iw phy "$PHY" set netns "$pid" Fails with "Operation not supported"

[johnboiles]

Running on a Raspberry Pi 3. wlan1 (edimax) is connected to the network, wlan0 (built-in) is my intented hostapd interface. After running the script and starting the docker container, i can repro the issue like this:

> export IFACE=wlan0
> export DOCKER_NAME=ap-container
> export PHY=$(cat /sys/class/net/"$IFACE"/phy80211/name)
> echo $PHY
phy0
> pid=$(docker inspect -f '{{.State.Pid}}' $DOCKER_NAME)
> echo $pid
1143
> iw phy "$PHY" set netns "$pid"
command failed: Operation not supported (-95)

[johnboiles]

Same thing happens with wlan1 fwiw

[johnboiles]

Just saw #3. Looks like that's the same thing. But also seems like there wasn't a real resolution other than using a different tool or replacing -net=bridge with -net=host (and thus lowering security). I'd be surprised if this is Pi-3-specific since it seems to fail in the same way with my good ol' edimax adapter as well.

uname -av
Linux raspberrypi 4.4.34-v7+ #930 SMP Wed Nov 23 15:20:41 GMT 2016 armv7l GNU/Linux

[fgg89]

Hi @johnboiles,
Thanks for your feedback.
I wouldn't say it's Pi-3-specific but rather an issue related with iw and certain drivers of some wireless chipsets. I tested docker-ap with Intel, Qualcomm and Realtek chipsets successfully however there's something that prevents it from working with other vendors, not sure if there's something missing in iw or it's a driver-specific issue...more research will be needed on this.

[johnboiles]

In case it provides a clue: I went to create_ap after trying this project and it would fail in a similar way when I tried to use it in bridged mode. Without bridging (just using nat) it works fine. Seems similar to -net=bridge doesn't work here but -net=host does

[e2designs]

It is driver specific. I am running into the same issue with several wireless USB adapters.
Run 'iw phy phy# info'
if ' * set_wiphy_netns' is not in the list of supported commands, the driver does not support the namespace map.

If you happen to find any 5.0GHz adapters that support this, I would love to know. The Chipset Ralink 5370 and associated driver support netns, but it is 802.11bgn only.