New kernel: mixed news for Apple fanbois

[VulpiArgenti]

Brcmsmac

The good news: this driver is back, and works nicely for web browsing
The bad news: it isn't much use for anything else


B43

The good news: the new kernel should support this driver for most Mac cards
The bad news: I haven't (yet?) got it working

[muts]

1. brcmsmac injection worked fine on my mac with BT5r2, kernel 3.2.6.
2. b43 can not co-exist with brcmsmac in kernel 3.2.6. If you need to change to b43, check the wiki. http://www.backtrack-linux.org/wiki/..._Backtrack5_r2
3. We are still working on BT5 r2 documentation, so be patient.
4. before announcing "news", please take time to check things thoroughly.
5. while announcing "news", please be a bit more descriptive about your specific hardware.

[VulpiArgenti]

Many thanks for your reply muts.

please be a bit more descriptive about your specific hardware.

Apologies; MacBookAir 3,2

root@bt:~# lspci -vnn | grep 14e4
01:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation Device [14e4:4353] (rev 01)

__________________________________________________ ________________________________________

please take time to check things thoroughly.

???

__________________________________________________ ________________________________________

it isn't much use for anything else

While it's true that it passes the injection test (as it did in BT5);

root@bt:~# aireplay-ng -9 mon0
10:26:27  Trying broadcast probe requests...
10:26:27  Injection is working!
10:26:29  Found 2 APs

10:26:29  Trying directed probe requests...
10:26:29  00:25: etc
10:26:34  Ping (min/avg/max): 3.737ms/136.610ms/181.139ms Power: -89.56
10:26:34  18/30:  60%

10:26:34  00:13: etc
10:26:39  Ping (min/avg/max): 4.356ms/158.922ms/191.733ms Power: -57.16
10:26:39  25/30:  83%

I still have the old problem of not collecting data or handshakes in airodump-ng

 BSSID              PWR  Beacons    #Data, #/s  CH  MB   ENC  CIPHER AUTH ESSID          
                                                                                         
 00:25:etc        -47      928        0    0  11  54e. WPA2 CCMP   PSK        
 00:13:etc        -65      883        0    0   1  54   WPA2 CCMP   PSK    
 00:60:etc        -77      374        0    0   6  54e  WPA2 CCMP   PSK           
 74:91:etc        -91      129        0    0   6  54e. OPN

I have confirmed there is no data by wireshark inspection, and also by comparing to a simultaneous capture from another card. Also the same result when capturing directly from wireshark, so it isn't a problem specific to airodump-ng.

Deauth attacks are successful (but no handshakes captured).

It will not associate with my AP after macchanging.

So, for me, brcmsmac is not (yet) useful in a real world setting, when compared to USB cards or to the excellent iwlagn in my other laptop.

[VulpiArgenti]

If you need to change to b43, check the wiki

A very clear tutorial thanks. It seemed to run well, apart from:

WARNING: modpost: Found 24 section mismatch(es).
To see full details build your kernel with:
'make CONFIG_DEBUG_SECTION_MISMATCH=y'

After reboot, no wireless modules were loaded. Modprobe b43 appeared to be successfull, the module was seen in lsmod, but no wireless available on ifconfig -a.

Syslog shows:

bt kernel: [   56.757697] Broadcom 43xx driver loaded [ Features: PMNLS ]

which I believe is the deprecated driver.

I will wait for the ISO and try a clean install. I have in the past used fwcutter etc, which may be causing residual problems

[VulpiArgenti]

Well unfortunately not much has changed after a clean install. Brcmsmac issues unchanged. B43 activation fails, brcmsmac persists.

My understanding (probably wrong ) is that in the general linux community b43 is now preferred over brcmsmac; more features, more developed, more stable.

It would be useful to hear others' results from the b43 wiki instructions. I'm happy to try harder if it works for everyone else.

[VulpiArgenti]

I see the wiki instructions have been updated, but still fails for me. Anyone successfully installed b43?