Hotspot management is inclomplete and misleading when there are multiple wifi adapters
Affected version
Gnome 45.4 / Fedora 39
Bug summary
In the system there are two wifi adapters. Gnome settings detects both and allows each to connect to wireless network independently. Enabling hotspot, however, is only possible for the first adapter, despite the GUI misleadingly suggesting that I have any control over it.
Steps to reproduce
- Have two wireless adapters. In my case: wlo1 (MEDIATEK MT7921K 6E 80MHz) and wlp4s0 (MEDIATEK MT7921 802.11ax)
- Using Gnome Settings App connect wlo1 (MEDIATEK MT7921K 6E) to some network.
- Switch to wlp4s0 (MEDIATEK MT7921 802.11ax) tab. Note how list of available networks for this adapter may be different, assuring the user that we are now on the page dedicated to this specific adapter.
- Click
Turn On Wi-Fi Hotspot
. Note unexpected warning is shown that my Wifi must be disconnected from the network before enabling hostspot. - Confirm and start the hotspot.
What happened
Nothing changes in the tab for wlp4s0 (MEDIATEK MT7921 802.11ax), but it does on the one for wlo1 (MEDIATEK MT7921K 6E 80MHz), where the QR code and connection details are presented:
What did you expect to happen
- Hotspot should be enabled on wlp4s0 (MEDIATEK MT7921 802.11ax), as I have switched to the tab specific for that adapter. This should not affect the previously set up connection on wlo1, which now got disconnected.
Side notes:
- I would also expect the turn off toggle to selectively disable power for specific adapter
- There is no consistency between how particular adapters are named in quick settings menu and within main settings app. The full settings app uses long adapter names, while quick menu uses short interface names (see first attached picture). At least in the full app there should be any mention of which interface name is attached to which tab (if there are design reasons not to unifiy the display names).