Can't stay in Monitor Mode in Kali 2.0

[haytise]

I'm having a problem with a recent version of Kali (one of the rolling releases, downloaded a few months ago), and keeping my wireless card in monitor mode. Note that this card has always worked with previous versions of Kali.

I'm using my ALFA wireless dongle (Model: AWUS036H).
It's a 64-bit installation of Kali rolling on a HDD on my laptop (dual boot with Windows 10).

First, before everything, I ensure there are no interfering processes via:

airmon-ng check kill

Ok, with that out of the way, we switch to monitor mode via the following command:

ifconfig wlan0 down
iwconfig wlan0 mode monitor
ifconfig wlan0 up

Calling iwconfig confirms that wlan0 is now in monitor mode. Subsequently calling any commands that use this interface (i.e., 'reaver -i wlan0 -b 11:22:33:44:55:66 -vv -S -c 11' or 'aireplay-ng -9 wlan0' ) will not only fail, but it will revert wlan0 back into managed mode (confirmed by calling iwconfig).

I understand that some changes in Kali 2.0 mean that monitor mode interfaces are created differently. Still, I have the same problem using airmon-ng to create the monitor interface:

airmon-ng start wlan0

Output:

PHY	Interface	Driver		Chipset

phy28	wlan0		rtl8187		Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8187

		(mac80211 monitor mode vif enabled for [phy28]wlan0 on [phy28]wlan0mon)
		(mac80211 station mode vif disabled for [phy28]wlan0)
phy1	wlan1		iwlwifi		Intel Corporation Wireless 7260 (rev 83)

Ignore wlan1, that's my laptop's internal card. This output shows that wlan0mon is the monitor interface that's been started on wlan0. This naming scheme is new to Kali 2.0, but I understand that.

iwconfig then confirms that wlan0mon is the new interface to use:

root@kali:~# iwconfig
eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0mon  IEEE 802.11bg  Mode:Monitor  Frequency:2.457 GHz  Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:on
          
lo        no wireless extensions.

wlan1     IEEE 802.11abgn  Mode:Monitor  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Tx-Power=0 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:on

Ok, so let's try to use it:

reaver -i wlan0mon -b 11:22:33:44:55:66 -vv -S -c 11

Same problem - no response from reaver, it gets stuck on:

[+] Switching wlan0mon to channel 11
[+] Waiting for beacon from 11:22:33:44:55:66

Killing reaver (via ctrl-c) also results in the loss of wlan0mon. Checking iwconfig shows that wlan0 is back (and in Managed mode).



What is going on? I'm using a Kali rolling install on my hard drive (downloaded a few months ago), with no modifications. This wireless card is known for being easy to use, and I've specifically used it without problems (using reaver, aircrack, etc.) on previous versions of Kali as well as Backtrack Linux, again without modifications. So why will it not stay in monitor mode?

Any advice and suggestions would be appreciated. Note that my internet access is severely bandwidth-limited, so downloading a previous distro of Kali (or even Backtrack) for reinstall isn't feasible at this point in time.

Thanks.

EDIT FOR CLARIFICATION: I'm using Kali Rolling, not Kali 2.0 as the thread title suggests. Can't seem to edit that.

[Kali2superHakEr]

I have this issue and I'm not on rolling. I've found several other threads with the same or similar problem but no answers. Everyone who suggests something doesn't have the same or similar problem and make suggestions by the book.

I don't have the issue on kali1.

Kali2, I can get into monitor mode and within a minute or 4, it will revert itself back to wlan0 instead of wlan0mon. If I'm lucky and fast enough, I can get a 2-3 reavers sent. Usually reaver or airmon will just end/seg fault because it's dropped out of monitor mode.

Check kill, using the "long way" (wlan0 down/up/monitor), none of these matter.

I am replying to follow the thread and if I figure anything out, I will post it here. I was thinking of going to rolling for a potential fix but it seems like you have the same problem anyway.

My hardware is MSI ge62, dual booting x64 in uefi (w10&k2) and Alfa 036H as well. I actually bought a replacement 036H, thinking it was the adapter's fault as I go through about 1 a year. No such luck.

[mmusket33]

MTeams has stopped using Kali 2.0 and rolling when doing any operations using reaver. All we get is the WPS pin on our computers. When we switch back to kali 1 we get the WPA key immediately. Rolling was bugged out until June then ran fine for a while but it looks like some things are not working again.