Unable to set Intel wireless card to master mode

[Damu R <damu.devnull@gmail.com>]

Hi,
I am having a HP EliteBook 6930p laptop with Intel Ultimate  N WiFi Link 5300. Though the card supports master mode I am not able to set it to run in master mode. Is there anyway I can enable this mode?

$ sudo iwconfig wlan0 mode master
Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :
    SET failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.

$ sudo /usr/sbin/hostapd ~/hostapd.conf
Configuration file: /home/damu/hostapd.conf
Could not set interface wlan0 flags: Input/output error
nl80211 driver initialization failed.
ELOOP: remaining socket: sock=4 eloop_data=0x9382a78 user_data=0x9382fe8 handler=0x807b9f0
ELOOP: remaining socket: sock=6 eloop_data=0x9384bb8 user_data=(nil) handler=0x8085990

The description of the device from lshw and iw are given below.

lshw description:
  *-network
       description: Wireless interface
       product: Ultimate N WiFi Link 5300
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       logical name: wlan0
       version: 00
       serial: 00:21:6a:6d:f6:c4
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlagn driverversion=2.6.38-2-686 firmware=8.83.5.1 build 33692 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abgn
       resources: irq:46 memory:d8600000-d8601fff

The supported modes from iw output:
    Supported interface modes:
         * IBSS
         * managed
         * AP
         * AP/VLAN
         * monitor


Thanks
Damu