ALFA AWUS036H (RTL8187) on Raspberry Pi not functioning

[arbartz]

I have an ALFA AWUS036H USB WiFi adapter (which uses the RTL8187 chipset) and a Raspberry Pi running Kali Linux 1.0.5. My problem is that I just can't seem to get them to play nice. So here is what I've done so far:

# iwconfig
wlan0     no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

# ifconfig wlan0 up
# ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr b8:27:eb:a7:4c:30  
          inet addr:192.168.1.107  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::ba27:ebff:fea7:4c30/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:7955 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:8570 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:384950 (375.9 KiB)  TX bytes:1134584 (1.0 MiB)

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:c0:ca:6c:ca:29  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

# iwconfig
wlan0     no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

# isup wlan0
sh: 15: isup: not found
# lsusb
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:9512 Standard Microsystems Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:ec00 Standard Microsystems Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0bda:8187 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8187 Wireless Adapter
# ifup wlan0 
Ignoring unknown interface wlan0=wlan0.
#

I honestly have no idea what is going on here so any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you!

[lynzoid]

wlan extenstions are broken in 1.0.4 and 1.0.5... try getting 1.0.0 then just apt-get update+upgrade. worked for me.

[arbartz]

wlan extenstions are broken in 1.0.4 and 1.0.5... try getting 1.0.0 then just apt-get update+upgrade. worked for me.

Okay, so I downloaded and flashed the 1.0.0 IMG file to my 16GB SD Card and put it in the Raspberry Pi. I then ran apt-get update and apt-get upgrade. I received the following error message after running apt-get upgrade:

E: You don't have enough free space in /var/cache/apt/archives/.


Hmmm?

[orkinos]

You flashed the image to 16GB SD card, but the image size was around 4 GB. This is also the size of the partition on your SD card. You should extend the partion size from 4GB to 16GB. I recommend you to use gparted (GUI version of the parted) to extend your partition size.

[1qay2wsx]

wlan extenstions are broken in 1.0.4 and 1.0.5... try getting 1.0.0 then just apt-get update+upgrade. worked for me.

I tried to get the 1.0.0 image from http://cdimage.kali.org/

unfortunatley it needs a login ?

i tried my kali forum login, but it didn't worked for me

[sabanaregailia1]

hey thumbs up to orkinos that helped me... I didnt realize i needed to do that.. Thanks

[arbartz]

Okay, so I expanded the partition and it now lets me run apt-get update/upgrade/dist-upgrade. I ran those and it all seems to work now, but I don't have the SDR utilities that are supposed to be in 1.0.5. Hmmm.

[lynzoid]

use the software update gnome app. sdr stuff is there. BUT with sdr stuff you are better of git-ing the fresh stuff directly. especially for airprobe and such

[DrEvil]

arbartz - I also started with Kali 1.0 and upgraded and dist-upgraded...but no luck. What did you do? Did you have to adjust the /etc/networking/interfaces file (or any others)?

[pikomule]

I have the same problem, does not recognize my ALFA 8187L as wireless card.

I have done this without solving the problem:
- apt-get update
- apt-get upgrade
- apt-get dist-upgrade

What's the problem?

[azsde]

I'm "glad" to see that i'm not the only one, any idea on how to fix this without rolling back to Kali 1.0.0 ?

I'm downloading the 1.0.0 right now to confirm that it's working, this has driven me crazy !!

[lunokhod]

:-) I too am puzzled why I can't get my Alfa 036H working my Kali Pi. Frustrating.

[lunokhod]

Well after literally spending the entire last three days trying to work out why I couldn't get my Alfa 036H adapter working... I gave up on Kali (for now).

I downloaded the latest Raspbian Wheezy .img file from www.raspberrypi.org, wrote it on a SD Card, booted and immediately found that I could access the Alfa 036H!

I then downloaded, complied and installed aircrack-ng, reaver and kismet without a hitch.

Hopefully the next release of Kali for Raspberry Pi will work better... but until then I have a solution working.

Lunokhod

[lunokhod]

A further follow up... Kali 1.0.6 for Raspberry Pi does seem to fix the issue with the Alfa 036H USB WiFi adapter... this is good!!

It seems that Reaver/Wash and Kismet (at least) was left out of this version.

[pawn88]

It is has been over 3 years now and the maker of Kali Linux still hasn't provide appropriate support for either the Raspberry Pi or ALFA chip set! The Raspberry Pi is one of the most popular devices to run Kali Linux and the same ALFA wireless cards. It almost like Microsoft not providing support Logitech or HP! I shouldn't have to looking for patches or addition support to get Kali Linux to work.