Alfa AWUS036NEH problem in BT5/5R1

[PsycoApocalipse]

First off, I am a complete and total newb to the world of linu, so much so I downloaded the VM image instead of the ISO version of BT5R1. Now I've been poking around on the internet for a week or two trying to resolve this on my own but have not found anything--or much at all--that sheds some light on this issue. I have found scant little that it did work in BT4R2.

I've had the Alfa AWUS036NEH USB ( This ) dongle for a while now just because of the spectacular range and ability to tx/rx through walls and several hundred feet to the nearby AP's. Anyway when I start airodump-ng mon0 after starting airmon-ng wlan0 I get nothing. No AP's show at all and I know there are at least 12 visible and seven within usable range.

Here's the relevant info outputs (airmon-ng was running during capture):

iwconfig

root@bt:~# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:on
          
mon0      IEEE 802.11bgn  Mode:Monitor  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:on

ifconfig

root@bt:~# ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0c:29:f0:c5:c4  
          inet addr:192.168.120.128  Bcast:192.168.120.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::20c:29ff:fef0:c5c4/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:208 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:82 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:22830 (22.8 KB)  TX bytes:8120 (8.1 KB)
          Interrupt:19 Base address:0x2024 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:326 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:326 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:50713 (50.7 KB)  TX bytes:50713 (50.7 KB)

mon0      Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 00-11-22-33-44-55-30-30-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00  
          UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING PROMISC ALLMULTI  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:11:22:33:44:55  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

root@bt:~#

airmon-ng (after fresh boot)

root@bt:~# airmon-ng start wlan0


Found 2 processes that could cause trouble.
If airodump-ng, aireplay-ng or airtun-ng stops working after
a short period of time, you may want to kill (some of) them!

PID	Name
745	dhclient3
882	dhclient3
Process with PID 854 (ifup) is running on interface wlan0
Process with PID 882 (dhclient3) is running on interface wlan0


Interface	Chipset		Driver

wlan0		Ralink RT2870/3070	rt2800usb - [phy0]
				(monitor mode enabled on mon0)

and the bottom 10 lines of dmesg

[    6.467226] cfg80211: Updating information on frequency 2484 MHz for a 20 MHz width channel with regulatory rule:
[    6.467231] cfg80211: 2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @  KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[    6.635938] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'
[    6.636948] Registered led device: rt2800usb-phy0::radio
[    6.637101] Registered led device: rt2800usb-phy0::assoc
[    6.637216] Registered led device: rt2800usb-phy0::quality
[    6.638735] usbcore: registered new interface driver rt2800usb
[    9.186678] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[   16.000348] eth0: no IPv6 routers present
[  298.010247] device mon0 entered promiscuous mode

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[ph3ane5phr3ak]

Try the following:

Unplug the dongle and reboot Backtrack.
After Backtrack is up plug in the dongle and type:

ifconfig wlan0 up
airmon-ng start wlan0
airodump-ng mon0

If there is the message:

Found 2 processes that could cause trouble.
If airodump-ng, aireplay-ng or airtun-ng stops working after
a short period of time, you may want to kill (some of) them!

PID	Name
745	dhclient3
882	dhclient3

Kill those processes by typing:

kill 745
kill 882
airodump-ng mon0

Hope this helps.

[vidkun]

I hate to resurrect such an old thread, but figured it was better than posting a new thread about the same thing.

I have this same card with BT5R3 32-bit running in a VM and functionality seems to be hit or miss. I usually get the exact same thing as above and kill all of the listed interfering PIDs. Then most of the time airodump starts to work and I see APs, etc. However, it keeps dying after seemingly random periods of time and I go back to getting nothing. When this happens, it usually takes a long time, many repetitions of variations on above listed solution, and lot of voodoo/luck for it to come back. Other times, it just flat out still refuses to work even after the above suggested solution.

For example, today I was doing an assessment (yes authorized) in my current building and things were working fine. I stopped airmon-ng, ifconfig wlan0 down, disconnected from VM, unplugged from laptop, suspended VM, put laptop to sleep. Then I walked across the street to another building, did those steps in reverse, and it worked just fine for a while. Then I did them again to pack up, moved up to a different floor, reversed the steps to setup again, and I get nothing from airodump-ng anymore. Nothing changed. No new steps taken. No errors. It just stopped seeing anything.I then tried my normal process of disconnecting the adapter, doing reboots, killing PIDs, etc. and it still wouldn't come back before I gave up and walked away for today.

Are any others having any similar issues with this adapter on the latest R3 VM? Any other suggested troubleshooting steps or ideas why it keeps screwing up? Or why it will work for a little while and then just stop? OP, did the posted solution work for you?

I didn't post any logs because dmesg, syslog, etc. all show the exact same thing as the OP. I'd sure like to get this adapter working if at all possible so any help is appreciated.