problem with raspberry pi 3 and alfa awus036nha

[k13pt0]

so recently i finished building my raspberry pi 3 with integrated official 7" display. I finished doing all the updates

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade && apt-get dist-upgrade && apt-get install kali-linux-full

i have every thing looking good. connected my alfa card to the Pi and ran both ifconfig and iwconfig and the card is being recognized. then i noticed that it would disappear so i would run the commands again and the card would be back up.

wlan1: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        ether 00:c0:ca:84:bd:a6  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

wlan1     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off

i press on the wifi icon on the top right of the screen and i see

Wi-Fi Network (Atheros UB91C)
disconnected

i thought it was a bit odd that it wont pick up any AP's around me, not even my own.

i tried doing #airmon-ng and it shows

root@kali:~# airmon-ng

PHY	Interface	Driver		Chipset

phy0	wlan0		??????		Broadcom 43430
phy9	wlan1		ath9k_htc	Atheros Communications, Inc. AR9271 802.11n

but when i try to start the monitor mode on wlan1 the terminal just freezes.

anyone that could point me in the right direction to get this card up and running. i know the card works fine because i can use it on my VM of Kali and the bootable USB. just not sure what is going on with the Pi.

FYI. im only using 1 power supply going into the Pi if that makes a difference.

[k13pt0]

so today i connected the alfa card to the Pi 3, turned on the system and checked the wifi and it was showing some networks under the Atheros UB91C. did an update and upgrade.. checked again, still some AP's showing. did a reboot and i started getting issues again.

if i run ifconfig i notice that the card keeps disconnecting and reconnecting. Then when it finally stays stable it wont show any AP's available under the card only under he integraed wifi

here is some info from dmesg

root@kalroot@kali:~# dmesg
[   82.310635] usb 1-1.2: USB disconnect, device number 14
[   84.383455] ath: phy10: Could not kill baseband RX
[   84.406088] ath: phy10: Failed to wakeup in 500us
[   84.516750] ath: phy10: RX failed to go idle in 10 ms RXSM=0xc053e7b8
[   84.537436] ath: phy10: Failed to wakeup in 500us
[   84.649309] ath: phy10: RX failed to go idle in 10 ms RXSM=0x0
[   84.761302] usb 1-1.2: ath9k_htc: USB layer deinitialized
[   85.000938] usb 1-1.2: new high-speed USB device number 15 using dwc_otg
[   85.131710] usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=0cf3, idProduct=9271
[   85.143008] usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=16, Product=32, SerialNumber=48
[   85.155442] usb 1-1.2: Product: UB91C
[   85.161433] usb 1-1.2: Manufacturer: ATHEROS
[   85.168384] usb 1-1.2: SerialNumber: 12345
[   85.176043] usb 1-1.2: ath9k_htc: Firmware htc_9271.fw requested
[   85.464807] usb 1-1.2: ath9k_htc: Transferred FW: htc_9271.fw, size: 50980
[   85.712547] ath9k_htc 1-1.2:1.0: ath9k_htc: HTC initialized with 33 credits
[   88.134001] ath9k_htc 1-1.2:1.0: ath9k_htc: FW Version: 1.3
[   88.143102] ath9k_htc 1-1.2:1.0: FW RMW support: Off
[   88.151243] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x833a
[   88.151252] ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a country code
[   88.151267] ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
[   88.151287] ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x37
[   88.151296] ath: Country alpha2 being used: GB
[   88.151304] ath: Regpair used: 0x37
[   88.180918] ieee80211 phy11: Atheros AR9271 Rev:1
[   88.214922] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan1: link is not ready
[   88.963233] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan1: link is not ready
[   89.088321] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan1: link is not ready
[   89.986262] usb 1-1.2: USB disconnect, device number 15
[   91.053596] ath: phy11: Could not kill baseband RX
[   91.092895] ath: phy11: Failed to wakeup in 500us
[   91.203440] ath: phy11: RX failed to go idle in 10 ms RXSM=0xc0938cb5
[   91.224114] ath: phy11: Failed to wakeup in 500us
[   91.336043] ath: phy11: RX failed to go idle in 10 ms RXSM=0x0
[   91.451188] usb 1-1.2: ath9k_htc: USB layer deinitialized
[   91.700857] usb 1-1.2: new high-speed USB device number 16 using dwc_otg
[   91.831549] usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=0cf3, idProduct=9271
[   91.842762] usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=16, Product=32, SerialNumber=48
[   91.855103] usb 1-1.2: Product: UB91C
[   91.861086] usb 1-1.2: Manufacturer: ATHEROS
[   91.868025] usb 1-1.2: SerialNumber: 12345
[   91.875811] usb 1-1.2: ath9k_htc: Firmware htc_9271.fw requested
[   92.164328] usb 1-1.2: ath9k_htc: Transferred FW: htc_9271.fw, size: 50980
[   92.412445] ath9k_htc 1-1.2:1.0: ath9k_htc: HTC initialized with 33 credits
[   94.835906] ath9k_htc 1-1.2:1.0: ath9k_htc: FW Version: 1.3
[   94.845121] ath9k_htc 1-1.2:1.0: FW RMW support: Off
[   94.853321] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x833a
[   94.853397] ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a country code
[   94.853412] ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
[   94.853433] ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x37
[   94.853443] ath: Country alpha2 being used: GB
[   94.853451] ath: Regpair used: 0x37
[   94.881314] ieee80211 phy12: Atheros AR9271 Rev:1
[   94.944169] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan1: link is not ready
[   95.674124] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan1: link is not ready
[   95.808380] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan1: link is not ready
[   96.899302] usb 1-1.2: USB disconnect, device number 16
[   98.793522] ath: phy12: Could not kill baseband RX
[   98.816436] ath: phy12: Failed to wakeup in 500us
[   98.928357] ath: phy12: RX failed to go idle in 10 ms RXSM=0xc0938cb5
[   98.949357] ath: phy12: Failed to wakeup in 500us
[   99.062121] ath: phy12: RX failed to go idle in 10 ms RXSM=0x0
[   99.272754] usb 1-1.2: ath9k_htc: USB layer deinitialized
[   99.530924] usb 1-1.2: new high-speed USB device number 17 using dwc_otg
[   99.661728] usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=0cf3, idProduct=9271
[   99.673019] usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=16, Product=32, SerialNumber=48
[   99.685415] usb 1-1.2: Product: UB91C
[   99.691439] usb 1-1.2: Manufacturer: ATHEROS
[   99.698400] usb 1-1.2: SerialNumber: 12345
[   99.706164] usb 1-1.2: ath9k_htc: Firmware htc_9271.fw requested
[   99.998214] usb 1-1.2: ath9k_htc: Transferred FW: htc_9271.fw, size: 50980
[  100.246490] ath9k_htc 1-1.2:1.0: ath9k_htc: HTC initialized with 33 credits
[  100.680356] cfg80211: Calling CRDA for country: US
[  100.713924] cfg80211: Regulatory domain changed to country: US
[  100.723546] cfg80211:  DFS Master region: FCC
[  100.730445] cfg80211:   (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp), (dfs_cac_time)
[  100.746425] cfg80211:   (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 3000 mBm), (N/A)
[  100.759589] cfg80211:   (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 80000 KHz, 160000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 1700 mBm), (N/A)
[  100.775060] cfg80211:   (5250000 KHz - 5330000 KHz @ 80000 KHz, 160000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 2300 mBm), (0 s)
[  100.790560] cfg80211:   (5490000 KHz - 5730000 KHz @ 160000 KHz), (N/A, 2300 mBm), (0 s)
[  100.803782] cfg80211:   (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 80000 KHz), (N/A, 3000 mBm), (N/A)
[  100.816855] cfg80211:   (57240000 KHz - 63720000 KHz @ 2160000 KHz), (N/A, 4000 mBm), (N/A)
[  102.681947] ath9k_htc 1-1.2:1.0: ath9k_htc: FW Version: 1.3
[  102.691156] ath9k_htc 1-1.2:1.0: FW RMW support: Off
[  102.699240] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x833a
[  102.699250] ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a country code
[  102.699281] ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
[  102.699292] ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x37
[  102.699302] ath: Country alpha2 being used: GB
[  102.699310] ath: Regpair used: 0x37
[  102.721440] ieee80211 phy13: Atheros AR9271 Rev:1
[  102.729253] cfg80211: Calling CRDA for country: GB
[  102.789767] cfg80211: Current regulatory domain intersected:
[  102.799060] cfg80211:  DFS Master region: unset
[  102.806207] cfg80211:   (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp), (dfs_cac_time)
[  102.822100] cfg80211:   (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
[  102.835183] cfg80211:   (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 80000 KHz, 160000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 1700 mBm), (N/A)
[  102.850651] cfg80211:   (5250000 KHz - 5330000 KHz @ 80000 KHz, 160000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (0 s)
[  102.866105] cfg80211:   (5490000 KHz - 5710000 KHz @ 160000 KHz), (N/A, 2300 mBm), (0 s)
[  102.879303] cfg80211:   (57240000 KHz - 63720000 KHz @ 2160000 KHz), (N/A, 4000 mBm), (N/A)
[  102.895005] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan1: link is not ready
[  103.629437] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan1: link is not ready
[  103.916633] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan1: link is not ready

oot@kali:~# dmesg | tail
[  102.799060] cfg80211:  DFS Master region: unset
[  102.806207] cfg80211:   (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp), (dfs_cac_time)
[  102.822100] cfg80211:   (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
[  102.835183] cfg80211:   (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 80000 KHz, 160000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 1700 mBm), (N/A)
[  102.850651] cfg80211:   (5250000 KHz - 5330000 KHz @ 80000 KHz, 160000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (0 s)
[  102.866105] cfg80211:   (5490000 KHz - 5710000 KHz @ 160000 KHz), (N/A, 2300 mBm), (0 s)
[  102.879303] cfg80211:   (57240000 KHz - 63720000 KHz @ 2160000 KHz), (N/A, 4000 mBm), (N/A)
[  102.895005] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan1: link is not ready
[  103.629437] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan1: link is not ready
[  103.916633] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan1: link is not ready

this is the first time building a Pi, so if anyone can point me in the right direction to keep this from happening over and over i would really appreciate it.

[k13pt0]

im starting to think that this is an issue with the Alfa card being under powered by the USB on the Pi.

im running both the Pi and the official 7" screen from 1 power source and the small rainbow square is always on the top right corner. a little while ago i disconnected the display and only powered the Pi with the power supply and connected my tv with an HDMI cable .. i noticed the rainbow would disapear from the corner but when i would plug in the Alfa card it would come back every time the led on the card would start up.

i would cheeck the available networks and it would show several AP's but the card would freeze and the led would stay solid on...

Quick question to all of you using kali on a raspberry pi 3 (with or without a display)....

what wifi card are you using? does it plug and play and works out of the box or do you have to power the card separately with an external power source?

[k13pt0]

after tinkering with the RPi3 i realized that it was the power consumption.. plugged in my RPi power supply to the connection on the Pi and then a power supply from my phone charger (samsung 2a charger) to the port for the display. no rainbow square and the alfa card was working with no freezing of the device or kick off's.

tested the card by placing it on monitor mode and ran airodump and wash and was picking up AP's with no issue.

I would consider this issue resolved so if a mod wants to close out the thread, please do so.