Sparklan card wifi hotspot does not work

From the gui the hotspot can be enabled. The hotpot is visible but no devices can be connected. There is no information in with the default logging.

Further investigation required.

assigned to @angus.ainslie

added Sparklan label

I've been told this issue applies to the Librem 5 I just received. Just signed up to turn on the Notifications switch which I hope will email me with updates.

So it turns out that the sparklan card can do AP mode if you use hostapd but not if NetworkManager is used. Attached is a proof of concept script to show that it works. Now just need to figure out why it doesn't work for NM

hostapd.sh

Looks like it might an issue with the version of NM in PureOS

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/NetworkManager/NetworkManager/-/commit/82980f7791660ede5f2982cdfbda266f3f6384a0

Still broken with NetworkManager 1.40.10-1

Can you turn on debugging for NM and see what encryption modes it tries to negotiate ?

I have now disabled all SHA256/SHA384 capabilities with a similar check like the one you linked to above and it started to work.

This one is enough:

diff --git a/src/core/supplicant/nm-supplicant-config.c b/src/core/supplicant/nm-supplicant-config.c
index bd48ed92..e33cb140 100644
--- a/src/core/supplicant/nm-supplicant-config.c
+++ b/src/core/supplicant/nm-supplicant-config.c
@@ -869,7 +869,7 @@ nm_supplicant_config_add_setting_wireless_security(NMSupplicantConfig
     } else if (nm_streq(key_mgmt, "wpa-psk")) {
         if (pmf != NM_SETTING_WIRELESS_SECURITY_PMF_REQUIRED)
             g_string_append(key_mgmt_conf, "WPA-PSK");
-        if (_get_capability(priv, NM_SUPPL_CAP_TYPE_PMF))
+        if (!is_ap && _get_capability(priv, NM_SUPPL_CAP_TYPE_PMF))
             g_string_append(key_mgmt_conf, " WPA-PSK-SHA256");
         if (!is_ap && _get_capability(priv, NM_SUPPL_CAP_TYPE_FT))
             g_string_append(key_mgmt_conf, " FT-PSK");

I was going to wait until a full fix was in, but I see that posting is 9 months old and still open.

Should I try using the hostapd.sh script you posted or will it cause different problems for me?

The script is definitely not a solution as it needs packages installed that will not work out of the box with NM. I don't suggest using it unless you NEED an AP.

I decided I'd try running the script just to see what happened. I suspect I'm missing the packages you mentioned. Or, I've just got it in the wrong place ( Documents ).

I should probably wait until the complete fix is in, but the attached terminal output is what it looks like when I try to run it. Hope I haven't damaged anything messing around with it.

runError.txt

The way you've run it it won't have damaged anything. I'd suggest leaving it until there's a proper solution

mentioned in merge request pureos/packages/network-manager!1 (merged)

This article may have been a little pre-mature?

https://puri.sm/posts/shipping-new-sparklan-wifi-cards-with-librem-5/

Saw it and went to PureOS store to run updates. Tried out the hotspot function and I'm still not connecting. Just repeated bad password notices. Tried another device besides my desktop machine and got the same response.

The article did at least point out that this new hardware is a step up from the previous device. At least that's how I read the table of feature comparisons.

The updated NetworkManager is now in landing and will migrate to byzantium in ~2 days: https://master.pureos.net/migrations/excuse/d60eebcb-8bb0-437e-a0c2-c5512011c494

Ran OS updates just now, which included network manager changes according to the after install report.

Hotspot now works.

Thanks for your efforts!

closed