[was solved, broke again] Help needed creating a WiFi hotspot on Debian 10

Networking Networking Software
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1

i am trying to create a WiFi hotspot form my laptop, but i cant figure out how to do this.
i have created a NetworkManager connection called “Hotspot”, but it will not activate.
here is my connection file for NetworkManager.

[connection]
id=Hotspot
uuid=34f58a3d-3af6-464d-9525-87941d61ffe0
type=wifi
autoconnect=false
interface-name=wlp5s0
permissions=

[wifi]
band=a
mac-address=00:1A:6B:0D:E5:C5
mac-address-blacklist=
mode=ap
ssid=matswifi

[wifi-security]
key-mgmt=wpa-psk
psk=wordpass

[ipv4]
dns-search=
method=shared

[ipv6]
addr-gen-mode=stable-privacy
dns-search=
ip6-privacy=0
method=ignore

when i issue “nmcli connection up Hotspot” it doesnt work, and instead gives the error:
Error: Connection activation failed: 802.1X supplicant took too long to authenticate

what am i doing wrong here? how do i make a WiFi hotspot on Debian 10? the intention is to enable LAN gaming between my laptop and other laptops nearby.

my WiFi card is the Dell Wireless DW1601. its device id is 168c:0034. the driver in use is ath9k

2

Cant just enable it via the GUI? https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-help/stable/net-wireless-adhoc.html.en

You can always look at the config once its made.

3

i do not have GNOME installed on my system.
also: AD-HOC is not an option for my use case.

4

upgrading from kernel 5.2 to 5.4 fixed it.

5

UPDATE
it was working really well, i changed nothing once i got it to work but
now suddenly its not working again.
here is the log from Networkmanager:

Mar 03 12:06:17 Aisling NetworkManager[19084]: <info>  [1583258777.5532] Config: added 'frequency' value '5180'
Mar 03 12:06:17 Aisling NetworkManager[19084]: <info>  [1583258777.5532] Config: added 'freq_list' value '5035 5040 5045 5055 5060 5080 5170 5180 5190 5200 5210 5220 5230 5240 5250 5260 5280 5290 5300 5320 5500 5520 5540 5560 5580 5600>
Mar 03 12:06:17 Aisling NetworkManager[19084]: <info>  [1583258777.5532] Config: added 'key_mgmt' value 'WPA-PSK WPA-PSK-SHA256'
Mar 03 12:06:17 Aisling NetworkManager[19084]: <info>  [1583258777.5532] Config: added 'psk' value '<hidden>'
Mar 03 12:06:18 Aisling NetworkManager[19084]: <info>  [1583258778.5679] device (wlp5s0): supplicant interface state: ready -> disconnected
Mar 03 12:06:25 Aisling NetworkManager[19084]: <info>  [1583258785.1980] supplicant: wpa_supplicant die count reset
Mar 03 12:06:43 Aisling NetworkManager[19084]: <warn>  [1583258803.1981] device (wlp5s0): Activation: (wifi) Hotspot network creation took too long, failing activation
Mar 03 12:06:43 Aisling NetworkManager[19084]: <info>  [1583258803.1982] device (wlp5s0): state change: config -> failed (reason 'supplicant-timeout', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Mar 03 12:06:43 Aisling NetworkManager[19084]: <warn>  [1583258803.1993] device (wlp5s0): Activation: failed for connection 'Hotspot'
Mar 03 12:06:43 Aisling NetworkManager[19084]: <info>  [1583258803.1996] device (wlp5s0): state change: failed -> disconnected (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')

and here is the log from wpasupplicant:

Mar 03 12:06:14 Aisling systemd[1]: Starting WPA supplicant...
Mar 03 12:06:15 Aisling systemd[1]: Started WPA supplicant.
Mar 03 12:06:15 Aisling wpa_supplicant[19205]: Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant
Mar 03 12:06:17 Aisling wpa_supplicant[19205]: Note: nl80211 driver interface is not designed to be used with ap_scan=2; this can result in connection failures
Mar 03 12:06:18 Aisling wpa_supplicant[19205]: wlp5s0: Failed to start AP functionality