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.

Well that's progress for ya, right?!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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

Command line. Just type kismet.

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

sudo su -
kismet