Wireless hotspot not working: no wireless interfaces found

Question

Im trying to create A wireless hotspot with my Raspberry Pi 2 Model B+ using a RT5370 Ralink Wifi adapter.

Im following this tutorial: https://learn.adafruit.com/setting-up-a-raspberry-pi-as-a-wifi-access-point?view=all

Along with this one: http://rpi.vypni.net/wifi-ap-rt5370-on-raspberry-pi/

Im able to get an access point up and running and I can connect to it however, I cant connect to the internet with it. On the pi my network connection says "No Wireless interfaces can be found" If I connect to ethernet and run "sudo dhcpcd" then the pi can get internet but machines connected to it via the hotspot still cant.

The wifi adapter shows up when I run lsusb

/etc/network/interfaces :

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto wlan0
allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet static
   address 192.168.100.1
   netmask 255.255.255.0

dns-nameservers 192.168.42.1 8.8.8.8

iface default inet dhcp

/etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf

interface=wlan0
driver=rtl871xdrv
ssid=pi_AP
country_code=US
hw_mode=g
channel=6
macaddr_acl=0
auth_algs=1
ignore_broadcast_ssid=0
wpa=2
wpa_passphrase=password
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
wpa_pairwise=CCMP
wpa_group_rekey=86400
ieee80211n=1
wme_enabled=1

Appreciate any assistance. From what I can tell my DHCP hasn't been set up properly with isc-dhcp-server.

Answer 1

You could try installing and using udhcpd instead.

I've edited /etc/udhcpd.conf and specified the range of IPs that the wireless hostspot will give to client devices and it is working great on a Pi 1.

And I just tested it on a Pi 2 as well and it also works.

Please see detailed steps on my answer to this AP question.