Discussion on support for active monitor mode

[SoniaMalki]

I am so happy I found your GitHub today ! And I am so happy and thrilled because you just updated it two hours ago !

I am intensively searching for an wifi card that supports active monitor mode, but I have the entire internet and no response at all ! I have thought this feature don’t exist because I couldn’t find it anywhere. And then you updated your GitHub and you gave me hope.

I was modifying kernel code just in a hope to understand of this sorcery works, it was my first time going this deep into Linux.

Can we chat via discord ? An issue is not the best thing to do for this. I will read your GitHub carefully and I hope I will find an adapter that finally works. Greats hope there !

[SoniaMalki]

Hey it is me again ! my project is to use the GitHub opendrop for airdrop files from Ubuntu to my Ipad. The thing is, opendrop is based on owl and owl use this feature called « active monitor mode » This mode is not documented well on the internet, and I searched through the code of the kernel, it is supposed to be a standard with Cfg80211, but it is rarely seen. I didn’t find any device that I can buy in 2022 that have this feature, it is documented to be provided in the ath9k chipset, but this is a very old chipset so there is no possible way of buying it. I have tried many tp link device and nothing worked, they were documented with ath9k chipset, but when I received the package at home I saw that this is new version (think TPWN8882 v6 (I am inventing)), and the v3 was the last version with the ath9k chipset. Very very frustrating. So I was happy reading your GitHub because I learned how muck tplink is a mess right now and I have to avoid it. Lesson learned!

So now after buying 6 of theses TP-Link devices, reading kernel code for days and digging through internet, I want to buy a device that will work out of the box very quickly. For this I have to know if it support this « active monitor mode » thing, but the only way I found was to read the « iw list » command and search for the line mentioning it. Unfortunately I couldn’t link this thing to a hardware spec that would make the search easier. I have searched in the kernel code, but I gave up, it was to complicated for me. I have hope I can do It in the future to help everyone!

Sorry for this long text, I am very invested in this after a week of intense research now, so your GitHub is a biiiiig relief, I hope it will be indexed on Google search for the poor souls like me that want opendrop.

So anyway, I saw your usb device list and pci list, and I wanted to know if it is possible to add the output of « iw list » so I can find a device that will work for me. You have already put it in some devices, but I want cheaper one for my limited use.

thank you so much for your work, I appreciate it a lot !!

[morrownr]

Hi @SoniaMalki

Whew. A lot to unpack here,

This repo gets an average of over 3,000 views per week and other use monitor mode as well so over time maybe we can help. Let me ask some questions:

You seem to think "active monitor mode" is a special capability. I think it simply when you change one of your wifi interfaces into monitor mode. Please point me to something that counters this idea.

Please tell me what distro and kernel you are using.

For each of the 6 USB WiFi adapters you have:

Plug the adapter in and run `lsusb" Then paste the results into a reply here.

Can you provide the link to opendrop that you are using so that I can read about?

provided in the ath9k chipset, but this is a very old chipset so there is no possible way of buying it.

Really. Go back out to the README.md and scroll down to the following section:

chipset - Atheros ar9271 [2] - N150 - USB 2

I saw your usb device list and pci list, and I wanted to know if it is possible to add the output of « iw list »

Did you look in the folder called iw_list? I can add more if need be.

Regards

[SoniaMalki]

Hi @morrownr !

"active monitor mode" is a functionnaly that is not just monitor mode. For OWL, it is mentionned in git that the adaptater must have this functionnality. (see there: https://github.com/seemoo-lab/owl/issues/9). To see if it supports it, when we do "iw list", there will be a listing, and a line mentionning it. For example in your repo: 7212u, in the output of "iw list", we can see this :

Alfa AWUS036ACM Technical Information

$ iw list
Wiphy phy0
    max # scan SSIDs: 4
    max scan IEs length: 2243 bytes
    max # sched scan SSIDs: 0
    max # match sets: 0
    Retry short limit: 7
    Retry long limit: 4
    Coverage class: 0 (up to 0m)
    Device supports RSN-IBSS
    Device supports AP-side u-APSD.
    Device supports T-DLS.
    Supported Ciphers:
        * WEP40 (00-0f-ac:1)
        * WEP104 (00-0f-ac:5)
        * TKIP (00-0f-ac:2)
        * CCMP-128 (00-0f-ac:4)
        * CCMP-256 (00-0f-ac:10)
        * GCMP-128 (00-0f-ac:8)
        * GCMP-256 (00-0f-ac:9)
        * CMAC (00-0f-ac:6)
        * CMAC-256 (00-0f-ac:13)
        * GMAC-128 (00-0f-ac:11)
        * GMAC-256 (00-0f-ac:12)
    Available Antennas: TX 0x3 RX 0x3
    Configured Antennas: TX 0x3 RX 0x3
    Supported interface modes:
         * IBSS
         * managed
         * AP
         * AP/VLAN
         * monitor
         * mesh point
             * P2P-client
         * P2P-GO
    Band 1:
        Capabilities: 0x1ff
            RX LDPC
            HT20/HT40
            SM Power Save disabled
            RX Greenfield
            RX HT20 SGI
            RX HT40 SGI
            TX STBC
            RX STBC 1-stream
            Max AMSDU length: 3839 bytes
            No DSSS/CCK HT40
        Maximum RX AMPDU length 65535 bytes (exponent: 0x003)
        Minimum RX AMPDU time spacing: No restriction (0x00)
        HT TX/RX MCS rate indexes supported: 0-15
        Bitrates (non-HT):
            * 1.0 Mbps (short preamble supported)
            * 2.0 Mbps (short preamble supported)
            * 5.5 Mbps (short preamble supported)
            * 11.0 Mbps (short preamble supported)
            * 6.0 Mbps
            * 9.0 Mbps
            * 12.0 Mbps
            * 18.0 Mbps
            * 24.0 Mbps
            * 36.0 Mbps
            * 48.0 Mbps
            * 54.0 Mbps
        Frequencies:
            * 2412 MHz [1] (23.0 dBm)
            * 2417 MHz [2] (23.0 dBm)
            * 2422 MHz [3] (23.0 dBm)
            * 2427 MHz [4] (23.0 dBm)
            * 2432 MHz [5] (23.0 dBm)
            * 2437 MHz [6] (23.0 dBm)
            * 2442 MHz [7] (23.0 dBm)
            * 2447 MHz [8] (23.0 dBm)
            * 2452 MHz [9] (23.0 dBm)
            * 2457 MHz [10] (23.0 dBm)
            * 2462 MHz [11] (23.0 dBm)
            * 2467 MHz [12] (disabled)
            * 2472 MHz [13] (disabled)
            * 2484 MHz [14] (disabled)
    Band 2:
        Capabilities: 0x1ff
            RX LDPC
            HT20/HT40
            SM Power Save disabled
            RX Greenfield
            RX HT20 SGI
            RX HT40 SGI
            TX STBC
            RX STBC 1-stream
            Max AMSDU length: 3839 bytes
            No DSSS/CCK HT40
        Maximum RX AMPDU length 65535 bytes (exponent: 0x003)
        Minimum RX AMPDU time spacing: No restriction (0x00)
        HT TX/RX MCS rate indexes supported: 0-15
        VHT Capabilities (0x318001b0):
            Max MPDU length: 3895
            Supported Channel Width: neither 160 nor 80+80
            RX LDPC
            short GI (80 MHz)
            TX STBC
            RX antenna pattern consistency
            TX antenna pattern consistency
        VHT RX MCS set:
            1 streams: MCS 0-9
            2 streams: MCS 0-9
            3 streams: not supported
            4 streams: not supported
            5 streams: not supported
            6 streams: not supported
            7 streams: not supported
            8 streams: not supported
        VHT RX highest supported: 0 Mbps
        VHT TX MCS set:
            1 streams: MCS 0-9
            2 streams: MCS 0-9
            3 streams: not supported
            4 streams: not supported
            5 streams: not supported
            6 streams: not supported
            7 streams: not supported
            8 streams: not supported
        VHT TX highest supported: 0 Mbps
        Bitrates (non-HT):
            * 6.0 Mbps
            * 9.0 Mbps
            * 12.0 Mbps
            * 18.0 Mbps
            * 24.0 Mbps
            * 36.0 Mbps
            * 48.0 Mbps
            * 54.0 Mbps
        Frequencies:
            * 5180 MHz [36] (20.0 dBm)
            * 5200 MHz [40] (20.0 dBm)
            * 5220 MHz [44] (20.0 dBm)
            * 5240 MHz [48] (20.0 dBm)
            * 5260 MHz [52] (20.0 dBm) (radar detection)
            * 5280 MHz [56] (20.0 dBm) (radar detection)
            * 5300 MHz [60] (20.0 dBm) (radar detection)
            * 5320 MHz [64] (20.0 dBm) (radar detection)
            * 5500 MHz [100] (20.0 dBm) (radar detection)
            * 5520 MHz [104] (20.0 dBm) (radar detection)
            * 5540 MHz [108] (20.0 dBm) (radar detection)
            * 5560 MHz [112] (20.0 dBm) (radar detection)
            * 5580 MHz [116] (20.0 dBm) (radar detection)
            * 5600 MHz [120] (20.0 dBm) (radar detection)
            * 5620 MHz [124] (20.0 dBm) (radar detection)
            * 5640 MHz [128] (20.0 dBm) (radar detection)
            * 5660 MHz [132] (20.0 dBm) (radar detection)
            * 5680 MHz [136] (20.0 dBm) (radar detection)
            * 5700 MHz [140] (20.0 dBm) (radar detection)
            * 5745 MHz [149] (20.0 dBm)
            * 5765 MHz [153] (20.0 dBm)
            * 5785 MHz [157] (20.0 dBm)
            * 5805 MHz [161] (20.0 dBm)
            * 5825 MHz [165] (20.0 dBm)
    Supported commands:
         * new_interface
         * set_interface
         * new_key
         * start_ap
         * new_station
         * new_mpath
         * set_mesh_config
         * set_bss
         * authenticate
         * associate
         * deauthenticate
         * disassociate
         * join_ibss
         * join_mesh
             * remain_on_channel
         * set_tx_bitrate_mask
         * frame
         * frame_wait_cancel
         * set_wiphy_netns
         * set_channel
         * set_wds_peer
         * tdls_mgmt
         * tdls_oper
         * probe_client
         * set_noack_map
         * register_beacons
         * start_p2p_device
         * set_mcast_rate
         * connect
         * disconnect
             * channel_switch
         * set_qos_map
         * set_multicast_to_unicast
    Supported TX frame types:
         * IBSS: 0x00 0x10 0x20 0x30 0x40 0x50 0x60 0x70 0x80 0x90 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0 0xe0 0xf0
         * managed: 0x00 0x10 0x20 0x30 0x40 0x50 0x60 0x70 0x80 0x90 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0 0xe0 0xf0
         * AP: 0x00 0x10 0x20 0x30 0x40 0x50 0x60 0x70 0x80 0x90 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0 0xe0 0xf0
         * AP/VLAN: 0x00 0x10 0x20 0x30 0x40 0x50 0x60 0x70 0x80 0x90 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0 0xe0 0xf0
         * mesh point: 0x00 0x10 0x20 0x30 0x40 0x50 0x60 0x70 0x80 0x90 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0 0xe0 0xf0
         * P2P-client: 0x00 0x10 0x20 0x30 0x40 0x50 0x60 0x70 0x80 0x90 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0 0xe0 0xf0
         * P2P-GO: 0x00 0x10 0x20 0x30 0x40 0x50 0x60 0x70 0x80 0x90 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0 0xe0 0xf0
         * P2P-device: 0x00 0x10 0x20 0x30 0x40 0x50 0x60 0x70 0x80 0x90 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0 0xe0 0xf0
    Supported RX frame types:
         * IBSS: 0x40 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0
         * managed: 0x40 0xd0
         * AP: 0x00 0x20 0x40 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0
         * AP/VLAN: 0x00 0x20 0x40 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0
         * mesh point: 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0
         * P2P-client: 0x40 0xd0
         * P2P-GO: 0x00 0x20 0x40 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0
         * P2P-device: 0x40 0xd0
    software interface modes (can always be added):
         * AP/VLAN
         * monitor
    valid interface combinations:
         * #{ IBSS } <= 1, #{ managed, AP, mesh point } <= 2,
           total <= 2, #channels <= 1, STA/AP BI must match
    HT Capability overrides:
         * MCS: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
         * maximum A-MSDU length
         * supported channel width
         * short GI for 40 MHz
         * max A-MPDU length exponent
         * min MPDU start spacing
    Device supports TX status socket option.
    Device supports HT-IBSS.
    Device supports SAE with AUTHENTICATE command
    Device supports low priority scan.
    Device supports scan flush.
    Device supports AP scan.
    Device supports per-vif TX power setting
    Driver supports full state transitions for AP/GO clients
    Driver supports a userspace MPM
    **Device supports active monitor (which will ACK incoming frames)**
    Device supports configuring vdev MAC-addr on create.
    Supported extended features:
* [ VHT_IBSS ]: VHT-IBSS
* [ RRM ]: RRM
* [ FILS_STA ]: STA FILS (Fast Initial Link Setup)
* [ CQM_RSSI_LIST ]: multiple CQM_RSSI_THOLD records
* [ CONTROL_PORT_OVER_NL80211 ]: control port over nl80211
* [ TXQS ]: FQ-CoDel-enabled intermediate TXQs
* [ AIRTIME_FAIRNESS ]: airtime fairness scheduling
* [ AQL ]: Airtime Queue Limits (AQL)
* [ SCAN_RANDOM_SN ]: use random sequence numbers in scans
* [ SCAN_MIN_PREQ_CONTENT ]: use probe request with only rate IEs in scans
* [ CONTROL_PORT_NO_PREAUTH ]: disable pre-auth over nl80211 control port support
* [ DEL_IBSS_STA ]: deletion of IBSS station support
* [ SCAN_FREQ_KHZ ]: scan on kHz frequency support
* [ CONTROL_PORT_OVER_NL80211_TX_STATUS ]: tx status for nl80211 control port support

Please tell me what distro and kernel you are using.

Ubuntu 20.04 with kernel 5.13.0-40-generic

Can you provide the link to opendrop that you are using so that I can read about?

https://github.com/seemoo-lab/opendrop OpenDrop uses OWL to do the transfers, and I am stuck in the OWL part so : https://github.com/seemoo-lab/owl

chipset - Atheros ar9271 [2] - N150 - USB 2

I didn't know it is equivalent to ath9k, I was searching in this page : https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers/ath9k/products/external but couldn't find a product available in my country.

Did you look in the folder called iw_list? I can add more if need be

Sorry I missed it ! Yep I am interested to have a more complete list if possible

Thank you !

[SoniaMalki]

More info on "active monitor mode", I saw that in monitor mode we can put flag with the command sudo iw <device> set monitor <flag> The different flag available are:

• none
• fcsfail
• plcpfail
• control
• otherbss
• cook
• active (source: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.12/driver-api/80211/cfg80211.html#c.monitor_flags & https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/documentation/iw)

Devices that don't support "active monitor" have an error when trying to put the active flag "iw command failed operation not supported (-95)".

So that's why I am searching for the support for this active monitor mode, hope it is more clear!

[morrownr]

Now things are clearing up. Can't say that I have used that.

You might want to go to the following repo:

https://github.com/morrownr/Monitor_Mode

The start-mon.sh script could be used to speed up testing. You can probably understand and learn bash fast. Look for the part that starts monitor mode. There is documentation in the script. I will play with it later.

You did not pass on the lsusb of your adapters?

Regards

[SoniaMalki]

I have to get the usb device, I have 2 pic device and 4 usb one. Are you interested for the pci too ?

[SoniaMalki]

And also those are all TP-Link devices with Realtek chipsets

[morrownr]

Are you interested for the pci too ?

No

I have modified the start-mon.sh script: start-mon.sh.tar.gz

This modified version attempts to set active and if unsuccessful, it kicks out with the error code. I tried it on an old adapter and it kicked out with an error. I then tried it with an adapter that uses a mt7612u chipset and it worked like a charm. If you go to README.md and scroll down to the section that has information and links to adapters that use the mt7612u chipset, you can see some examples of usb wifi adapters that use the mt7612u chipset.

I can also test the mt7610u chipset. Look around and tell me what chipsets you want tested.

[morrownr]

And also those are all TP-Link devices with Realtek chipsets

Yes, with TP-Link I expect Realtek chipsets. If I know what chipsets they have, I can them. I have an extensive collection of adapters.

Testing so far:

Good tests for active: mt7612u, mt7610u, mt7601u

Bad tests for active: rt5370, ar9271

[morrownr]

Additional tests: rtl8812bu and rtl8811cu tested bad. I suspect all Realtek drivers will test bad if those two did. I'm not sure if you are aware but I have repos for Realtek drivers here on this site. These are about as good as it gets but they are not standards compliant and as a result there is a lot of stuff that does not work or does not work right. Linux users are almost always better off getting usb wifi adapters that use in-kernel drivers. If you start at the top of README.md and read all the way to the end, you will learn a lot.

Status:

Good tests for active: mt7612u, mt7610u and mt7601u

Bad tests for active: rt5370, ar9271, rtl8812bu and rtl8811cu

Regards

[SoniaMalki]

Thank you ! Yeah I read your github and it was very informative on the matter, I will not buy any Realtek chip from now, you framed all the things that annoyed me from my one week experience.

I suspect that the drivers have been written not respecting the standars as you say, and that they ignore some functions like the active monitor for example. This is just a guess on my part, but for the same device in V1 version that has an Atheros chipset, and the device in V2 version with the Realtek chipset, the active monitor disappears. To me this seems strange, I don't think it's the hardware that is limited, but simply the implementation of the drivers that don't include this support. I could be totally wrong, I don't know.

So I searched in the backport site (source: https://backports.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page), to read the implementation of the drivers with the backport project which is very interesting, and I started to read the code of the drivers to find where it was wrong. Unfortunately after hours of research, I had trouble finding what test was performed to see if the function was supported or not. But here is my guess, and what I could find. In my opinion, I think that the "NL80211_FEATURE_ACTIVE_MONITOR" which is a flag used in the code was imported but never used. There are other names like "nl80211_mntr_flag_active", "MONITOR_FLAG_ACTIVE", "NL80211_MNTR_FLAG_ACTIVE". I think they have either never been used, or not even imported or correctly written in the code. I was reading the drivers from the backport project because they seem to be interesting and up to date. They work for my devices, but they don't include support for active mode. I would really like to understand where this comes from, mostly out of curiosity.

Unfortunately I have a lot of work to do at the moment so I can't dig any further into this, but I would really like to do it in the future so it can be activated for more drivers. Hopefully I understand where the limitation comes from, is it the driver that doesn't respect the standards or is it a hardware limitation?

What is your opinion?

Regards

[SoniaMalki]

Here is the lsusb

for the device TL-WN725N (EU) V3 Bus 002 Device 004: ID 0bda:8179 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8188EUS 802.11n Wireless Network Adapter

for the device Archer T2U PLUS (EU) V1 Bus 002 Device 005: ID 2357:0120 TP-Link 802.11ac WLAN Adapter

for the device TL-WN722N (EU) V3 Bus 002 Device 006: ID 2357:010c TP-Link TL-WN722N v2

for the device TL-WN821HN (EU) V6.0 Bus 002 Device 007: ID 2357:0107 TP-Link TL-WN821N Version 5 RTL8192EU

[SoniaMalki]

I have also another question, how can I find a device based on the chipset For example, if I have this chipset "AR5416 Wireless", that is with the athk9 driver, how can I find a device that have this chipset in it? It is just for learning purpose

[morrownr]

for the device Archer T2U PLUS (EU) V1 Bus 002 Device 005: ID 2357:0120 TP-Link 802.11ac WLAN Adapter

That adapter has the rtl8811au chipset. Good chipset. Below is the driver I maintain for this chipset:

https://github.com/morrownr/8821au-20210708

I can check if active works if you want. I doubt it. My experience is that many of the lesser used features just don't work or are not fully implemented on the Realtek out-of-kernel drivers.

Based on my testing, it appears active monitor mode support is working for the more modern in-kernel drivers. My recommendation would be for you to look at using an adapter based on a mt7612u chipset if you need something now. We are anticipating new USB WiFi adapters based on the mt7921u (WiFi 6) soon and I suspect you will find active monitor mode will work in that driver as well.

I would really like to do it in the future so it can be activated for more drivers. Hopefully I understand where the limitation comes from, is it the driver that doesn't respect the standards or is it a hardware limitation?

What is your opinion?

If you are talking about trying to activate the active support in the Realtek out-of-kernel drivers, I think you are wasting your time. Adding or activating lesser used features on the Realtek drivers is problematic. I have had very limited success. Much of the information needed seems to be hidden in the coded firmware files and there is basically no documentation and no way to contact Realtek. I think a far better use of your time is work on in-kernel drivers as there is documentation and people to contact about issues and your can even get your work included in the kernel.

Regards

[morrownr]

I have also another question, how can I find a device based on the chipset For example, if I have this chipset "AR5416 Wireless", that is with the athk9 driver, how can I find a device that have this chipset in it? It is just for learning purpose

The same way I maintain the list of adapters and what chipsets they use in the README.md. You have to search. It takes time and you get better with practice.

[SoniaMalki]

Thank you

I bought an adapter from your list yesterday and it will arrive tomorrow, I will test it and keep you updated

[SoniaMalki]

I will link our conversation in the opendrop GitHub, it will help many people with it hopefully

[morrownr]

Thank you

Hopefully I was able to help.

I bought an adapter from your list yesterday and it will arrive tomorrow, I will test it and keep you updated.

Please do let us know how it goes and I am always looking for user reviews that can be included with the information about specific adapters. Do you mind telling me which one you ordered?

Regards

[SoniaMalki]

I bought the DM-Digital T7601 (Mediatek)

[morrownr]

I bought the DM-Digital T7601 (Mediatek)

That is a cool little low cost adapter. I knew the 7601u chipset and driver was limited function when I bought the DM-Digital as Mediatek makes it clear that it is a limited function chipset. It handles managed (client) mode very well and it handles many monitor mode functions fine. I have not been able to get it to do packet injection but capture and scanning seem to work fine and it did go in monitor active without any error being thrown. When you are able to give us a report, please do so.

Update:

Good tests for active: mt7921 (WiFi 6), mt7612u (WiFi 5), mt7610u (WiFi 5), mt7601u (WiFi 4)

Notice that I added the mt7921 as I was able to test that chipset last night. My laptop has a little internal card based on the mt7921. I couldn't say mt7921u as no usb wifi adapters for that chipset are available for sale yet... but they re coming.

Keep in mind that I am only testing if the adapter is going into monitor mode (active) with or without an error code being thrown and I'm not really testing the app you mentioned so we would be interested in your results.

[qqm55]

Purchased an Alfa AC1200 of amazon which was indicated to have a mt7612u by the reviews. When I receive it I can share my findings here with the test script (to confirm @morrownr 's findings) and OWL/OpenDrop app.

[morrownr]

Please do share.

Regards

[qqm55]

Got the adapter and tried it out with opendrop/owl. Used the script and confirmed said wifi card was able to go into monitoring mode it. Reverted back, used the script to kill the processes so that it would not report a busy error when initializing owl. After that owl was running, then moved onto open drop. For the results which had a future warning can be seen here on this thread #https://github.com/seemoo-lab/opendrop/issues/89

[morrownr]

It appears that you are running Kali. Is that correct?

Is Kali running on bare metal or in a VM?

I have an ALFA ACM. It has been a solid, very compatible adapter. With that said, you are doing some things I am not familiar with yet.

[qqm55]

I am on Kali linux but i just checked and its kali-linux-2022.2-live-amd64.iso, which i believe is the live boot version for running on a usb (which i am doing). I am very much a linux newbie but do you think the live version could be causing that error and bare metal would be better suited?

On second thought I should probably try it with the mentioned distributions on the page, will try either fedora or debian linux.

[morrownr]

I am on Kali linux but i just checked and its kali-linux-2022.2-live-amd64.iso, which i believe is the live boot version for running on a usb (which i am doing). I am very much a linux newbie but do you think the live version could be causing that error and bare metal would be better suited?

The best advice for a Linux newbie that I can give is that you find someone that has experience to talk you through some of the things you are trying to do. My recommendation right now is for you to start a new issue and describe what you are trying to do.

On second thought I should probably try it with the mentioned distributions on the page, will try either fedora or debian linux.

I, and others, can make suggestions but it would help if we better understood what computer you are using and what you are trying to do. Kali is a fine Linux distro but it is probably not the greatest as a starter distro. Something like Linux Mint would probably work better as a starter distro and then, over time, you can try other distros to see which best meets your need:

https://linuxmint.com/

[BernH4]

Sadly all adapters listed in the repo are external ones. I searching for a card i can put into my laptop (Mini PCI Express) like the Atheros AR9280. The atheros chip is very hard to get in my country, does someone know an alternative?

[morrownr]

I have new laptop I bought about 6 months ago. The little internal wifi card is based on the mt7921 chipset. It works well with Ubuntu 22.04. The driver has been in the Linux kernel since kernel 5.12. I'm no expert on the various types of little internal cards that are available so maybe you can find the one that works for you.

Regards

[spiral009]

I can't walk around with a usb pluged to my phone.. Is there any one to introduce this active monitor mode feature in kernel or modify owl source code to use just monitor mode

[morrownr]

Hi @SoniaMalki

I thought of this thread when doing some testing on the new mt7921u driver today. From the $ iw list:

Device supports active monitor (which will ACK incoming frames)

[Sabuhi1984]

Hello, I have a problem. İ have usb wifi model rtl8811cu. How can I add it to kali linux installed on ssd without internet? please help me . Thank you

[morrownr]

You did not read the README in the https://github.com/morrownr/8821cu-20210118 repo.

It is much easier to get internet access to your computer than you might think. Do you have a smartphone and a usb cable?

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/tethering-use-mobile-internet-pc/

[morrownr]

opps... the above link was for Windows... here is a better link...

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-tether-your-smartphone-in-linux/

[PhilDevProg]

@SoniaMalki Did it support active monitor mode?

[lucasromeiro]

@SoniaMalki

Hello, thanks for the tip.

Could you give us more information?

Did your test work and was it successful with the file transfer?

I didn't find your feedback on github.

Thanks!

[v74863]

ZerBea, the author of hcxdumptool, knows ALL about active monitor mode. Ask him about the best adapters. https://github.com/ZerBea/hcxdumptool#adapters

[c0des1ayr]

Additional tests: rtl8812bu and rtl8811cu tested bad. I suspect all Realtek drivers will test bad if those two did. I'm not sure if you are aware but I have repos for Realtek drivers here on this site. These are about as good as it gets but they are not standards compliant and as a result there is a lot of stuff that does not work or does not work right. Linux users are almost always better off getting usb wifi adapters that use in-kernel drivers. If you start at the top of README.md and read all the way to the end, you will learn a lot.

Status:

Good tests for active: mt7612u, mt7610u and mt7601u

Bad tests for active: rt5370, ar9271, rtl8812bu and rtl8811cu

Regards

FYI, RTL8821CE works with active monitor mode if you use either the rtw88_8821ce module or the rtw_8821ce module from the wireless-next repo of the kernel.

[bmwalters]

@c0des1ayr looks like that isn't actually the case: https://github.com/lwfinger/rtw88/issues/236#issuecomment-2425490660

[c0des1ayr]

@c0des1ayr looks like that isn't actually the case: lwfinger/rtw88#236 (comment)

Yes, I realized that a while ago...seeing as that is the issue I made on the repo.