Setup a Wifi hotspot in Linux Mint/Ubuntu
How to setup a Wifi hotspot in Linux Mint/Ubuntu
Overview
Ever wondered how to setup a Wifi hotspot in Linux Mint/Ubuntu? In this post we will cover the process how to setup and configure a wireless(or wifi) hotspot in Linux Mint and in Ubuntu as well. Yes, this is possible in some GNU/Linux distributions like in Mint and Ubuntu and that’s why we’ll cover those first(in the future, we’ll check other distros and update this post if other Linux distros have the feature as well). You one thing to keep in mind, there’s a possibility that it won’t work on all devices(so hardware is a key factor as well).
Some wifi cards do not support hotspot mode, so make sure to check on that as well.
Setup a Wifi hotspot in Linux Mint
In order to start setting up, you need to access the network connections menu in Linux Mint. You can do that by two ways, which are really simple. The first way is to just search for “Network connections” in the start menu and in search results you’ll get an Network connections icon.
Other way is to access the network connections menu is by, clicking right click on the network icon, which is located on the taskbar, right besides the update notification icon. Right click on the icon and select the option – edit the network connections, and you’ll access the Network connections menu.
Creating Wifi hostpot
In the network connections menu, on bottom left, there’s a plus sign. Click on the plus sign in order to create a new connection. A prompt window will open, where it asks what kind of network connection we need to setup. In the selection drop box, we need to select WiFi and click on create button. Next, a window will open in which we need to enter our parameters.
First field is the connection name – You set the name you like for your new connection.
Next is SSID – This is the name of our WiFi hotspot. You need to set the name so you can recognize your hotspot and to connect on it.
Mode: under the Mode we need to select the option – hotspot. As it implies, it will set our WiFi to work as a hotspot.
Band: For a start, you can leave it as automatic, but this is essentially to will the WiFi emit 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz frequencies.
You can leave channel by default.
Device – Here we need to select our WiFi card from our laptop. Click on the dropdown and it will offer you a device named Wlo1 or Wlan1. Those names represent the WiFI card on your laptop.
After that, we need to setup the security – that’s the next tab. By security, we will just set a password for our wifi hotspot. First field, security – click on the dropdown and select the option – WPA & WPA 2 personal. This is the encryption type we just selected and WPA & WPA2 is the strongest. Next field, password – in there you just type in your password for the wifi hotspot. And that’s all that is needed. After you enter all the parameters, click on the save button and you can use it and connect your other wifi devices.
Setup a Wifi hotspot in Ubuntu
The process to setup wifi hotspot in Ubuntu is actually quite the same as is in Linux Mint. Linux mint is based of Ubuntu and they both are almost the same. They both have the same system tools. So that means, that in order to create wifi hotspot in Ubuntu, you just need to do the same process like for the Linux Mint. Just find and open the Network connections menu, it will look the same and have the same options and same parameters. Create a new wifi connection, set the mode for the hotspot, enter your SSID(wifi hotspot name), assign the wifi device on the connection, set the password and save your new connection.
Summary
To sumarize the article – we reviewed the steps how to setup a wifi hotstop in Linux Mint and Ubuntu.
Thank you very much for your time…
I tried this but it did not work. The problem appears to be with the device. The only device in the list was wlp2s0( etc which is not Wlo1 or Wlan1 you suggest. I am using Linux Mint Tina. What solution to this problem can you suggest.
Hello there… Thanks for the comment, appreciate your time. Wlp2s0 is just another device naming standard. It should work with that as well. But the non-working factors can be many and I don’t have much information to work with. I would start with updating the kernel… Best regards to you…
Thanks for this, I was apparently too dumb to make it work myself 🙂
Hi there… Thanks for the feedback and for the time you took to comment 🙂
hi, thanks for the clear instructions although i think my laptop is also too dumb to follow them ie this is not working. with mint version 18 or 19 or something :/
Hi there…
This method was performed on Linux Mint 19 on an HP Elitebook laptop. Can you please specify what part of the process does not work for you? On some machines, usually the case is with the driver or with the kernel. You can try with updating the kernel for your laptop.
Hope it works out for you…
Regards…
Is the above procedure for using the same WIFI adapter to connect to the Internet and for sharing at the same time without using the wired Ethernet?
Hi there… Yes it is. Like you mentioned, with this procedure you’re connecting to an existing WiFi connection and at the same time sharing that connection to other devices through your’s PC/Laptop WiFi adapter.
Thanks for your reply. I tried it on Linux Mint 19.2 xfce on a laptop but I did not see the hotspot wifi from my phone and on the Linux Mint laptop itself. I am using one wifi adapter to connect to the modem and as a hotspot. The hotspot on the laptop works when I use the github create_ap script.
That’s a good workaround. Glad that you managed to make it work. I discovered that, this feature will not work out of a box on all laptops(driver issue) – Most success I had is with Lenovo, HP and Dell Laptops and less success had with Acer and Asus laptops.
Any idea on how to do this on Manjaro?
I tried doing the same you recommended, but it isn’t working.
Thanks for your time!
Hi there and sorry for the late response… Sounds that it’s either issue with the configuration or with the hardware. Please note, this feature is not supported on all WiFi Linux drivers. I managed to set it up on my X230 Thinkpad which runs Manjaro with XFCE environment, has Intel WiFi card and has Network Manager app for network connections(just like in the pics above).
Before making any changes, check if your WiFi card supports dnsmasq package. Dnsmasq on Manjaro does the connection sharing. You can check it with this command:
pacman -Qi networkmanagerIn the output try find is dnsmasq supported.
Optional Deps : dnsmasq: connection sharing [installed]If it is supported, then all you need to do is to install it:
sudo pacman -S dnsmasqstart the service with:
sudo systemctl start dnsmasqor restart the laptop.
After that, setup the hotspot like in the post above and that’s it. It should work.
Also, please note, this feature could behave buggy. On my Thinkpad, after I stopped using the hotspot, laptop couldn’t reconnect to any WiFi network until I restarted the networking service completely on the laptop or restarted the machine entirely.
Best reqards to you…
Thanks for these instructions. Creating the Wifi Hotspot works so far. However, it is not visible on my mobile device. Do you have an idea why nothing happens?
Hi there… Glad that the instructions were useful to you. The only reason I can come up why the mobile device is not detecting the WiFi hotspot is that – it could be that your mobile device can’t detect radio frequencies above channel 11 on 2.4 GHz band(some devices have that kind of modem which can’t detect certain frequencies. I saw this case many times) or it’s 5GHz band only capable or it’s not. Meaning, if you left the radio band setting on automatic, it could happen this – The WiFi hotspot is set on 5GHz band and your phone can only detect 2.4GHz band frequencies or the hotspot is set on 2.4GHz band but with radio channel above 11. So, the steps you can try is – try changing the radio band and on 2.4GHz band, set the radio channel bellow 11. You can change bands and radio channel on edit network connection and when you’re creating the new hotspot. Best regards and i hope this also works for you…
This works for me. Thank you. Using Manjaro XFCE.
Thanks for commenting. Really glad it worked for you. Best regards…
Hello, I’m running Linux Mint Mate 20, and I just can’t seem to get it working. The set up process goes fine, but then my phone isn’t able to discover and connect to the network. Any reasion why? Thank you.
Hi there… Sorry for late response.
Someone else also asked the same question on this post earlier. Not sure why or what it can cause it but it can vary and go from testing different devices(could be the wi-fi channel issue, some phones can’t see wi-fi’s past channel 11 if it’s 2.4ghz) or you setup the 5ghz wi-fi hotspot and your phone can’t see the 5 ghz only 2.4ghz and even that you wi-fi card can’t support to work in hotspot mode. Best regards…
hello, I’ve set up access point on mint 21, and other linux computers can connect to it no problem.
On my android phone however the wifi network does appear, but the phone refuses to connect to it. Any idea’s ?