Wifi hotspot does not work on Bookworm Pi Zero W v1.1

[PeterJBurke]

Wifi hotspot does not work on Bookworm Pi Zero W v1.1

Use this command on a fresh install of bookworm:
sudo nmcli device wifi hotspot ssid MyExampleNetwork password MyStrongPassword123

With a Pi Zero W v1.1, the AP is created but it will not accept the password.
With a Pi Zero W 2, it works fine.

These are with stock Bookworm, updated and upgraded before running the command, as of 10/31/2024.

[qrp73]

check that wlan0 is added to NetworkManager. If it's not you can add it with sudo nmcli device set wlan0 managed yes.

then create config for your access point:
sudo nano /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/TEST-AP.nmconnection

[connection]
id=TEST-AP
uuid=1bf81247-b98d-93f0-b82e-0ee62beba5d2
type=wifi
autoconnect=false
interface-name=wlan0

[wifi]
band=bg
channel=5
#cloned-mac-address=00:11:11:11:11:11
mode=ap
ssid=MyExampleNetwork

[wifi-security]
key-mgmt=wpa-psk
proto=rsn
pairwise=ccmp
group=ccmp
psk=PASSWORD

[ipv4]
address1=192.168.2.1/24
method=shared

[ipv6]
addr-gen-mode=stable-privacy
method=disabled

[proxy]

Then do:

sudo chmod 600 sudo nano /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/TEST-AP.nmconnection
sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

After that you can start your access point with this command:

sudo nmcli con up TEST-AP

In order to shut down access point:

sudo nmcli con down TEST-AP

Show status:

sudo nmcli con show

If you want access point to be automatically started just change variable autoconnect=true in config.

PS: To avoid confusion use the same name for the file and for id.