USB 3 broken on Backtrack 5 r3 live DVD and Backtrack 5 r3

[wrenn]

Hi All,
I have never had any troubles with Backtrack until I tried to get it on my Macbook Air Mid 2012. The Live DVD initramfs version does not recognize bootable media, aka USB 3 with anything, external dvd, usb stick etc.. This is problem 1.

So, I used my 2010 mackbook pro laptop (which runs it just fine) and did an install on an external drive, I then cloned the partitions over ( /, /Boot, swap) to the air while booted into OS X (ipartition if anyone cares) and viola I can get backtrack 5r3 to boot, startx, all that good stuf...

HOWEVER..

no nothing on the usb ports.. running dmesg | grep usb
reveals that all the USB ports are disconnected, much like this poor soul over at the ubuntu forums: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1947312 which is problem 2.

It appears this all stems from the current build not playing nicely with some USB 3 chipsets? Can you fix it? Thanks!

it is also of note to point out that it's probably specific usb 3 chipsets because no (well, a few that I tired, Fedora, Ubuntu, Gparted) linux live cd/dvd worked, they all failed at initramfs as well with their live distributions

[seventrix]

I have the exact same laptop, exact same problem (except I can get all the other distros working). I've tried other penetration testing distros and those work with USB3 no problem, I even tried upgrading(downgrading, w/e) the kernel in backtrack to a 2.6.* kernel and that support usb3, this is a big issue seeing as none of my usb adapters or anything will work without those ports. I would love some information into this also, nothing shows up, modprobing all the modules and no avail there either

[wrenn]

Yes Backbox (latest distro) just works, also ubuntu works now as well, and Arch. Other "pen testing" distros besides Backbox still dont work for me. I have unfortunately moved over to Backbox since no one seems to care about this issue on BackTrack.. Very disappointing..

[seventrix]

BUMP!!! Really need some help with this from someone of you experts out there! The issues is still there, lsusb shows nothing when inserting a usb flash drive, i've looked at /var/log/messages and there is even no messages displayed at all when i plug in the usb drive. I really dont want to switch from backtrack to another pen testing distro. I'm 100% positive its something to do with the kernel, seeing as updating the kernel in backtrack (I know you guys dont support it) fixes everything and usb 3 works fine, but if i reboot into the stock backtrack 5 r3 kernel no more usb detection. I've tried looking into the kernel and every single option for usb is set up already for my use so I cant possibly see what else I can do, and am at the mercy of the forums to help fix my usb!!! If anyone could dedicate some time i would be highly appreciative

[iceberg]

Is anyone working on this problem? It seems there are several devices not working from the macbook 9,1 including the USB. Will updating the kernel fix the issue? Has anyone found a solution?

[wrenn]

Is anyone working on this problem? It seems there are several devices not working from the macbook 9,1 including the USB. Will updating the kernel fix the issue? Has anyone found a solution?

I dont think anyone is working on this which is sad.. the BT team recommends not upgrading the kernel as apparently the heavily mod it but yeah, theoretically updating the kernel will fix all..