virtuallyonit Home About me Contact

Install a wireless adapter on Kali Linux

virtuallyonit September 10, 2018 hacking, Linux, Uncategorized
computing, hacking, kali linux, learning, Linux, network penetration, technology, tips and tricks,
wireless

Follow

I have been doing a course recently which requires both Kali Linux and a wireless
adapter which supports both “monitor” mode and “packet” mode….no prizes for
guessing what kind of course this is.

Anyway I thought I would post this short write up on how to do this as installing a
USB wireless adapter in Kali, as it has its issues. I recently posted this in a another
forum and it seems to work for most so thought I would share.

Wireless adapater chipset is: “Realtek AR8812AU 2.4 & 5 Ghz USB Wireless
Adapter” and my setup is 1 x server running Windows 2016 with Virtual box 5.2.18
with extension pack 5.2.18 installed & Kali Linux 2018.2 x64 (note these
instruction sets work for all versions)

First time Install

sudo apt-get install realtek-rtl88xxau-dkms, verify it installs correctly by running the cmd again and this should say the below:

Power down your Kali Machine

Remove the USB adapter
Boot until host OS is up and ensure USB is recognized (devices > USB)
Start your virtualization platform (mine is Virtual box) in “settings” under
“USB” leave the wireless adapter un-checked so it is not available when Kali
boots.
Note repeat this when starting Kali normally, un-known reason why Kali
does not like the adapter being present when booting. (see below)

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

If the “upgrade” fails as mine did then try with the below key:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys 7D8D0BF6

Add in USB adapter – In “Virtual Box” this is top menu bar “devices” > “USB” > and
select your adapter

Note the failed upgrade is what seemed to stall my installation heavily so the
above is key.

Note even when now added the below commands do not seem to register the
adapter so we need to restart the network manager

ifconfig or iwconfig

To restart network manager follow the below:

sudo systemctl restart network-manager

Now if you try to list USB devices attached to the machine you should get a list as
pictured below:

lsusb

If you now run the below commands you can see the adapter registered:

iwconfig ifconfig

You can then go ahead and change your MAC address and switch your network
adapter in to monitor mode, for example:

ifconfig wlan 0 down

macchanger --random
ifconfig wlan 0 up

and

ifconfig wlan0 down

iwconfig wlan0 mode monitor
ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig

Restarting Kali Machine

So that covers the rst time install, but you will nd that even when you restart
Kali the adapter is not recognized and your iwcon g commands return no value.
To get around this its simple just follow the below steps:

Start Kali without the USB attached (under devices > USB)
Wait for Kali to boot and login
Add the USB device

sudo systemctl restart network-manager

Then run to verify adapter is up and running

iwconfig

I hope this helps as it took me a while to get this running and installed, so thought I would
share. 

Share this:

         

What have I learnt? A letter to a Codeacademy Twitter's Blob store and Libcrunch
young pre-sales engineer… August 19, 2013 - how it works
January 23, 2018 In "Technical" December 18, 2012
In "career" In "Cloud"

virtuallyonit September 10, 2018 hacking, Linux, Uncategorized

computing, hacking, kali linux, learning, Linux, network penetration, technology, tips and tricks,
wireless

Published by virtuallyonit
The ramblings of a techie working in the IT industry, many topics discussed, many
views...... View more posts

Previous Post Next Post

Atlanta reveal their Overthinking, Thinking

Ransomware Impact about Thinking…

24 thoughts on “Install a wireless adapter on

Kali Linux”

azeer esmail November 20, 2018 at 5:44 pm

Thanks man! you are a genius! worked like a charm:)

 Liked by 1 person

Reply

virtuallyonit November 20, 2018 at 5:52 pm

Thank you, anytime!

 Like

Reply

theshopee1 December 28, 2019 at 1:55 pm

My wi adapter is working good in monitor mode but in managed mode

when i try to connect to a wi i didn’t get connected and it fails to get
connect to a wi
Chipset is Rt5370 what is drivers that i have to install

 Like

virtuallyonit January 6, 2020 at 8:48 am

Hi, did you follow the installer driver commands?

 Like

efe July 26, 2019 at 9:10 pm

there isnt any tab that for usb at vmware can you do this for it too?

 Like

Reply

virtuallyonit July 29, 2019 at 12:56 pm

Can you share a screengrab? I can then see what it is your trying to do

 Like

Reply

Chiranjeevi September 16, 2019 at 4:07 pm

Even after following above steps wi adapter is not recognized. Please help me to
x the issue

 Like

Reply

virtuallyonit October 1, 2019 at 6:42 pm

Hi, can you give me WiFi adapter and version of Kali please?

 Like

Reply

manjunath June 21, 2020 at 3:45 am

kali linux 2020 and realtech 802.11b

 Like

virtuallyonit June 23, 2020 at 9:13 am

Very odd, I wonder if an update on Kali is the root, I will retest in my labs I
wrote this article 18 months ago so a good chance this method is now
defunct.

 Like

mdanasafzal October 23, 2019 at 7:47 pm

Hey, I’m using KALI 2019.3 , where can I get the driver download link ?

 Liked by 1 person

Reply

virtuallyonit November 29, 2019 at 6:23 pm

The driver download is in the cmd line

 Like

Reply

theshopee1 December 28, 2019 at 1:56 pm

My wi adapter is working good in monitor mode but in managed mode when i try
to connect to a wi i didn’t get connected and it fails to get connect to a wi
Chipset is Rt5370 what is drivers that i have to install

 Like

Reply

virtuallyonit March 30, 2020 at 1:21 pm

Can you do lsusb and send me the chipset name? what OS are you on and
version?

 Like

Reply

Ethical_hacker March 30, 2020 at 1:15 pm

How to nd chipset name of my wireless adapter(D-Link DWA-131)?Plz help

 Liked by 1 person

Reply

virtuallyonit March 30, 2020 at 1:20 pm

Type ‘lsusb’ and you will see a list of usb devices connected, then simply cut
and paste

 Like

Reply

Bobby Dickerson April 24, 2020 at 1:18 am

I’ve got a linksys ac600 and even after following the steps here and everywhere
else, I still cant gure out how to get kali to acknowledge my adapter

 Like

Reply

virtuallyonit April 24, 2020 at 8:16 am

Screen grab please of following the steps and the output

 Like

Reply

Pingback: Wi Cracking – Hunting Scavengers

Ajay May 30, 2020 at 11:50 pm

hi i have a same prblm.. i tried all u said but same prblm occured

 Like

Reply

virtuallyonit June 23, 2020 at 9:14 am

I will check latest build / version

 Like

Reply

muhammed June 11, 2020 at 3:09 am

i followed the exact same steps. i also use virtual box and i use a tp-link archer
t2u. when i type lsusb i can see my adapter but when i type ifcon g or iwcon g i
cannot see it

 Like

Reply

virtuallyonit June 23, 2020 at 9:13 am

HI, did you try sudo systemctl restart network-manager

 Like

Reply

virtuallyonit June 23, 2020 at 9:14 am

Hi did you try sudo systemctl restart network-manager

 Like

Reply

Leave a Reply
Enter your comment here...

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive noti cations of new posts by email.
Join 1,205 other followers
Enter your email address

Subscribe

September 2018

M T W T F S S

  1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27 28 29 30

« Jun   Oct »

September 2018

M T W T F S S

  1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27 28 29 30

« Jun   Oct »

virtuallyonit, Blog at WordPress.com.