kismet N800 issue
 

Anyone else running kismet on their N800 and have a flawless install ?

My current setup seems to be timming out (power saving maybe?) no matter if im driving or just sitting at home and letting the device sit and scan it dies approx 2~3mins after the app is started, which then it can be exited and restarted no issues and same result will happen

First i thought it was overflowing or locking due to too many networks detected but thats not the case as tested in stationary location and it does the above

only thing installed at this time is new OS update 2.2ish and color_xterm, kismet and libpcap

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

You are getting some message about "saving files," right? I think Kismet is unable to keep the power management from rearing its "nanny knows best" head. I find that if I tap the screen frequently, it never does this. I really wish Nokia had provided real, granular power management options on both the N800 and N770. It has kept me from using them in a number of commercial applications. Next to the god-awful email client, the lack of control over basic functions like power management is one of the worst aspects of the Nokia Internet Tablets, imo.

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

My issues with Kismet on my N800 is it often just stops scanning for networks. You can tell this when the timer stops.

My other issue is it frequently corrupts and destroys all data on the memory card it puts it's log files on. This seems to happen often when it stops scanning, but I haven't done a lot of testing as I am not a developer and I don't like my memory card being corrupted.

Kismet is an awesome program tough and I hope it gets sorted out soon.

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

Well after playing around some more it's gotta be something else/more then just the timer had kismet in backround while playing with config menus and it still died (touching the screen easy every 10secs)

Nothing related to setup (.conf) since i've played with that, anyone have this same issue on N770 ??

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

I´m getting a "WLAN left in an unknown state" something after having briefly run 'kismet' without any other isses really. The WLAN adapter end up not accessible anymore, but requires a reboot of the tablet in order to be able to get online again. Someone confirm?

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

Kismet has always behaved that way. Confirmed.

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

Yea thats normal you can run kismet again with no worries, but your N800 wont see Wlan0 till you reboot, thats no biggy (cause it even happens on some PC's)

Can try the wireless networking tools (i havent installed them yet) see if it has iw or if up/down in there and try that, i just do REBOOT from root shell to reset the unit if need be

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

Hi All,

I've installed Kismet without any issues. However, since I'm new to this, I only managed to get it to run, sort accordingly and that's about it. It does seem to be able to capture IPs or tell me more info when I hit the 'c' command. I thought it was supposed to give info on the clients attached to a particular network? Is there some configuration I need to do first? Thanks in advance for any advice!


Luke

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

Hi All,

After trying Kismet again, I notice that for me, the software counter keeps running, but it doesn't scan for any networks after about 10-20 secs. It just stops scanning but the software is still running and I can use the commands etc (ie. it didn't hang). Any reason why and how can I fix this?


Luke

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

This is a known issue with Kismet on the latest OS 2007 firmware (release 3). I know of no fix thus far.

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

@luketho, i got the same issue, but then i was running kismet from xterm as user and it works like charm! :)

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

Hi tbb,

You mean if you used user it works, but if you sudo gainroot and used kismet it doesn't?

How do you use it as a user? I'm still new at this, so learning along the way.



Luke

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

yeah luketho, that is what i supposed to mean. But today it doesnt work as user anyway :(

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

My guess is that the N800 software is yanking back control of the wireless interface from Kismet due to some sort of background scanning "feature," but this is pure speculation. Does anyone have a firmer grasp of what is going on, so we can work towards fixing the problem. Kismet is one of the most useful apps for the N800 and it would be a shame to have to downgrade to use it.

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

Dragorn from Kismet wrote on Kismet Blog that the shipping drivers for the N800 seem to be having problems relating to RFmon or channel changing. This may be the cause of the problems that N800 users have recently seen in OS 2007 Release 3. He suggests trying to use the drivers from https://garage.maemo.org/projects/cx3110x/ instead.

Has anyone tried these drivers with Kismet (on OS 2007 release 3) and if so, what success did you have? Could anyone compile these and maybe build a package? Installation seems a little involved right now, particularly if you don't have a build environment set up.

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

Hi, I compiled the module, loaded it but the situation doesn't change: after 10 seconds (in the better situation) kismet stops sniffing.
In attach I put the compiled module (unzip it with gunzip), to insert it you can follow the instruction on https://garage.maemo.org/projects/cx3110x/.

Bye, Scegliau

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

Yep, not working here either with either original or new kernel module (thanks for the .ko, scegliau!). There is a process running that respawns itself when killed called wlancond. Anyone know what it's for, and more importantly, what's responsible for respawning? Is it dbus? That's the only thing that looks at all WLAN left running on my device, I've killed everything else.

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

Some more debugging tried: See this thread for details, but basically I reflashed to the older firmware, got kismet up and running, set up boot from MMC, then flashed the new image onto the device, then booted from MMC, so I was running the old image. However, due to the way dual-boot works, this means I have the old image running on the new kernel. Kismet behaved the same way as with the new image, it started up, and quit scanning in 3 seconds. I guess this means it's some sort of kernel issue?

I tried both the original and Scegliau's cx3110 drivers, with no difference.

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

Hi All.
I just got a N800 and I've lurked a lot.
I have last firmware and installed last update plus wireless-tools, kismet, dsniff,tcpdump.
Its quite weird.At first, I believed that it wasn't going in monitor mode properly.
But then I put my AP in NO-SSID and checked that with kismet.
I could see the network and it would also find the real name in notime.
But I don't get why both tcpdump and dsniff (with urlsnurf as well) wouldn't sniff the traffic.
It works only with monitor mode disabled and only for local data.
In promiscuos mode doesn't work.
TCPDUMP kind of works sometimes, without options but, whatever.
The network is on G only mode..

Thanks for any help

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

Marlaw,

so kismet works perfectly for you on your N800? It doesn't stop picking up updates after 10 secs?

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

It doesn't work perfectly.
But it surely last for more than 3 seconds and I think more than 10, but it does
freeze or return that the server (the kismet server since is a client/server application) has stopped or something like that.
I wouldn't say it does always the same thing in the same amount of time.

What do you think would be the problem ? Shall I try to put the other drivers ?
How come someone got dsniff/tcpdump working and I don't ?
As I said in my previous message, with tcpdump without options sometimes works and start reading all the raw data coming from a belking54g named router, and it last for more than 10 seconds .. it keeps going, but it doesn't seem to pick up all traffic, just whatever it likes.

If you need me to do any test let me know!

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

Hello, I've been trying kismet on my N800,

I got this:

- 10% of the times it starts sniffing without problems, but then after 2 or 3 minutes the server application stops (it seems like the interface or driver going down).
- 90% of the times it starts and stops after sniffing 100 packets (3 secs).

we really need a good driver fix for rfmon mode ':-)




PS:
I'm using the driver version that comes with the last update from 2007 OS (january 2007)

when it fails I rmmod the driver and insmod it again, (this tricks also works for recovering the connection) :)

Re: kismet N800 issue (solution!)
 

hmmm, I think I've got a solution:


edit /etc/kismet.conf

and set:

channelhop = false (or channelhopping, I don't remember)

then go to connection manager (from panel control) and set the automatic WLAN search to 60 minutes.


Then if you run kismet on a fixed channel you'll have it running for 60 mins without problems :)


Greetings ;)

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

ajo: thanks, better than nothing. Still wish I could figure out what's preventing channelhopping, esp. since both the original and open source drivers suffer from the problem.

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

Of course, it's just a temporary solution.
The best would be a stable wireless driver, but we will have to wait for this ':-)

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

I would like to note that this problem only manifests on the latest (3rd released) firmware for the n800. The earlier releases work fine with kismet, with the caveat of having to tap the screen constantly to keep power management from kicking in and killing the interface.

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

I haven't tried this trick on the 2nd firmware, but see this thread for information on how to increase the screen timeout. Can anyone confirm whether this works to keep kismet up and running?

Just another thought: How about running kismet under the "screen" program to keep it from being attached to the real display? Of course, I can't find a version of screen that installs!

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

Works for me now on my N800...if I turn off channel hopping.



Luke

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

> channelhop = false (or channelhopping, I don't remember)
This will disable channel hopping so it will be less useful, isn't it?

As for me: kismet stops receiving packets after some short time.It looks like it receives burst of corrupted packets, then capture stops.There is error in dmesg log from CX driver appears, it complains that maybe firmware of wi-fi IC has crashed.Looks like Wi-Fi IC is really misbehaves then until you do something which will cause wi-fi IC to re-boot and reload its firmware(reboot device or enter power-saving mode, etc).

FYI: aircrack-ng works fine though, while it does hopping as well(it hops slower than kismet).This is strange but it does works.The only thing is that it also grabs corrupted packets as well as good ones.Maybe too fast channel hopping really screws up Wi-Fi IC's firmware?If so, it can't be fixed by driver itself, maybe bug in wi-fi firmware?Btw, I'm about Wi-Fi IC's firmware (.arm file loaded by CX driver into wi-fi IC).Not about n800 firmware.

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

Putting the device in offline mode first can fix some of the client exiting problems, I think. The problem where it stops receiving updates after a few seconds seems to be random, but common: I did get it to work once (while talking with Dragorn on IRC :D ) for quite some time, but that has been the only time.

BTW - Dragorn (the author of Kismet) requests that problem reports or questions regarding Kismet be passed along to the forums at http://kismetwireless.net/Forum/General/ since it is likely that threads here will go unread by the people/person who might be able to fix the problems.

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

Actually, it looks like the wireless driver has been updated in release 4 of OS 2007 for the N800. I have been able to successfully run kismet now for long periods of time. It still seems to do the "saving data files" thing after a while if you don't interact with it, but it no longer stops collecting packets within a few seconds like it did with release 3. One annoyance though, on at least one occasion exiting kismet has left the wireless adapter in a real bad state. There has always been a problem with needing to reboot to get the N800's wireless working properly again, but I have found it necessary to actually pull the battery to get it working properly again now.

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

Well that's progress for ya, right?! :D

Good to hear it's working, I haven't flashed yet, but will take the plunge soon based on this report.

One question: You say it's doing the "Saving Data Files thing" every few minutes, are you referring to the message that appears in the lower pane? If so, that's normal - kismet does some autosaves - every five minutes IIRC, and if you're not moving around (i.e., no new networks found) it will show several copies of that, one after another.

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

Kismet stops working for me too after about 5-10 seconds of use. All I have is a list of AP's. When I Q exit WiFI is dead. The only way to get it to work again is to reboot.

I have the lastest firmware with Skype.

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

Weird, I let it run for about 15 minutes the other day, quit kismet, closed the terminal and then power cycled the radio and it worked just fine. I don't have skype installed though.

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

From what I understand the wireless firmware in the N800 has some issues which cause this behaviour - the author of Kismet has requested assistance from Nokia in terms of fixing the problems (closed source, only Nokia can fix the problems) but no joy as of yet.

Until Nokia fix the problems, Kismet will remain unstable on N800.

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

I am finding that with release 4 of the N800 "firmware" that kismet more or less works correctly. It sometimes hangs the wireless interface when you exit. I find that exiting using capitol-Q is less likely to put the wireless interface in a unuseable state. I have needed to remove the battery and restart the device in order to get the wireless working again on several occasions.

I do have Skype installed on mine as well. I suggest you check you control panel to make sure you haven't set the N800 to auto scan and auto establish connections and also suggest that you enter the command line (there was a post somewhere around here) that adds longer timeout intervals on the display, which also seems to put the wireless into power saving mode and kills kismet.

The "saving data files" issue that I encounter is that if you leave kismet running for a while, you will eventually see this message in the lower status pane and the wireless interface will sometimes stop scanning after displaying one of these messages. My guess is the wireless interface is doing something funny or power management is kicking in for some reason and that the "saving data files" message is coincident but not causally related.

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

Ok just updated to latest OS update, and Kismet STILL appears to be crap'n-out, thou it is MUCH improved just wondering if anyone have figured out a way to have it working 100% this is my current setup as of today

only listing applications installed off package manager not listing all the dependencies that auto-install (I HAVE NOT ADDED ANYTHING EXTRA)

Fresh Latest OS update/install
becomeroot (think this is listed as n770 app)
osso-xterm (n800 app)
kismet (listed as n770 app)

I havent tested my past setup which would actually work (kinda a trick really) but currently Kismet does start and it scans and doesnt TIME-OUT but it does FREEZE/LOCKUP if i screw around with the interface output (or what really appears to be the issue is pulling up the onscreen keypad interface)
or hitting 's' then 'l' or 'L' appears todo the same (my money is the onscreen keyboard)

but the trick i did before that would let kismet run NON-STOP was to first setup a est. connection (home AP or something) have it automaticlly connect then i would start xterm and load kismet and at which point kismet would run (without quiting the previous autoconnection mind you, but not using the GUI interface after i entered into Xterm) i logged over 2000 hits with kismet and ran the device dead doing the above and that by the way was with the 2nd OS release

so just wondering if anyone had any luck with the other wifi chipset drivers i have seen or anything else to trick OS4 into scanning the way i use to have in OS2 (the 3 OS update the trick wouldnt work i tried so only a downgrade to OS2 would be the answer if needing kismet)

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

ok so how exactly the heck do i RUN kismet after I install it?

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

Command line. Just type kismet.

Re: kismet N800 issue
 

Kismet needs to be run as root, so you can't just type kismet. I have becomeroot installed, so I type:

sudo su -
kismet