I'm still observing this on upgrade from 2:2.4-1.1 to 2:2.6-8. rjy@vile /tmp % systemctl status hostapd ● hostapd.service - Advanced IEEE 802.11 AP and IEEE 802.1X/WPA/WPA2/EAP Authenticator Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/hostapd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Tue 2017-11-28 09:17:50 GMT; 28min ago Tasks: 0 (limit: 4915) CGroup: /system.slice/hostapd.service
Nov 28 09:17:50 vile systemd[1]: Starting Advanced IEEE 802.11 AP and IEEE 802.1X/WPA/WPA2/EAP Authenticator... Nov 28 09:17:50 vile hostapd[3728]: Configuration file: Nov 28 09:17:50 vile hostapd[3728]: Could not open configuration file '' for reading. Nov 28 09:17:50 vile hostapd[3728]: Failed to set up interface with Nov 28 09:17:50 vile hostapd[3728]: Failed to initialize interface Nov 28 09:17:50 vile systemd[1]: hostapd.service: Control process exited, code=exited status=1 Nov 28 09:17:50 vile systemd[1]: hostapd.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'. Nov 28 09:17:50 vile systemd[1]: Failed to start Advanced IEEE 802.11 AP and IEEE 802.1X/WPA/WPA2/EAP Authenticator. As workaround I did "sudo update-rc.d hostapd disable" (Wasn't sure what the systemctl equivalent is) then "sudo dpkg --configure hostapd" unbroke dpkg. Apparently the call to "systemctl mask hostapd.service" in postinst had no effect? (or was not performed) -- https://rjy.org.uk/