Alfa awus036achm with Mediatek MT7610U not working

[xfh678]

Hello,

I am trying to make an Alfa awus036achm with chipset Mediatek MT7610U working on Kali without success. I also installed the firmware-misc-nonfree package and the driver is present in the /lib/firmware/mediatek directory. Kali is running under vmWare fusion 11.5.7 but I have never had any issues with this configuration and many other Alfa adapters. I did also a test to see if the adapter works, on a Raspberry with Raspbian Bullseye and it was fine. I am not very skilled, any idea?

Here are some diagnostic:

dmsg
[   90.081389] mt76x0u 2-2:1.0: ASIC revision: 76100002 MAC revision: 76502000
[   90.092928] mt76x0u 2-2:1.0: firmware: direct-loading firmware mediatek/mt7610e.bin
[   93.303149] mt76x0u 2-2:1.0: vendor request req:06 off:0800 failed:-110
[   96.205879] mt76x0u 2-2:1.0: firmware upload failed: -110
[   96.624179] mt76x0u: probe of 2-2:1.0 failed with error -110

lsusb
Bus 002 Device 006: ID 0e8d:7610 MediaTek Inc. WiFi

uname -a
Linux vmkali 5.16.0-kali1-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT Debian 5.16.7-2kali1 (2022-02-10) x86_64 GNU/Linux

Thank you!

[gspector]

yeah, it broke sometime between late last year and this year. The adapter requires a driver an a firmware blob which is located in /lib/firmware. The .bin files provided by default in /lib/firmware/mediatek cause the error you see in the dmesg output.

If you get the firmware tree:

git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git

then you su to root:

rm -rf /lib/firmware/mediatek
cp -R /root/Documents/linux-firmware/mediatek /lib/firmware

*note* /root/Documents/linux-firmware is just where I downloaded the git repository, so make sure you put the correct path on your system so, cp -R <path to git repo mediatek folder> /lib/firmware/

once you do that, unplug the dongle and plug it back in.

you should see something like this after you do that:

[ 1040.872034] mt76x2u 4-1:1.0: vendor request req:47 off:9018 failed:-110
[ 1045.000124] mt76x2u 4-1:1.0: vendor request req:47 off:9018 failed:-110
[ 1049.104151] mt76x2u 4-1:1.0: vendor request req:47 off:9018 failed:-110
[ 1053.226172] mt76x2u 4-1:1.0: vendor request req:47 off:9018 failed:-110
[ 1057.394428] mt76x2u 4-1:1.0: vendor request req:47 off:9018 failed:-110
[ 1061.542964] mt76x2u 4-1:1.0: vendor request req:47 off:9018 failed:-110
[ 1063.366707] xhci_hcd 0000:03:00.0: ERROR Transfer event TRB DMA ptr not part of current TD ep_index 8 comp_code 4
[ 1063.366713] xhci_hcd 0000:03:00.0: Looking for event-dma 000000011029e3c0 trb-start 000000012331c5a0 trb-end 000000012331c5d0 seg-start 000000012331c000 seg-end 000000012331cff0
[ 1063.368008] usb 4-1: USB disconnect, device number 2
[ 1084.289897] mt76x2u 4-1:1.0: MAC RX failed to stop
[ 1085.825571] mt76x2u: probe of 4-1:1.0 failed with error -5
[ 1085.825874] usbcore: registered new interface driver mt76x2u
[ 1086.690465] usb 4-1: new SuperSpeed USB device number 3 using xhci_hcd
[ 1086.709641] usb 4-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0e8d, idProduct=7612, bcdDevice= 1.00
[ 1086.709645] usb 4-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=2, Product=3, SerialNumber=4
[ 1086.709647] usb 4-1: Product: Wireless
[ 1086.709647] usb 4-1: Manufacturer: MediaTek Inc.
[ 1086.709648] usb 4-1: SerialNumber: 000000000
[ 1087.337686] usb 4-1: reset SuperSpeed USB device number 3 using xhci_hcd
[ 1087.362725] mt76x2u 4-1:1.0: ASIC revision: 76120044
[ 1087.570341] mt76x2u 4-1:1.0: firmware: direct-loading firmware mt7662_rom_patch.bin
[ 1087.570347] mt76x2u 4-1:1.0: ROM patch build: 20141115060606a
[ 1088.237309] mt76x2u 4-1:1.0: firmware: direct-loading firmware mt7662.bin
[ 1088.237319] mt76x2u 4-1:1.0: Firmware Version: 0.0.00
[ 1088.237320] mt76x2u 4-1:1.0: Build: 1
[ 1088.237321] mt76x2u 4-1:1.0: Build Time: 201507311614____
[ 1090.723348] ieee80211 phy1: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'
gspector@Kali-VM:/lib/firmware/mediatek$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.


eth0 no wireless extensions.


wlan0 IEEE 802.11 ESSIDff/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=20 dBm
Retry short limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Power Managementff

gspector@Kali-VM:/lib/firmware/mediatek$
gspector@Kali-VM:/lib/firmware/mediatek$ airmon-ng
Run it as root
gspector@Kali-VM:/lib/firmware/mediatek$ sudo airmon-ng


PHY Interface Driver Chipset


phy1 wlan0 mt76x2u MediaTek Inc. MT7612U 802.11a/b/g/n/ac

[xfh678]

Thank you for the detailed instructions! Unfortunately it still doesn't work even after a complete reboot, even if it says that the interface is registered I can't see it with ifconfig/iwconfig.

lsusb
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0e8d:7610 MediaTek Inc. WiFi

dmesg
[   32.017256] usb 2-2: new high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci-pci
[   32.182693] usb 2-2: New USB device found, idVendor=0e8d, idProduct=7610, bcdDevice= 1.00
[   32.182700] usb 2-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[   32.182702] usb 2-2: Product: WiFi [   32.182703] usb 2-2: Manufacturer: MediaTek
[   32.182704] usb 2-2: SerialNumber: 1.0
[   32.263167] cfg80211: Loading compiled-in X.509 certificates for regulatory database
[   32.263798] cfg80211: Loaded X.509 cert '[email protected]: 577e021cb980e0e820821ba7b54b4961b8b4fadf'
[   32.264176] cfg80211: Loaded X.509 cert '[email protected]: 3abbc6ec146e09d1b6016ab9d6cf71dd233f0328'
[   32.264377] cfg80211: Loaded X.509 cert 'sforshee: 00b28ddf47aef9cea7'
[   32.265624] platform regulatory.0: firmware: direct-loading firmware regulatory.db
[   32.266361] platform regulatory.0: firmware: direct-loading firmware regulatory.db.p7s
[   32.477763] usb 2-2: reset high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci-pci
[   32.647687] mt76x0u 2-2:1.0: ASIC revision: 76100002 MAC revision: 76502000
[   32.663007] mt76x0u 2-2:1.0: firmware: direct-loading firmware mediatek/mt7610e.bin
[   35.887653] mt76x0u 2-2:1.0: vendor request req:06 off:0800 failed:-110
[   38.820608] mt76x0u 2-2:1.0: firmware upload failed: -110
[   39.264616] mt76x0u: probe of 2-2:1.0 failed with error -110
[   39.264688] usbcore: registered new interface driver mt76x0u

[xfh678]

Just an update after further tests: it seems that upgrading to Fusion 12 solved the problem. Using dmesg i still see the error -110 but the driver is loaded and promiscuous mode and packet injections seem stable so far. The only problem I still have is adjusting the reg domain to alter the output power.