It's most definitely possible to set up a hotspot using nmcli. I've used hostapd in the past, but nmcli works great so I've switched to using that.I bought a USB wifi adaptor to use to set up a hotspot.
This is on a Pi 5 running Debian 10 with command line only; no GUI.
It's impossible to use `nmcli` to set up a hotspot because you can't tell it whether to use `wlan0` or `wlan1` so I set up `hostapd` and I couldn't find anything about adding the interface to the bridge.
Any idea what's going on?
sdm's hotspot capability uses nmcli exclusively and works great. Documentation here and here.
Here's a simple script that installs sdm and then configures the hotspot as either a bridged or routed hotspot, or a routed hotspot using an onboard independent DNS/DHCP server instead of NetworkManager's built-in DHCP server.
Of course, if you'd prefer not to use sdm you can read the hotspot plugin code and pluck out the nmcli commands to use on your own.
Code:
#!/bin/bash[ "$1" == "" ] && hstype="routed" || hstype="$1"[[ "bridged|routed|routed2" =~ $hstype ]] || { echo "? argument must be 'routed' (default) or 'bridged'" ; exit ; }echo "> Install sdm"curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gitbls/sdm/master/install-sdm | bashcase "$hstype" in bridged) echo "> Configure bridged hotspot on this system" sdm --runonly plugins --oklive --plugin hotspot:"hsname=myhs|ipforward=eth0|hsenable|type=bridged" ;; routed) echo "> Configure routed hotspot on this system" sdm --runonly plugins --oklive --plugin hotspot:"hsname=myhs|ipforward=eth0|hsenable|type=routed|dhcpmode=nm" ;; routed2) echo "> Configure routed hotspot and DNS/DHCP on this system" sdm --runonly plugins --oklive --plugin hotspot:"hsname=myhs|ipforward=eth0|hsenable|type=routed|dhcpmode=none|wlanip=10.6.0.1" --plugin ndm:"dhcpserver=dnsmasq|dnsserver=dnsmasq|dobuild|doinstall|dhcprange=10.6.0.2,10.6.0.100|domain=me|externaldns=1.1.1.1|gateway=10.6.0.1|myip=10.6.0.1|hostname=myap|dnsfqdn=myap.me|mxfqdn=myap.me|timeserver=192.168.92.3|netdev=wlan0|enablesvcs" ;;esacexitStatistics: Posted by bls — Fri Dec 12, 2025 2:28 pm