Bridging wired and wireless network adapter on Linux

[UCyborg]

I'm curious about the topic as it seems to be a rocket science on Linux. The idea is to have a computer that has both Wi-Fi and wired network adapter and is connected wirelessly to the router / access point. After bridging wired and wireless adapter and configuring IP for the bridge, you can connect another computer to the first computer's RJ-45 port and it's almost like it was plugged directly to the router.

At least the procedure is very simple on Windows, select the adapters in Network Connections->Bridge Connections, wait few seconds, configure IP settings on the bridge, then virtually everything works (file sharing between both computers and other computers on the network, hosting servers on either of the two computers and have them accessible from the internet by setting up port forwarding on the router...).

On Linux, Network Manager gives the impression that it can be done, you add the bridge, you add both wired and wireless connections to the bridge, say on which physical adapter it should bind just in case, activate it, it fails. You come across the information that it may only work with 4addr mode enabled on the wireless adapter and of course it doesn't work because either your router or your wireless card doesn't support it. You read a bunch of other texts related to the matter and are only left scratching your head.

So my wireless card / driver does support 4addr mode and in this case it is required that what they call WDS mode is enabled on the router, the option which is non-existent on mine. After activating the bridge, MAC of the wireless card can be seen in the GUI of the router on the list of connected wireless clients, but the IP address field is empty, despite being configured on the bridge and only communication between two computers connected with a wire works.

I'm curious if anyone have any experience in that department and in that case, was able to make it work. Do you need some special settings, bypassing Network Manager and doing everything by hand etc.? Not targeting any specific distro, but let's assume we're working with Debian or Debian-derived distro that doesn't change in the networking department compared to regular Debian.

Even more curious about what's special about Windows that makes it work so easily, despite the differences between wired / wireless modes.

Edited May 22, 2022 by UCyborg
Corrections / missing words

[UCyborg]

I have an iconic Linksys WRT54GL router with Linux based 3rd party firmware, Tomato 1.28 by shibby to be precise. It lets you normally bridge its wireless and wired interface. No excuses like they make for desktop Linux, just works and easily enabled in the GUI.