Arch Linux

PasAmoreux

Member

From: Eastern Europe

Registered: 2022-12-17

Posts: 8

[SOLVED] Can't create a Wi-Fi hotspot on KDE Plasma

Hello!

I can't create a Wi-Fi hotspot on KDE Plasma through plasma-nm applet. Originally, the hotspot was created but I could never connect to it from my Android phone and editing Hotspot config/creating a new one from the settings (+ button, then creating Wi-Fi (Shared connection)) did nothing. The created from setting hotspot didn't even appear as an available network to connect to. Here's what I did to fix the problem so far:
- Installed dnsmasq and set NetworkManager to work with it
- Disabled systemd-networkd and systemd-resolved
- Ensured that my card supports AP mode, as stated in the Wiki
- Switched to iwd as my Wi-Fi backend for NetworkManager. The wiki says I shouldn't enable iwd manually but when I don't I can't even get my Ethernet connection going. The cable is detected but an IP configuration was unavailable shows up. That's why I enabled it manually for now
- Installed dhcpcd as my DHCP client for NetworkManager. the result is that I, again, started to get IP configuration was unavailable error and couldn't get the wired connection working. I ended up reverting the change

After all of the steps taken, I am able to get my wired connection going with no IP configuration unavailable errors, when I try to create a hotspot I can see it's getting created, I get no IP configuration errors either but the hotspot is stuck in setting network address state forever
Here are some relevant logs from

systemctl status NetworkManager

Jul 11 22:31:13 localhost NetworkManager[1234]: <info>  device (wlan0): state change: disconnected -> prepare (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Jul 11 22:31:13 localhost NetworkManager[1234]: <info>  manager: NetworkManager state is now CONNECTING
Jul 11 22:31:13 localhost NetworkManager[1234]: <info>  device (wlan0): state change: prepare -> config (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Jul 11 22:31:13 localhost NetworkManager[1234]: <info>  device (wlan0): state change: config -> need-auth (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Jul 11 22:31:13 localhost NetworkManager[1234]: <info>  device (wlan0): state change: need-auth -> config (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Jul 11 22:31:13 localhost NetworkManager[1234]: <info>  device (wlan0): Activation: (wifi) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) successful.  Started 'user-hotspot'.
Jul 11 22:31:13 localhost NetworkManager[1234]: <info>  device (wlan0): IWD AP/AdHoc state is now Started
Jul 11 22:31:13 localhost NetworkManager[1234]: <info>  device (wlan0): state change: config -> ip-config (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')

And it's stuck like that forever, no new logs are being generated etc.

Any ideas how can I fix the problem?

Last edited by PasAmoreux (2023-07-12 14:14:59)

PasAmoreux

Member

From: Eastern Europe

Registered: 2022-12-17

Posts: 8

Re: [SOLVED] Can't create a Wi-Fi hotspot on KDE Plasma

Update: it now sometimes works after I:
- Once again installed dhcpcd, configured NetworkManager to work with it
- Removed iwd config to have it's own DHCP client work
- Disabled iwd manually, as suggested in the wiki (it now starts through NetworkManager)
I don't know why it doesn't work all the time, but at least I can get stuff working after a bit of praying
I'm marking this as [SOLVED] but please let me know if there's some step I missed to make stuff work more reliably

cybernite

Member

Registered: 2024-12-12

Posts: 5

Re: [SOLVED] Can't create a Wi-Fi hotspot on KDE Plasma

I just installed CachyOS with KDE Plasma 6.2.4; I can use wifi but use lan line from my desktop, but I create a wifi hotspot and shows up on my android phone, try to connect to the desktop and it always fails.
I use the KDE Network manager GUI and it says create a hotspot. Is this a bug? Do I have to change a settings for the internet lan line to share to the wfi?
I have never had a problem with wifi hotspots on win11 or Ubuntu. Ironic, everything on Arch works quite good, but just this wifi hotspot problem.

cybernite

Member

Registered: 2024-12-12

Posts: 5

Re: [SOLVED] Can't create a Wi-Fi hotspot on KDE Plasma

Update I managed to find a very simple solution. By default after you install CachyOS / KDE it has the firewall enabled.

So I disabled the firewall and it now works. I feel kind of dumb for not figuring this out right away, but assumed it was turned off.

$ sudo ufw disable

Sorry to trouble any of you; I am mad at myself for not figuring this out right away, oh well, live and learn.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 24,186

Re: [SOLVED] Can't create a Wi-Fi hotspot on KDE Plasma

This is also one of the reasons we don't support derivatives we don't know what they configure for you and had you installed Arch you'd know you've enabled a firewall.

Closing this old and solved thread.