I have a Raspberry Pi 5 dedicated to controlling a device (a loom) by running a web server application. I am trying to configure the RPi to connect to my WiFI network, but fall back to running a hotspot if that connection fails. The only other thing this RPi may do (and only when connected to WiFI, not running as a hotspot) is accesses a few things on the internet, such as checking for updates to my web server application.
My problem is that the RPi cannot fall back to the hotspot because dnsmasq prevents the hotspot from starting. If I kill dnsmasq first I can bring up the hotspot, so I think my configuration is correct (or at least close). In case it is relevant, the hotspot is configured with ipv4.method: shared (and ipv6.method: ignore).
Is there a standard solution to this? Should I try to get configure dnsmasq to not run at all? I'm not sure if it does anything I want or need for this simple use case.
My problem is that the RPi cannot fall back to the hotspot because dnsmasq prevents the hotspot from starting. If I kill dnsmasq first I can bring up the hotspot, so I think my configuration is correct (or at least close). In case it is relevant, the hotspot is configured with ipv4.method: shared (and ipv6.method: ignore).
Is there a standard solution to this? Should I try to get configure dnsmasq to not run at all? I'm not sure if it does anything I want or need for this simple use case.
Statistics: Posted by r3owen — Thu Oct 23, 2025 12:04 am