Wireless Detection Using Pretec & Sharp Rom

[rjohnson1969]

I've got the cheapest CF wi-fi card available (Pretec from HSN for $21 shipped).  I hope this isn't the problem.

On my Zaurus SL-5500 with the Sharp 3.13 ROM, I've had no success setting up the three wireless network detection software (Kismet, Wellenreiter, Discoverer).

If you set up a network and plug in the card, and start it, then it searches for a while and tells you if it's found an access point -- If you're near one, it names it correctly.  I'm pretty sure that this card works.  (But No AP at home to prove it.)

Kismet configured to the best of my ability (and I've collected no less than 7 slightly different how-to articles all based on different hardware and software combinations) eventually reports some FATAL error stuff.

Wellenreiter (https://www.oesf.org/howto/wellenreiter-sharp.tar) refuses to properly autodetect the card, and won't allow manual settings.  Discoverer likewise.

Has anyone using this hardware and ROM combination properly set up a wireless sniffing app?  Can you give me your recommendation and talk me through it?

[dreadlocks]

That card is supposed to have the Intersil Prism 2.5 chipset, it should work unless it dosent support going into monitor mode, but then I would think there would of been more people reporting this problem (google search found almost nothing).

What are the errors kismet is giving you? Wellenreiter can be a bitch to get working on sharprom, but kismet should run with no problems.

You might try another ROM to make sure your card isint bunk, I got kismet and Wellenreiter to work out of the box in OZ.. might be worth a shot

[rjohnson1969]

Dreadlocks,
I've reinstalled Kismet, and edited kismet conf by changing these lines only:
suiduser=zaurus
source=hostap,eth0,prism2source
logtemplate=/mnt/card/kismetdata/%n-%d-%i.

I started a network connection that I created for Wellenreiter (which connects to nothing fairly quickly and stays up), started a console, su to root, and...

This is the transcript (ctrl-c from the console eliminated CR's that I've manually added)
# kismet
Server options:  none
Client options:  none
Starting server...
Waiting for server to start before starting UI...
Suid priv-dropping disabled.  This may not be secure.
No specific sources given to be enabled, all will be enabled. Enabling channel hopping.
Enabling channel splitting.
Source 0 (prism2source): Enabling monitor mode for hostap source interface eth0 channel 6...
FATAL: channel get ioctl failed 38:Function not implemented

What do you think the problem is?  The kismet is from kismet_2005.ipk

Thanks.

[chrget]

I've reinstalled Kismet, and edited kismet conf by changing these lines only:
suiduser=zaurus
source=hostap,eth0,prism2source
logtemplate=/mnt/card/kismetdata/%n-%d-%i.

Even though I'm not dreadlocks

The Sharp ROMs are not using hostap, but rather an antique incarnation of wlanng. So you may want to try

Code: [Select]

source=wlanng_legacy,eth0,prism2source
That should hopefully sort it out.

Best regards,
Chris.

[dreadlocks]

In my config I have this:

Code: [Select]

source=prism2_legacy,eth0,Kismet
but chrget is correct about the sharp rom using wlanng instead of hostap

[rjohnson1969]

Thanks for the tip, guys.  I get a much more verbose error now (is it even an error?).

I first 'connected' to the do-nothing network.  ...then
     If I start it from the GUI (with run as root checked), it still says "can't connect to the server" (and places a 1.4 M file in a tmp on the ram filesystem), but stays active as though it might be working anyway.
     If I start it from the console, it cranks for a while before bailing out.
This is the output:

# kismet
Server
options:  none
Client options:  none
Starting server...
Waiting for server to start before starting UI...
Suid priv-dropping disabled.  This may not be secure.
No specific sources given to be enabled, all will be enabled.
Enabling channel hopping.
Enabling channel splitting.
Source 0 (prism2source): Enabling monitor mode for wlanng_legacy source interface eth0 channel 6...
message=lnxreq_wlansniff   enable=true   channel=6   resultcode=success Source 0 (prism2source): Opening wlanng_legacy source interface eth0...
Allowing clients to fetch WEP keys. Logging networks to /mnt/card/kismetdata/Kismet-Apr-05-2005-2.network
Logging networks in CSV format to /mnt/card/kismetdata/Kismet-Apr-05-2005-2.csv
Logging networks in XML format to /mnt/card/kismetdata/Kismet-Apr-05-2005-2.xml
Logging cryptographically weak packets to /mnt/card/kismetdata/Kismet-Apr-05-2005-2.weak
Logging cisco product information to /mnt/card/kismetdata/Kismet-Apr-05-2005-2.cisco
Logging gps coordinates to /mnt/card/kismetdata/Kismet-Apr-05-2005-2.gps
Logging data to /mnt/card/kismetdata/Kismet-Apr-05-2005-2.dump
Writing data files to disk every 300 seconds.
Mangling encrypted and fuzzy data packets.
Tracking probe responses and associating probe networks.
Reading AP manufacturer data and defaults from /usr/local/etc/ap_manuf
Reading client manufacturer data and defaults from /usr/local/etc/client_manuf
Dump file format: wiretap (local code) dump
Crypt file format: airsnort (weak packet) dump Kismet 2005.01.R1 (Kismet)
Logging data networks CSV XML weak cisco gps GPSD
cannot connect: Connection refused Listening on port 2501. Allowing connections from 127.0.0.1/255.255.255.255 Registering builtin client/server protocols...
Registering requested alerts...
Registering builtin timer events...
Gathering packets...
Starting UI...
NOTICE:  Group file did not exist, it will be created. Looking for startup info from localhost:2501.... found. Connected to Kismet server 2005.01.R1 on localhost:2501 Reading AP manufacturer data and defaults from /usr/local/etc/ap_manuf
Reading client manufacturer data and defaults from /usr/local/etc/client_manuf
Error opening terminal: vt100. Killing server...
wait: No such job: %- Kismet exited.
Didn't detect any networks, unlinking network list.
Didn't detect any networks, unlinking CSV network list. # Didn't detect any networks, unlinking XML network list. Didn't detect any Cisco Discovery Packets, unlinking cisco dump
Didn't capture any packets, unlinking dump file
Didn't see any weak encryption packets, unlinking weak file
WARNING: prism2source (eth0) unable to exit monitor mode automatically.  You may need to manually restart the device and reconfigure it for normal operation.
Kismet exiting.

By The Way, the Network settings I used are:  
unchecked Non-Spec ESS ID, add ESS ID "test", net type 802.11 ad-hoc channel 1
WEP Key type disabled
TCP/IP Specify TCP/IP info IP 1.1.1.1 subnet 255.255.255.0 gateway 1.1.1.0
and specified no DNS or proxy

This has _got_ to be a lot closer to how it is supposed to work -- have I got anything wrong?  How do I test this?

[rjohnson1969]

I think this must be the problem:

Error opening terminal: vt100. Killing server...

Does anybody know how to fix this?

[rjohnson1969]

It's a Good Thing to fill in the answer to your own forum questions, right?

For the record, I've figured that out.  Here's the deal:

If I run 'kismet_server' on the command line, it starts.  I can then run kismet_qt from the GUI.  Kismet works, Yea!

You get the 'VT100' error if you run 'kismet' from the command line.  This starts the server, and then tries to start the text user interface in the terminal.  Irongeek (Irongeek Zaurus Wardriving Apps) has solved this problem by putting the following in his startup script:

export TERMINFO=/usr/share/terminfo
export TERM=linux

This will allow the text user interface to properly start.  I don't think anybody uses this interface anymore, because the kismet_qt interface is lots easier to read.

[nclarke]

Possible hardware issue with pretec cf wlan card.

Haven't had any trouble using the pretec card with my SL5500 with either sharp or oz roms although I did have a probem initially which you might have run into.

It would rarely connect to anything and if it did the connection would drop shortly afterwards even though neither the zaurus nor AP had moved and they were sitting almost next to each other.

It sounds silly but I found that cupping my hand around the card (at the top where I assume the antenna is) allowed me to connect and it would stay connected until I removed my hand!

I found that attaching a metallic object to the top rear of the card solved my connection problem (I eventually used a short length of 10mm copper braid taped to the top rear of the card). This has been working for almost a year now!

Don't know if I have an early version and they've fixed the issue but thought you guys might like to know. The model of the card is PRETEC OC-WLBXX-A.

[rjohnson1969]

I'm pleased to report that my Pretec CF wi-fi card does not suffer from the hardware problem nclarke describes.  It connects with the outside world without hand-holding or braid-taping.  

Mine has the exact same part number as nclarke's, so Pretec either makes product changes without changing the model number, or has quality control problems.  Anyway, I'm happy with mine.

In review:  The only thing I really had to do to get Kismet working on my Pretec CF wi-fi card (on Zaurus SL-5500 with Sharp 3.13 ROM) is to put a correct source line in kismet.conf:
     "source=wlanng_legacy,eth0,prism2source"  (the "prism2source" could be any text)

I can only start kismet_server from the terminal, and must be root.  I have a startup script formed from the commands described here:  Kismet_Working_on_3.10_ROM
I then start kismet_qt from the GUI.

[span style=\'font-size:14pt;line-height:100%\']???[/span] I read descriptions of how to write a script that will start kismet from the GUI, but it always reports "cannot connect to the server" when I try this.  Any hints?