Problems with Realtek chipset RTL8192SU and Aircrack-ng

[mancus]

Hi!

Like the title implies, I am having some trouble using Aircrack-ng with my Belkin Surf & Share Wireless USB Adapter. Basically, when I try to run airmon-ng, nothing is listed, it's just empty. I don't know if this helps but, in wicd Network Manager there are plenty of Wifi-networks listed.

I have searched the Back|Track forums and found other threads concerning the same chipset, but none of them seem to have a solution that works for me. I have also been googling for hours and have found a bunch of forum posts and guides regarding the same chipset, but they won't help me either.

I am all new to Ubuntu and Back|Track, so if there is something that I forgot to mention, please tell so that I can provide that information.

Let me give you additional information:

• I am running Back|Track 5 R2 GNOME on WMWare Player 4.0.2 build-591240
• Host machine's OS is Windows 7 Ultimate, 32-bit 6.1.7601, Service Pack 1
• The full name of the USB adapter is F7D2101
• The chipset is RTL8192SU

Here are some results from different commands in the kernel:

root@bt:~# lsusb
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0e0f:0002 VMware, Inc. Virtual USB Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0e0f:0003 VMware, Inc. Virtual Mouse
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 050d:845a Belkin Components F7D2101 802.11n Surf & Share Wireless Adapter v1000 [Realtek RTL8192SU]
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

root@bt:~# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
r8712u                158277  0 
vsock                  46691  0 
dm_crypt               22236  0 
snd_ens1371            24455  0 
gameport               14558  1 snd_ens1371
snd_ac97_codec        104623  1 snd_ens1371
ac97_bus               12602  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm                72878  2 snd_ens1371,snd_ac97_codec
vmw_balloon            12593  0 
snd_seq_midi           13132  0 
snd_rawmidi            24215  2 snd_ens1371,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event     14076  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                50403  2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer              23911  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
lp                     13321  0 
snd_seq_device         13817  3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
ppdev                  12840  0 
snd                    52787  7 snd_ens1371,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
psmouse                72465  0 
serio_raw              13027  0 
shpchp                 32187  0 
parport_pc             31867  1 
parport                34960  3 lp,ppdev,parport_pc
soundcore              12534  1 snd
snd_page_alloc         13709  1 snd_pcm
vmci                   69759  1 vsock
joydev                 17161  0 
mac_hid                13037  0 
i2c_piix4              12983  0 
dm_mirror              21585  0 
dm_region_hash         15035  1 dm_mirror
dm_log                 17871  2 dm_mirror,dm_region_hash
vmw_pvscsi             17939  0 
vmxnet3                44018  0 
aufs                  162169  0 
usbhid                 41119  0 
hid                    79842  1 usbhid
floppy                 59430  0 
pcnet32                40553  0 
mptspi                 22137  2 
mptscsih               37831  1 mptspi
mptbase                90054  2 mptspi,mptscsih
scsi_transport_spi     25091  1 mptspi

root@bt:~# dmesg|grep firmware
[  175.837460] r8712u: Loading firmware from "rtlwifi/rtl8712u.bin"

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

eth1      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     unassociated  Nickname:"rtl_wifi"
          Mode:Auto  Access Point: Not-Associated   Sensitivity:0/0  
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

root@bt:~# ifconfig
eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0c:29:a2:b6:52  
          inet addr:192.168.80.131  Bcast:192.168.80.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::20c:29ff:fea2:b652/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:955 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:34 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:88384 (88.3 KB)  TX bytes:3260 (3.2 KB)
          Interrupt:19 Base address:0x2000 

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:95 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:95 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:14337 (14.3 KB)  TX bytes:14337 (14.3 KB)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 94:44:52:df:b8:47  
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING 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)

I really hope you can help me out and I appreciate every answer.
Thanks in advance!

[charonsecurity]

I'm not sure if this is the correct advice as I have not tried your device, but I hope it works .
Since this is a USB device, try this:
(In console)
ifconfig usb0 up

and in your Wicd Network Manager, in your preferences, under the general settings tap, set your wired interface to "usb0".
And see if you can connect to it that way.

[mancus]

Since this is a USB device, try this:
(In console)
ifconfig usb0 up

Thanks for the advice! Unfortunately, it didn't work. This is the error message I was given:

usb0: ERROR while getting interface flags: No such device

The adapter is listed and connected as a removable device in VMWare Player.

[mancus]

Sorry for the double-post, but I just wanted to add that I have tried following this guide, but I suspect it only works for an earlier version of the kernel than the one used in BT 5 R2, as I had no success in doing so.

Also, is this your thread, charonsecurity?

[sunshine716]

My situation is the same to you

[charonsecurity]

No, I'm not the person in that thread.
Though I have liked then name Charon since early Highschool (+10 years ago). lol
I'm afraid I don't know what is the correct solution to your problem however I know there are much more knowledgeable users on this forum. Hopefully someone will chime in.

But after reading your initial post more closely I see you are able to pick up different networks using that card right? Just not able to see it in airmon-ng or use aricrack... (Now I'm by no means an expert so my ideas may be totally off)

How about trying to put your wlan0 into monitor mode first then try aircrack - to do so, you can use these commands:
1. airmon-ng start wlan0
then if you type ifconfig, it should show mon0 (or something close to that)...

Right now, I'm really just comparing your setup to mine, so it may be a driver issue too (because the outputs of iwconfig, and ifconfig are slightly different compared)
Sorry, I can't be much more help ( I am really curious though about this situation, I really love learning)

[maverik35]

It seems to me like driver 8712u is little unstable..It just cannot set interface in monitor mode..If no monitor mode, no airodump scan will merge....

Try as instructed by charon, and see if you can see something. But do not start the network services...It might give you a problem with dhclient running in the interface..

[mancus]

How about trying to put your wlan0 into monitor mode first then try aircrack - to do so, you can use these commands:
1. airmon-ng start wlan0

This is the result of running the command airmon-ng start wlan0:

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
1050	dhclient3
1868	dhclient3


Interface	Chipset		Driver

ifconfig:

root@bt:~# ifconfig
eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0c:29:a2:b6:52  
          inet addr:192.168.80.131  Bcast:192.168.80.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::20c:29ff:fea2:b652/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:57 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:18 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:5892 (5.8 KB)  TX bytes:1918 (1.9 KB)
          Interrupt:19 Base address:0x2000 

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:50 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:50 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:7953 (7.9 KB)  TX bytes:7953 (7.9 KB)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 94:44:52:df:b8:47  
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING 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)

and iwconfig:

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

eth1      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     unassociated  Nickname:"rtl_wifi"
          Mode:Auto  Access Point: Not-Associated   Sensitivity:0/0  
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

It seems to me like driver 8712u is little unstable..

I suspected it had something to do with this module. I've heard about something called ndiswrapper, do you think this is something that could help me get things working?

[maverik35]

Honestly, I do not think so. Ndiswrapper is a program that allows windows drivers for wifi devices (also used in another hardware, but intended for wifi devices) to run in a native way in linux. The thing is, if the driver itself has been patched to be able to run in monitor mode and being able to inject traffic....

As far as I know, this driver is unstable and for what I see, not able to set in monitor mode..

You could use the ndiswraper, but only to navigate, connect to the lan, but not to inject traffic or set the unit in monitor mode.

Hope it helps..

[mancus]

Oh, well. I'm going to have to buy a new WiFi adapter either way. Guess I'll have to buy one that is compatible with Linux/Ubuntu/Back|Track.

Anyways, thanks for the suggestions and advice guys!