can't add wlan0 to bridge br0: Operation not supported

[ChrisO]

Hi

I've installed Armbian_21.02.3_Tinkerboard_focal_current_5.10.21.img on my Tinkerboard.

# uname -a

Linux tinkerboard 5.10.21-rockchip #21.02.3 SMP PREEMPT Mon Mar 8 07:34:33 UTC 2021 armv7l armv7l armv7l GNU/Linux

 

I'm not able to create a bridge with a WiFi interface:

brctl addbr br0

brctl addif br0 eth0

brctl addif br0 wlan0
can't add wlan0 to bridge br0: Operation not supported

 

wlan0 is the onboard WiFi. I also tried several usb WiFi dongles with the same result.

Any hint?

 

Regards,

Chris

[Igor]

22 minutes ago, ChrisO said:

Any hint?

 

Google, 1st hit.
https://serverfault.com/questions/152363/bridging-wlan0-to-eth0

[ChrisO]

Igor

 

Believe me, before I posted here I spent almost a day reading what google spat out regarding this subject. I was there already and unless I overlooked something

obvious, it doesn't help.

Currently I have several Access Points bridging WiFi & Ethernet:

OrangePiZero
Welcome to Debian Buster with Armbian Linux 4.19.62-sunxi
Welcome to Armbian Bionic with Linux 5.3.9-sunxi

Cubieboard2
Welcome to Armbian 21.02.2 Buster with Linux 5.10.16-sunxi

RaspberryPi 3
Linux picam3 4.19.50-v7+ #896 SMP Thu Jun 20 16:11:44 BST 2019 armv7l GNU/Linux

OrangePi-R1
Welcome to Armbian 21.02.2 Buster with Linux 5.10.16-rockchip64

RockPi-E
Welcome to Armbian 21.02.2 Buster with Linux 5.10.16-rockchip64

OrangePi-R1+
Welcome to Armbian 20.11.6 Buster with Linux 5.9.14-rockchip64

 

None of those systems barked at me "Operation not supported".

 

Regards,

Chris

 

[Igor]

27 minutes ago, ChrisO said:

Believe me, before I posted here I spent almost a day reading what google spat out regarding this subject.

 

In this case please accept my apologies. 

 

3 hours ago, ChrisO said:

I also tried several usb WiFi dongles with the same result.

 

From this I understand that you are trying to make a bridge between wlan STA mode and Ethernet which is AFAIK not possible.

 

27 minutes ago, ChrisO said:

None of those systems barked at me "Operation not supported".

If you are creating a bridge with AP and you get this, then there is problem in wireless driver, some common kernel routine or there is some banale reason. Under assumption that you are doing things correctly. We use Network Manager by default which could cause you troubles when you are going away from simple networking setup. Disable it before trying again.

 

27 minutes ago, ChrisO said:

Currently I have several Access Points bridging WiFi & Ethernet:

AP on Tinkerboard is broken since some time.

[Igor]

 

 

[ElMariachi2021]

This problem with Wifi-bridging in Linux is an ongoing mysterium: I have been experimenting with this for years, as I want the multiple KVM VMs on my notebook working in bridge mode, but I couldn't get it to run since I am using Manjaro, while it was working with Debian (but only for some of the USB-Wifi adapters I tried).

The explanation why this wouldn't work seems plausible (Router MAC-address asignment, 4addr problem and yadda yadda yadda..), but: It worked with Debian, before, and also Wifi bridging always works in Windows.

Searching the internet for this issue (Operation not supported), when trying to bridge the WiFi adapter to anything) yields a weird result of many people saying things like 'It's no problem' and the other lot saying 'It's not possible'.. and both groups seemingly haven't heard of each other, ever before

So there isn't an discourse about that, although many people seem to be affected by this.

As I also am suffering from this problem for years now, this situation ist really frustrating and painful, as I have to manually passthrough my notebook's WiFi adapter to one specified of the VMs everytime I need it, or alternatively use NAT, which both is uncomfortable and annoying, when you are working with all the time new VMs and changing network configurations.

A tendence I noticed was, that it worked in Debain with some of my USB-WiFi adpaters, but never with an mini-PCIe-Adapter like in a notebook.

 

I wished there finally was a solution for this, or at least a workaround.. I thought of something like creating an light LXC-container with Tinc or OpenVPN in it, and build a tunnel using the VPN through the WiFi from the router into the VM network, for having a fully working bridge to the LAN inside there.. but I have no real clue how this would be done in detail, as already (unprivileged) LXC containers are an big issue for me. My best tries ended, when I still needed to enter some static routes for making a VM behind the tunnel working, which defeats the purpose of using a bridge for 'ease of use'. xD

Edited April 22, 2021 by ElMariachi2021