The differences between Kali Rolling and Kali Dev when attempting to patch drivers

[PandorasBox]

I downloaded and installed Kali Linux Full Rolling edition.

I read the manuals and figured out that I need to download the source files for my kernel before I can install 3rd party drivers and patches.

I followed the instructions in https://docs.kali.org/development/re...i-linux-kernel

My sources.list file is;

deb http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main contrib non-free
deb-src http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main contrib non-free

I did the apt-get update apt-get upgrade apt-get dist-upgrade and rebooted

I then typed uname -a and get;

Linux localhost 4.12.0-kali2-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.12.12-2kali1 (2017-09-13) x86_64 GNU/Linux

So my Kernel is version 4.12, yet the Kali Docs say

We assume that the linux-source-4.9 binary package has been installed

I assume that because I am using the rolling edtion of Kali it is using an older version of the kernel than the dev version uses.

Is it possible to update my kernel to the latest kernel using the instructions in the Docs without breaking my installation of rolling ?

What exactly is rolling ? If I am going to be patching drivers do I need the dev version ?

Can I reconfigure my rolling edition to become a dev version ?

[PandorasBox]

In the readme for the driver I want to hack it says that I must use the kernel that is being used by the wireless-testing.git

https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/...tion/git-guide

So it it looking like if you want to make changes to code then you need to use the latest kernel and not stable ? Yes ? No ?

[PandorasBox]

OK did about 10 clean installs and then kernel rebuilds to find the problem. Checked all my files for authenticity and corruption before starting. I created the image files using an update, as of this post, of Windows 10 and Rufus.

If you install from a USB image and choose ISO and not DD when you create the image then you will get a "cant find install files" during the installation and you need to remove the USB and reinsert it then click continue. But the install program will have problems detecting network cards and other hardware like sound cards, it's as if the code that looks for the drivers has not seen the remounting of the USB. Never managed to complete a successful install and kernel rebuild from an install carried out using a USB created with ISO and not DD. Even when it detected the correct hardware in the install it would not install the correct drivers.

If you install using a USB created with the DD method then your installation will not need the USB to be removed then reinserted but your network driver might give problems. I was using a wifi card with the RTL8191SU chipset and I can safely say that this chipset will not work with Kali, if you search the forums there is another post where a considerable amount of time was tried to get this Chipset to work and to no avail, it was replaced and the problems were solved. Kali Linux will detect it and it will seem to work but it either corrupts data or it causes the kernel to corrupt data, the longer I had the card "working" in Kali the worse problems became until I started getting reboots while running apps until I went to bed one night and left it to rebuild and when I woke up in the morning the machine was dead and when I reset no kernels would boot.

I can also confirm that the RTL8191SU wifif chipset does not work well in Windows 7 and 10, it works OK if you use an older version of the drivers but if you use the latest drivers they will hang on large downloads. Especially any large torrent you try and download, it was my main motivation for switching to Kali, I can't stand the dumbing down of windows into an autonomous tablet OS, I spend all my time rolling back changes it makes that screw my box up.

In case I forgot to mention if you are using the RTL8191SU WiFi chipset for Kali, WIndows7 or Windows10......don't, throw that sucker out of your machine now, I am convinced the problem must lie with the chipset or firmware common to both OSs, unless you are an electronics engineer and can reverse engineer the firmware you aren't going to get this card to work.

I had the same problems with a clean install of Kali with a new wifi card when installing from a USB image created using ISO and not DD method. Even when the install seemed to go OK after removing and reinserting the USB, the installation would not be good and rebuilds of the kernel would fail.

When I installed using a new wifi card and a USB image created using the DD method, then the installation went as the manuals and all the tutorial stuff works.