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Startec
Asked: 2019-04-29 16:59:00 +0800 CST

How to create an ad-hoc wireless network in Ubuntu

  • 772

This should be very easy but I am finding it quite hard in Ubuntu.

I want to create a network so that I can connect other devices to my computer wirelessly. I do not need an internet connection, I just need an ad-hoc network from my Ubuntu computer which is running Gnome.

These directions are inaccurate, there is no "Use as a..." in step 4.

These directions imply that I can not change the automatically generated password for the Wi-Fi network. Also, see below, the network disappears after a few minutes.

The closest I have found is clicking the "hamburger nav" in settings and clicking "Turn On Wi-Fi hotspot" (pictured):

enter image description here

This does create an ad-hoc network but:

  • The name of the nework is fixed (can't change it)
  • The password is fixed (can't change it)
  • After about 20 seconds the hotspot menu (pictured below) goes away and I can't connect any devices to it even when it does appear.

enter image description here

Why is this so ghetto? I could do this on mac in about 10 seconds. How can I rename the ad-hoc network and how do I make it persist (i.e. not go anywhere)?

The output of dpkg -l *dnsmasq* is as follows:

Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name           Version      Architecture Description
+++-==============-============-============-=================================
un  dnsmasq        <none>       <none>       (no description available)
un  dnsmasq-base   <none>       <none>       (no description available)
gnome networking network-manager

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Install dnsmasq-base. This should take care of your problem.

    sudo apt-get update # update the software database

    sudo apt-get install dnsmasq-base # install dnsmasq-base

    • 7

  2. For connecting an Android tablet with bvnc, Ad-hoc is not the way to go. Instead, Right Click on the networkicon, and in the drop-down menu, select Edit connections/ under WI-FI tab, mode dropdown, select Infrastructure (instead of Ad-hoc), then under IPV4 settings, connection method, set it to shared with other computers. Then the Android tablet could see the network, and connect wirelessly.

    • 0

  3. You can use nmtui command to setup an Ad-Hoc network.

    • 0

  4. I was looking for help on how to create an ad hoc wireless network tonight. I found the responses above a little complicated. But there were some good points made like the inability to change the password and the network name graphical menu. I also noticed that the security is WPA and not WPA2.

    But the instructions on the link below are accurate. I rapidly setup an ad hoc wifi hotspot on Ubuntu 18.04 which I connected to from a machine running Ubuntu 22.04 :

    https://help.ubuntu.com/stable/ubuntu-help/net-wireless-adhoc.html.en

    • 0