Issues with alfa wifi adaptor.



CaffeineAddict said:
@Bludge
The only driver worth troubleshooting is RTL8812AU, anything else is shooting in the dark (if it works it coincidence).
Secondly, wifi card must not be used by Windows in any way, if it's passed-though to VM then only VM should be using it.

This are 2 minimum conditions and your troubleshooting should satisfy these conditions.


Perhaps you mean 4 guest machines?
Only one guest machine may be using alfa card.
Host machine must also not use it.

This is condition for valid pass-trough.
Click to expand...
Yeah so its the rtl8812au drivers that i have been using, and the adapter is not being used in windows.

No, i mean i have tried this setup on at least 4 physical host machines, 2 at home and 2 at school, each one passing through the adapter to a single vm, and all presenting the same issues, which is why i initially concluded the adapter was faulty.
 
Brickwizard said:
My thoughts may seem obtuse to you , but here goes... if you have installed the drivers recommended by AC, and you have Uninstalled/blacklisted/purged any other drivers you have tried, then provided your VM/USB settings are correct, My next thought is have you recently installed any Windows updates [notorious for changing setting to suite itself]
Click to expand...
Nope, between the AC adaptor being installed and tested on a kali VM, which was then exported for use at school, no updates were installed by windows. And again no change to either host or VM just now when it magically started working again!
 
CaffeineAddict said:
Like @Brickwizard said, either blacklist non-compatible drivers or uninstall them, and install only RTL8812AU
Then you can troubleshoot with confidence nothing is interfering.
Click to expand...
Sorry, what i ment was if i had installed more then one driver i could understand maybe the issue was conflict, but when troubleshooting the only driver installed has been 8812au
 
@Bludge
Adapter is not faulty because it works fine in Windows.
It's either wrong driver being used or pass-trough not working as expected.

Other potential issues might be Kali issue or driver issue but to get to that point you need to test bare metal first.

Make sure you have only RTL8812AU installed and no other alfa driver in Kali, this is minimum to troubleshoot anything.
 
CaffeineAddict said:
@Bludge
Adapter is not faulty because it works fine in Windows.
It's either wrong driver being used or pass-trough not working as expected.

Other potential issues might be Kali issue or driver issue but to get to that point you need to test bare metal first.

Make sure you have only RTL8812AU installed and no other alfa driver in Kali, this is minimum to troubleshoot anything.
Click to expand...
I am presuming no alfa drivers are preinstalled with kali? If thats the case then when troubleshooting this issue the only driver installed has been rtl8812au.

I will try and find the time to rig up a bare metal install and see how that goes. Thanks for all the help.
 
Bludge said:
I am presuming no alfa drivers are preinstalled with kali? If thats the case then when troubleshooting this issue the only driver installed has been rtl8812au.
Click to expand...
It depends on your card, drivers for newer cards might not be preinstalled.
 
Bludge said:
So going from a fresh vm, update and upgrade, then installing the rtl8812au drivers, am i safe to assume im working only with the 8812au drivers?
Click to expand...
Yes, I think so.
If you have to manually install rtl8812au it's unlikely for other rtl8812xx drivers to be installed as well.

You can see if there are rtl8812xx drivers installed with:

Bash: 
lsmod | grep rtl

If rtl8812au is installed there is nothing to do.

Another method, replace rtl with driver name:
Bash: 
find /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/ -iname *rtl*
 
Last edited:
Thanks, i will continue troubleshooting tomorrow when i have the time to sit in front of the machine for a bit!
 
Just a thought; I don't know how your Kali VM is set-up to operate. Do you get regular kernel upgrades, and/or firmware upgrades? Or is it a case of upgrading by means of a newer Kali VM image?

I take it you're aware that for wifi to function, not only drivers are required but also a valid, matching firmware package? I couldn't help but notice that this aspect hasn't been mentioned at all in this thread...

I'm thinking it's possible that firmware is maybe missing, or perhaps somehow is not consistently being "seen" by the adapter's chipset. As I said, just a thought; feel free to tell me to butt-out and mind my own beeswax!

(shrug...)


Mike. :)
 
MikeWalsh said:
Just a thought; I don't know how your Kali VM is set-up to operate. Do you get regular kernel upgrades, and/or firmware upgrades? Or is it a case of upgrading by means of a newer Kali VM image?

I take it you're aware that for wifi to function, not only drivers are required but also a valid, matching firmware package? I couldn't help but notice that this aspect hasn't been mentioned at all in this thread...

I'm thinking it's possible that firmware is maybe missing, or perhaps somehow is not consistently being "seen" by the adapter's chipset. As I said, just a thought; feel free to tell me to butt-out and mind my own beeswax!

(shrug...)


Mike. :)
Click to expand...
I am grateful for all responses and advice!

So generally i have been running a kali vm and performing upgrades, every so often i will just delete a VM and start fresh with a new pre-build.

In terms of the firmware idea, if it was missing entirely i would assume i would not be able to use the adapter at all?
As for the firmware not being "consistently seen" by the adapter, i guess its possible?

As i have said a number of times in this thread, i am now completely stumped, even more so with the fact that following the exact same steps from scratch eventually saw the adapter working with no issues again, yet the 5 or so times i performed those exact steps on numerous host machines (including the one i now have it work on) gave me the issue i was having....lol.

CaffeineAddict said:
Yes, I think so.
If you have to manually install rtl8812au it's unlikely for other rtl8812xx drivers to be installed as well.

You can see if there are rtl8812xx drivers installed with:

Bash: 
lsmod | grep rtl

If rtl8812au is installed there is nothing to do.

Another method, replace rtl with driver name:
Bash: 
find /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/ -iname *rtl*
Click to expand...

So, lsmod | grep rtl returns nothing.

find /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/ -iname rtl8812au also returns nothing. blank output for both commands.

This is on the machine that is now running the AC adapter absolutely perfectly!! lol.
 
Bludge said:
So, lsmod | grep rtl returns nothing.

find /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/ -iname rtl8812au also returns nothing. blank output for both commands.

This is on the machine that is now running the AC adapter absolutely perfectly!! lol.
Click to expand...
It uses some default driver packaged by Kali, if not working install AU driver only and try again.
 
Scratch the working perfectly part. now i have the opposite issue. last night, when tested, it was able to see networks, available networks was not greyed out, i was able to use wifite to put the adapter into monitor mode and pick up wireless networks.

Today (again no changes to the machine other then running the commands to locate the driver install) available networks works correctly, error message when trying to put the adapter into monitor mode.

I also cant connect to a network, the ssid shows, it tells me i need a password, i put in the correct password, it attempts to connect then cycles asking for the password indefinitely.
 
Yes with other apps, no with wifite, as when starting as root with the --kill command, it does it automatically, as well as killing any possible conflicting processes. this has worked without issue until today.
 
First step is to bring interface down, and then do a switch, if switch fails with error that some processes are using the adapter only then you do --kill those processes followed by switch again.

When switching a new file should be written to /var directory and old one should be deleted, if it's not you need to manually delete it.

Bludge said:
error message when trying to put the adapter into monitor mode.
Click to expand...
Please share the error message.
 
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