmasq.service: Unit dnsmasq.service not found.
All done! Please reboot

If I type : sudo bash Desktop/rPi3-ap-setup.sh YourWifiApName YourWifiApPassword the terminal gets frozen.
I have Pi zero W.How can I make this work?
I am a novice in this Pi programming.

@jimbo1969 sorry, as it states all over the place. This is intended to work with a Raspberry Pi 3. I Cannot comment on your needed changes for an earlier raspberry Pi or packages as I don't make Raspberry Pi distro. There is a networking fix for dhcpcd5 here https://gist.github.com/Lewiscowles1986/390d4d423a08c4663c0ada0adfe04cdb same deal. It should be installed before this script.

@GigiBoot, Looks like some of the stages fail, likely due to you not having networking setup. I've not run this on a PiZero-W. This script is only intended for a Raspberry Pi 3 and it's onboard network wlan

This worked with Raspian Stretch March 2018

Unsolicited advice

First I needed to mv your .sh:
Lewiscowles1986/dhcpcd.sh into the /usr/lib/dhcpcd5 directory:

sudo mv /usr/lib/dhcpcd5/dhcpcd /usr/lib/dhcpcd5/dhcpcd.orig

sudo mv /boot/dhcpcd.sh /usr/lib/dhcpcd5/dhcpcd

I then ran your script:
sudo ./rPi3-ap-setup.sh hello123 ApYo

I did need to make one modification, I added:
apt-get update
after apt-get upgrade.
I'm not sure why the upgrade was messing with the ability to install hostapd.

I also recommend placing both .sh files in the /boot directory and adding the command:
cp /boot/dhcpcd.sh /usr/lib/dhcpcd5/dhcpcd

This will remove one more manual step.

Thanks

***EDIT: *** @Lewiscowles1986 the following scripts might have saved you time Adapter passthrough & Stretch dhcpcd fix. the below linked a blog post I've removed.

The script executed without any issues, but I was not able to get internet for my mobile devies(Connect, no internet)

Unsolicited Advice

I followed a combination of this gist and this blog: removed

I believe SET UP IPV4 FORWARDING section from removed did the trick for me.

1. Execute ./rPi3-ap-setup.sh <password> <ssid>

2. Explicitly set ipv4 forwarding

sudo vim /etc/sysctl.conf

remove the # from the beginning of the line containing net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

3. share our Pi's internet connection to our devices connected over WiFi by the configuring a NAT between our wlan0 interface and our eth0 interface. We can do this using the following commands:

sudo iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE  
sudo iptables -A FORWARD -i eth0 -o wlan0 -m state --state RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT  
sudo iptables -A FORWARD -i wlan0 -o eth0 -j ACCEPT  

4. However, we need these rules to be applied every time we reboot the Pi, so run sudo sh -c "iptables-save > /etc/iptables.ipv4.nat to save the rules to the file /etc/iptables.ipv4.nat. Now we need to run this after each reboot, so open the rc.local file with sudo nano /etc/rc.local and just above the line exit 0, add the following line

iptables-restore < /etc/iptables.ipv4.nat  

5. It's working!!!

---

Thanks! @Lewiscowles1986 @frillip

After struggling with several instructions on the Internet this script works perfect for my Raspberry Pi Zero W with latest Raspian Stretch Lite and dslrdashboard server to Wifi control my Nikon DSLR over a standalone SSID. Thank you very much for this.

Thank you @youwalther65

Thank's 👍 I was struggling the complete day setting up the AP didn't get it working. Your script does it :-)

Also had the problem that eth0 disappear: but @JddAndrewLauren commet fixed that

This is so awesome! I've made an RPi Zero W based gadget that I want to control via mobile phone. This was a VERY easy way to set up hostapd to allow me to connect device to device and not need a local network. I'll credit you when I publish my build notes. Thank you!

Worked on first try for me! Thanks to @JddAndrewLauren and @maxi94 for comments about getting eth0 back!

Just a note, if you search the comments there are other ways to get eth0 back without adding an /etc/networking/interfaces entry for it 😉

Thanks @RichardBronosky & @moppymopperson

Lewis
Thanks for your excellent script.
I have connected my rPi3 running Stretch Lite with your AP script to a USB tethered Samsung phone & forwarded AP traffic to a USB port.

Everything works fine & is stable. However if the throughput to the Internet is say 30Mbps when I connect the phone to a windows PC via a USB port, I am getting about 8Mbps when connecting the PC via the rPi3 AP. The cpu load on th rPi3 is minimal.

Have you any idea why this is so? Suggestions to improve?
Thanks
Chris

I have everything working i can connect to the access point and all the traffic is also routed from ethernet to access point but my ethernet icon says "connection to dhcpcd lost" though when i ifconfig it shows eth0 and also ip address. Plzz help me out about ethernet icon plzz.. Thnx in advance

Hi @ChrisRichards2 I have no idea matey.

Perhaps the wifi on the Pi3 is just not up to it. I've never really tried to measure WiFi speed.

@amishm766 I don't know anything about that problem, it sounds like the GUI is misreporting or maybe something is messed up.

@adiroman, @doktor500, @botzen67 ,I have face the same error, However the AP works fine for me even with this error. For wpa authentication, just try kill wpa_supplicant process before running hostapd.

Is this possible on an rpi 3b? If so, how? Im new to all this, i dont know shell, so is there like an image i can just flash onto my raspi?
EDIT
Also, how. Would i implament this in something like pi-distro’s pi-gen?
https://github.com/RPi-Distro/pi-gen

@Ridley-nelson this works on a 3b & 3b+

How? Follow the guides, learn shell first. I've tried to document, but I'm afraid it might be too much of a stretch for me to advise the whole internet on how to use. If you scroll up you'll see some notes to others.

• use raspbian
• follow those instructions above
• have fun

pi-gen wouldn't run these exact commands as they are on a Pi. In order to run these in an environment like Pi-gen, you'd need to be in a chroot so that the paths worked and the commands act in the expected way for the built image. This is not something I can help with, but hopefully that helps to signpost

Hey @Lewiscowles1986, awesome job on the script. I am just stuck at one part and would like your quick scrutiny on that. I am using raspberry pi 3 b+ as the device and ran the script on it without any errors. Rebooted it. Access point shows up. But, it is unable to provide an IP Address to whichever end device I try to connect it with. What could be the issue here?

EDIT: I am not using any bridging, just the Access point which your script generates.

It could be that the DHCP server has not started so cannot assign address, or that you're not entering the correct password

This works for me on my raspberry pi zero w. hostapd failed to start up initially but a sudo service hostapd stop && sudo service hostapd start fixed it.

curl -sSL https://gist.github.com/Lewiscowles1986/fecd4de0b45b2029c390/raw/0c8b3af3530a35db9ab958defe9629cb5ea99972/rPi3-ap-setup.sh | sudo bash $0 password rPi3AP

sudo wget -q https://gist.githubusercontent.com/Lewiscowles1986/390d4d423a08c4663c0ada0adfe04cdb/raw/5b41bc95d1d483b48e119db64e0603eefaec57ff/dhcpcd.sh -O /usr/lib/dhcpcd5/dhcpcd
sudo chmod +x /usr/lib/dhcpcd5/dhcpcd

@bengefferies, the dhcpcd5 should come first as you may lose internet. Same for the adapter pass-through script. They should at least be downloaded before running any script

Thank you for this! I couldn't find anything else on what to do.

@bkis your script calls out correctly "systemctl unmask hostapd" and for dnsmasq also are now required to start the services.

Running this script as is fails because services are now masked by default.

Thank you and thank you to the author @Lewiscowles1986.

For those interested, my configuration uses a USB Wireless Adapter (Edimax which is Realtek RTL8188CUS) in addition to the built in WiFi for Raspberry Pi 3.

When executing this script, the internal WiFi is defeated and does not start. I will attempt debug and report here for those searching for such a configuration and why it stops the internal WiFi. All help is welcome if someone knows why this is happening.

@bkis please link to your own blog in future.

I've edited the comment to be in a <details><summary> block. Please don't respond with long-form content, this really isn't the place for it.

It's quite enough to maintain something, without many people offering additional changes, or polluting scope with things that are separate.

There is other advice in this thread to backup if you wish to switch between AP and Original interfaces from 2016, as well as a script to keep newer raspbians connecting and a separate bridge script. They are all separate parts and not meant to be combined within the context of this Gist.

I've deliberately stayed away from dual purpose AP/NON-AP mode. It's a complication

This script is actually a little old now. I will try to find time to work on it, but the debian network stack has changed.