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Automatically Create Hotspot if no Network is Available
Asked 3 years, 9 months ago Modified 1 year ago Viewed 6k times
I want to automatically create an access point, if there is no network found, so that I can connect to my
Raspberry Pi everywhere.
14
If nobody is connected to the hotspot for a while it should search for the networks defined in
wpa_supplicant.conf again.
I don't want to install any additional software and to use only wpa_supplicant , wpa_cli and systemd-
networkd .
raspbian-stretch wireless systemd raspbian-buster access-point
Share Improve this question Follow edited Oct 22, 2019 at 16:09 asked Jul 1, 2019 at 21:53
jake
1,189 8 22
1 Answer Sorted by: Highest score (default)
The following can also easily be installed from a github repository that I created here .
9 First we need to change over completely to systemd (which might be the future anyway), as Ingo has
explained here:
# deinstall classic networking
sudo -Es # if not already done
apt --autoremove purge ifupdown dhcpcd5 isc-dhcp-client isc-dhcp-common rsyslog
apt-mark hold ifupdown dhcpcd5 isc-dhcp-client isc-dhcp-common rsyslog
raspberrypi-net-mods openresolv
rm -r /etc/network /etc/dhcp
# setup/enable systemd-resolved and systemd-networkd
apt --autoremove purge avahi-daemon
apt-mark hold avahi-daemon libnss-mdns
apt install libnss-resolve
ln -sf /run/systemd/resolve/stub-resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf
systemctl enable systemd-networkd.service systemd-resolved.service
1. Configure wpa_supplicant
Your wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf should look something like this:
country=FR
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
ap_scan=1
### your access point/hotspot ###
network={
ssid="RaspberrypiAP" # your hotspot's name
mode=2
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
psk="passphrase" # your hotspot's password
frequency=2462
}
### your network(s) ###
network={
priority=10 # add a priority higher then 0 to any networks
ssid="yourWifi" # except the access point's one!
psk="passphrase"
}
We have to add a priority= higher then 0 to any network section except the hotspot's one, so
wpa_supplicant will prefer them. Only if none of these networks is found, wpa_supplicant will create
an access point/hotspot. If wpa_supplicant has created a hotspot the interface has to be given a static
address and we need a DHCP server, so that we can connect our devices to it. This will be done by
systemd-networkd .
2. Configure wireless interface with systemd-networkd
We need to create the following files. The first one will configure your device as client, the second one
as access point. The first one is the default due to the smaller number.
sudoedit /etc/systemd/network/08-CLI.network
[Match]
Name=wlan0
[Network]
DHCP=yes
LinkLocalAddressing=yes
MulticastDNS=yes
sudoedit /etc/systemd/network/12-AP.network
[Match]
Name=wlan0
[Network]
Address=192.168.4.1/24
DHCPServer=yes
LinkLocalAddressing=yes
MulticastDNS=yes
3. Setup a systemd.service to automatically configure the interface based
on wpa_supplicant events
This service will run wpa_cli , which executes the script below on certain events.
Run sudo systemctl edit --full --force [email protected] and paste the following lines to it:
Description=Wpa_cli to Automatically Create an Accesspoint if no Client
Connection is Available
After=wpa_supplicant@%i.service
BindsTo=wpa_supplicant@%i.service
[Service]
ExecStart=/sbin/wpa_cli -i %I -a /usr/local/bin/autoAP.sh
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=1
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
4. The script needed for the service
This script has to be saved to the path defined in the ExecStart= section. It will configure the device as
client if connected to some wifi, or as access point if wpa_supplicant has created one, which it will do
automatically if no other network is found.
If nobody is connected to the access point for a while it will restart wpa_supplicant to make it search
for wifi networks again.
sudoedit /usr/local/bin/autoAP.sh
#!/bin/bash
device=wlan0
configure_ap () {
if [ -e /etc/systemd/network/08-CLI.network ]; then
mv /etc/systemd/network/08-CLI.network /etc/systemd/network/08-
CLI.network~
systemctl restart systemd-networkd
systemctl restart systemd-networkd
fi
}
configure_client () {
if [ -e /etc/systemd/network/08-CLI.network~ ] && wpa_cli -i$device status |
grep -q "mode=station"; then
mv /etc/systemd/network/08-CLI.network~ /etc/systemd/network/08-
CLI.network
systemctl restart systemd-networkd
fi
}
reconfigure_wpa_supplicant () {
sleep "$1"
if [ "$(wpa_cli -i $device all_sta)" = ""]; then
wpa_cli -i $device reconfigure
fi
}
case "$2" in
# Configure access point if one is created
AP-ENABLED)
configure_ap
reconfigure_wpa_supplicant 2m &
;;
# Configure as client, if connected to some network
CONNECTED)
configure_client
;;
# Reconfigure wpa_supplicant to search for your wifi again,
# if nobody is connected to the ap
AP-STA-DISCONNECTED)
reconfigure_wpa_supplicant 20 &
;;
esac
Make the script executable chmod +x /path/to/script/autoAP.sh .
Now we have to run sudo systemctl enable --now [email protected] , reboot the Pi and
everything should work.
I'll be glad for any suggestions on how to improve this setup.
Share Improve this answer Follow edited Mar 10, 2022 at 22:15 answered Jul 1, 2019 at 21:53
Butterkekskrumel jake
103 3 1,189 8 22
Since Raspbian 2019-04-08 you do not need to install rng-tools anymore. There is a typo. For network files you
use /lib/systemd/network/ but in the script you use /etc/systemd/network/ . You do not need
network.target if you use network-online.target but it doesn't matter. Type=simple is default. There
are some very nice ideas. Thanks for it. – Ingo Jul 2, 2019 at 10:55
Thanks, @Ingo, I edited it! I'm using /etc/systemd/network/08-CLI.network for masking the file in
/lib/... . You think it is better to rename it? – jake Jul 2, 2019 at 11:16
I tend to use systemctl to control services due to stability. So I haven't had a detailed look at the links and I cannot
say much about them but I avoid to touch things in /lib/ . – Ingo Jul 2, 2019 at 11:40
@Ingo But you can't manage .network files with systemctl , can you? But maybe it is better to disable 08-
Client.network with a drop-in file and move everything to /etc/systemd/network . I'll test this. – jake Jul 2,
2019 at 11:54
1 This is great! Thanks for the write-up. I've got it running here. A couple of comments: 1) Switching to networkd-
resolved doesn't seem mandatory based on my (limited) testing. I haven't sorted how to get search-domain
settings passed through with my dhcp-to-preassigned addresses. Still investigating, because I'd like to get there.
2) The 'ln' command is missing an 'f' at the end (should be '.conf'). 3) Typo in the comments: wpa_supllicant-
wlan0.conf. 4) Lastly, some sort of naming convention for scripts and conf files might be helpful, but not
mandatory. – bls Jul 3, 2019 at 0:46
