Wi-Fi Network As Access Point (AP Mode) on DragonBoard 410c With Debian Operating System

This tutorial shows how to configure a Wireless network as Access Point (AP mode) on DragonBoard 410c with Debian Linux operating system, using Network Manager via command line (CLI) and graphical user interface (GUI). It also presents the necessary steps to configure a wireless connection to start every time as AP mode on Linux.

Step 1: Prerequisites

The prerequisites are:

• Dragonboard 410c;

• Linux Linaro based on Debian (Version 17.09)

Step 2: Network Manager - GUI

This section shows you how to configure a wireless connection as AP mode using the user interface (GUI):

Preferences -> Network Connections

Step 1: Select the Plus (+) button;

Step 2: Choose Wi-Fi as Connection Type;

Step 3: Set up the Access Point

- SSID;

- Mode;

- Band;

- Channel;

- Device;

- MTU.

Step 4: Set up the password for the Access Point (e.g. for a WPA2 AP).

Step 3: Network Manager - CLI

Here are steps to configure a wireless connection as AP mode using "nmcli" command:

1) To create a WIFI Access Point, first create the connection:

nmcli con add type wifi ifname wlan0 con-name dragonboard_ap autoconnect yes ssid dragonboard_ap

2) Set up the Wi-Fi as AP mode:

nmcli con modify dragonboard_ap 802-11-wireless.mode ap 802-11-wireless.band bg ipv4.method shared

3) Set up the password for your access point (e.g. for a WPA2 AP):

nmcli con modify dragonboard_ap wifi-sec.key-mgmt wpa-psk

nmcli con modify dragonboard_ap wifi-sec.psk "1234567890"

4) Enable the connection:

nmcli con up dragonboard_ap

Step 4: Wi-Fi As AP Mode on Startup

Here are steps to add the wireless connection as AP mode during the Debian startup using systemd:

Step 1: Create the script /sbin/apmode.sh

#!/bin/bash

nmcli con add type wifi ifname wlan0 con-name dragonboard_ap autoconnect yes ssid dragonboard_ap


nmcli con modify dragonboard_ap 802-11-wireless.mode ap 802-11-wireless.band bg ipv4.method shared


nmcli con modify dragonboard_ap wifi-sec.key-mgmt wpa-psk
nmcli con modify dragonboard_ap wifi-sec.psk "1234567890"
nmcli con up dragonboard_ap

Step 2: Adding execution permissions

chmod +x /sbin/apmode.sh

Step 3: Create the script /etc/systemd/system/apmode.service

[Unit]
Description=Job to startup the wireless connection as ap mode
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target
[Service]
ExecStart=/bin/bash /sbin/apmode.sh
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
[Install]
WantedBy=graphical.target

Step 4: Enable the service

systemctl --user daemon-reload

systemctl enable apmode.service

Step 5: Reboot