Today I faced rather simple, ye challenging problem. Usually I use CAPsMAN, but for simple configuration I just used standalone AP with 3 VAPs.
The problem is in 6.38 I cannot remove SSID from master interface - the best thing I can do is hide ssid and disable “default authenticate”.
is there any way to use just VAPs without effective network on master interface?
You can always use the master as part of the network.
The solution you found is the only option.
more pointedly, why do you need 3 VAPs at all? why not use the master interface as one of the APs, and then use only two VAPs. You can still perform all the same config and routing / bridging / vlaning options, and that actually will provide better wireless performance since you are wasting less airtime on the beacons and other processes that the master interface must always perform.
every additional SSID a physical interface hosts, some % of total performance is lost to resources used to accommodate that additional SSID (I don’t remember the %, it’s not huge, but I think it’s something in the range of 1%-5% reduction in total throughput, depending on your data rates, though setting the SSID to hidden should reduce that loss by a small amount if I remember correctly).