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madwifi-ng

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Madwifi-ng

This page only deals with the net80211 version of the madwifi-ng driver. For the mac80211 ath5k version see the mac80211 page. To understand the differences, see mac80211 versus ieee80211 stacks write-up.

IMPORTANT
If you have a new kernel that supports mac80211 and includes the new ath5k driver then you MUST blacklist it otherwise the net80211 version of the module below will not work. See blacklisting mac80211 driver version below.

 ifconfig ath0 down
 ifconfig wifi0 down
 svn -r 3745 checkout http://svn.madwifi-project.org/madwifi/trunk/ madwifi-ng
 wget http://patches.aircrack-ng.org/madwifi-ng-r3745.patch
 cd madwifi-ng
 patch -Np1 -i ../madwifi-ng-r3745.patch
 ./scripts/madwifi-unload
 make
 make install
 depmod -ae
 modprobe ath_pci


Important: The above example uses revision 3745 of the madwifi-ng drivers. You can use the latest SVN version if you wish. Just be aware that in some versions injection rates are low or zero. R3745 is known to work well.

Notes:

  • Revision 3745 or above MUST be used (latest is always recommended). Older revision are known not to work correctly (some cannot inject or some captured packets are not correct, …)
  • The patch above must be applied to madwifi-ng r3745 or above.
  • The patch is designed to eliminate invalid retries.
  • At “make install”, you may be asked if you want to remove old modules, type 'r' to do it.
  • To determine which version of the madwifi-ng drivers you are currently using, enter “modinfo ath_pci”. This will provide the version number plus other information.
  • When using airmon-ng, specify wifiX as interface (or you can create manually a VAP in monitor mode with wlanconfig) and athX interface when you have to destroy it.
  • You should delete all existing VAP before before creating a VAP in monitor mode, using airmon-ng stop athX (replacing X with the interface number to delete).

Usage Tips

Support for Atheros 802.11b/g/n cards

Support for Atheros chipID 0x0024 (rev 01) 802.11b/g/n cards (AR5008).

The new cards are now (experimentally) supported in trunk. The above code will cause them to work!

NOTE: 11n rates are not supported yet.

Support for Atheros AR2425 (AR5007EG) chipset (including EEE PC) - PCI ID 168c001c

To determine the PCI ID under linux, enter “lspci -nn”. The output should look similar to this:

03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter [168c:001c] (rev 01)

Notice the “168c:001c” at the end. This is the PCI ID.

These are relevant links on the madwifi-project.org site:

The following links are tarballs already containing everything needed:

The following link is a tarball oriented towards BackTrack but may be of value to people with an eeepc.

The new official HAL (0.10.5.6) supports AR5007EG (and AR5006EG) on 32 and 64 bit systems. Use the instructions above but checkout http://svn.madwifi-project.org/madwifi/branches/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6/ instead of http://svn.madwifi-project.org/madwifi/trunk/.

Troubleshooting Tips

Blacklisting mac80211 driver version

If you have the file ath5k.ko or ath9k.ko in the /lib/modules directory tree then you have two options to blacklist it. Failure to do this will mean that the ieee80211 madwifi-ng module described on this page will fail to work properly. Here are the options:

  • Move the file to another area on your system as follows then do “depmod -ae”. Move

/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath5k/ath5k.ko to a safe place. Some parts of the path may be different on your distribution/system. Use “locate ath5k.ko” or “find /lib/modules -name *ath5k*” to find the full path. After moving it, do “depmod -ae”.

  • Edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and add “blacklist ath5k” as a new line.

In both cases, reboot your system afterwards. If present, do the same for ath9k.

"iwe_stream_add_event" compile error message

If you get a series of compile messages similar to “error: passing argument 1 of 'iwe_stream_add_event' from incompatible pointer type” then do the following:

Use

 svn checkout http://svn.madwifi-project.org/madwifi/trunk/ madwifi-ng

Instead of following in the installation instructions

 svn -r 3745 checkout http://svn.madwifi-project.org/madwifi/trunk/ madwifi-ng

The problem is that on newer kernels madwifi-ng fails to compile on older SVN versions.

Airodump-ng stalls

If you change the rate while capturing packets, airodump-ng will stall. There are two possible workarounds:

  • Set injecting before starting airodump-ng
  • Restart airodump-ng

Mini-PCI Problems

If you system contains a mini-PCI wireless card, there are some known issues and solutions. See the Madwifi-ng Mini-PCI page for a description of the known problems and solutions.

madwifi-ng.1230470665.txt.gz · Last modified: 2008/12/28 14:24 by darkaudax