Interestingly it appears that now the driver (vers 2.1) does something with error, and before it ignored it.
a solution (in desktop cases) is to do following to release resource.. then hostapd has no error.... sudo nmcli nm wifi off sudo rfkill unblock wlan this info has been gleaned from https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1221799 -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to wpa in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1289047 Title: [Trusty] hostapd package is broken Status in “wpa” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: When trying to create an access point, I am met with a fatal error with hostapd: nl80211: Could not configure driver mode nl80211 driver initialization failed. hostapd_free_hapd_data: Interface wlan0 wasn't started What worked before no longer works today after a package upgrade. After installing hostapd deb from Ubuntu 13.10, it works. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04 Package: hostapd 1:2.1-0ubuntu1 Uname: Linux 3.14.0-031400rc5-lowlatency x86_64 ApportVersion: 2.13.2-0ubuntu5 Architecture: amd64 Date: Thu Mar 6 16:57:20 2014 InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-02-01 (33 days ago) InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Alpha amd64 (20140121.1) ProcEnviron: TERM=xterm PATH=(custom, no user) LANG=en_CA.UTF-8 LANGUAGE=en_CA:en SHELL=/bin/bash SourcePackage: wpa UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/wpa/+bug/1289047/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
