Ubuntu – Broadcom BCM43142 WiFi drivers with AP mode to create hotspot for android devices

ap-hotspotbroadcomdrivershot-spot

I want to create WiFi hotspot for android device using Broadcom BCM43142 chipset.

OS : 14.0.4
but I am stuck at a STEP which says your Wireless card should support AP mode!

The current driver: wl0 which I am using does not support AP(access point) mode.

iw list

Result :

Supported interface modes:       
* IBSS       
* managed

I found many drivers for other broadcom chipset like BCM4312 that support AP mode ex : b43 driver but failed to find for BCM43142.

Is their any driver available for Broadcom BCM43142 that support AP mode?

Is their any other way I can create hotspot for my android device using
Broadcom BCM43142 card (os : Ubuntu 14.0.4)?

Thanks.

Best Answer

There are no linux drivers for this adapter that support AP mode.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Drivers for Broadcom BCM43142 on Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty Tahr)

OK, so I finally fixed this :D

First here's what I learnt in the process:

NEVER ram your OS with different drivers or modules haphazardly until your problem gets fixed, at least not without a) Knowing what / why you are doing, and b) MOST IMPORTANTLY How to undo the same.
Whenever you try a different driver, module, or package, first uninstall the package that you previously installed for the same purpose.

And lots of thanks to @chili555 who pointed out that the leftover from a previous package was the reason.

So what I did was:

I tried installing bcmwl-kernel-source on a live run of Ubuntu 14.04 (with my LAN cable) and checked if WLan works now. (And yeah, it did confirm that Ubuntu 14.04 / BCM43142 / bcmwl-kernel-source were not the problem.)
I went to /etc/modprobe.d and cross checked the files there with my hard disk installation's version of the same folder.
This /etc/modprobe.d directory contains configuration files which contain blacklisting information for different modules. I made a note of the available files and later removed what was not available here from my hard disk installation's version of the same folder too.
I went to /lib/modules/3.*/updates/. This is the directory that stores all your modules (wl, b43, etc. ... ) and the one that I messed up with various custom patched versions of wl modules listed in various forums.
After cross checking with my hard disk installation's version of lib/modules/3.*/updates/, I manually removed all Bluetooth / wireless / dkms / wl / (and in particular one mac80211) and cleaned up any other modules that are related to wlan.
I finally replaced (did a recursive copy onto) the /etc/modprobe.d and /lib/modules/3.*/updates/ directories (of my hard disk installation) with the same directories from the live OS.
Reboot
Do sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source. This is the official working driver for BCM43142 for Ubuntu 14.04.
Reboot and sudo modprobe wl and viola, wireless was working!

And finally sincere apologies to all my cross-posting, reposting, spamming IRCs with this question repeatedly. :P

NOTE: Replacing /removing your hard disk installation files is recommended only for those who installed your OS recently. Otherwise there is a risk that you could replace / remove files / modules that may have been installed for other devices which may be irrelevant to this issue.

Thanks again to chili555 :)

EDIT I recently updated my kernel to support the DisplayLink driver for my USB monitor and bam the wifi was gone.

A blind attempt at re-installing bcmwl-kernel-source threw the following error in the build log.

"alloc_netdev" requires 4 arguments, but only 3 given

Turns out the driver was not updated for the upgraded kernel (version 3.18). A bit of googling let me to this post -

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bcmwl/+bug/1358966

Where there are links available to patched versions of wl, which works with the upgraded kernel.

I manually downloaded and installed this guy and wifi was restored.

Now I can go back to browsing lolcats in peace. Amen.

Ubuntu – Wifi hotspot to connect to Android using Broadcom 43xx

Switching to an open source driver did it

Short Version

Using an open source driver (brcmsmac in my case) instead of the Proprietary Broadcom STA Wireless driver (wl) and installing ap-hotspot did the trick

Long version for Broadcom Users

Go to Ubuntu Broadcomm WifiDocs. See if an open source alternative exists.
The Linux drivers page should tell you if it supports AP mode
- If so yay!
- If not, I can't help. Sorry.
Temporarily switch to the open- driver source to check if it does what you want
```
#unload all drivers
sudo modprobe -r b43 bcma
sudo modprobe -r brcmsmac bcma
sudo modprobe -r wl

#load the corresponding open-source driver (brcmsmac in my case)
sudo modprobe brcmsmac
```
If it works, you can edit the blacklists to make sure only the required driver works. An easier option would be to simply uninstall the proprietary drivers using sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source
Install ap-hotspot. Remember, there are some issues in 14.04, and rolling back must be done as shown in the page. Else, use hostapd as described here
Run sudo ap-hotspot start. Your android phone should work with this conection.
Open source wins again