Hotspot (ap0) starts successfully but SSID never broadcasts / invisible to any client — Tecno LG6n (MT6768, Android 12)

[Nomanali3468]

Device Info

• Device: Tecno Pova Neo 2 (LG6n), MediaTek MT6768
• Android version: 12 (build SP1A.210812.016 / 230510V1293)
• Root: Magisk (Kitsune fork), ReZygisk, bootloader unlocked, secure: no
• Interfaces available: both wlan0 and wlan1 exist under /sys/class/net/ (confirmed via ls)

Problem

After running virtualap start, the script completes with no errors and reports the AP as fully active:

Auto upstream: table wlan0 (wlan0)
Creating virtual AP interface 'ap0' on wlan0...
Configuring gateway address 192.168.42.1...
Installing routes and policy rules...
Network configuration completed.
Generating service configs (band 5GHz, channel 36)...
Starting hostapd (5GHz ch 36, 80MHz)...
hostapd running (PID 7609, 80MHz)
Starting dnsmasq...
dnsmasq running (PID 7624)
VirtualAP is ACTIVE!
  SSID    : PAK-Link 5G (5GHz, channel 36, 80MHz)
  Gateway : 192.168.42.1 (static - never changes)
  Upstream: wlan0 (table wlan0)

ip link show ap0 also confirms the interface is fully up:

48: ap0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether fa:c7:45:9c:8a:4d brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

However, the SSID never appears in a WiFi scan on any test device — tried:

• Windows laptop (multiple driver resets, airplane mode toggle, no result)
• A second Android phone
• Both report zero visible network with this SSID, at any band/channel

What I've tried (all failed to fix visibility)

1. Band changes: 2.4GHz (ch 6, 20MHz) and 5GHz (ch 36 and ch 157, 80MHz) — no difference
2. Regulatory domain: iw reg get showed country 00: DFS-UNSET with PASSIVE-SCAN flagged on all 5GHz ranges. Manually patched the script's hardcoded country_code=US to country_code=AE (my actual region) in write_hostapd_conf(). Confirmed the generated hostapd.conf picks up country_code=AE correctly on next start — no change in visibility.
3. Stock/native Android hotspot (not VirtualAP) was also tested as a baseline — also invisible to all test devices, at any band. This suggests the issue may not be VirtualAP-specific, but I'm filing here since VirtualAP is the tool I'm trying to get working, and the identical failure mode may still be relevant to how ap0 is being created here (e.g., wrong physical interface being targeted).
4. Confirmed wlan1 exists as a separate interface alongside wlan0 (ls /sys/class/net/) — not yet tried forcing VirtualAP to use it via -w wlan1, wanted to raise this first in case there's a known reason it wouldn't apply.

Question / request

• Is there a known MT6768 same-channel/same-radio concurrency limitation where hostapd believes it's transmitting (PID alive, interface UP) but the firmware silently drops AP-mode beacon frames when bound to wlan0 (the STA-mode interface)?
• Would forcing the AP interface onto wlan1 (if it's a distinct hardware-mapped vif on this chipset) be expected to help, or is that not how MTK's vif allocation works?
• Any diagnostic logs (hostapd.log, dnsmasq.log, dmesg/logcat around AP start) that would help narrow this down further? Happy to provide.

Let me know what additional info would help debug this.

[Nomanali3468]

Update: confirmed the issue is not with visibility alone — after VirtualAP is started (even after stop), the native/stock Android hotspot also stops working until a full device reboot. This suggests VirtualAP's ap0 creation/teardown is leaving the WiFi radio/driver in a corrupted state that isn't being cleaned up on stop.

[ravindu644]

If there is no solution for this, we have to acknowledge it as a hardware limitation.

Make sure your upstream is 5GHz Wi-Fi. On some devices, you cannot have a 2.4GHz hotspot while using 5GHz Wi-Fi as the upstream.

Try disabling Wi-Fi, turning on mobile data, and enabling 2.4GHz mode. This should create the hotspot in 2.4GHz mode.

Other devices will pick it up.