Category:

Networking

Setup DHCP or static IP address from command line in Linux

by blackMORE March 26, 2015

written by blackMORE

Did you ever had trouble with Network Manager and felt that you need to try to setup DHCP or static IP address from command Line in Linux? I once accidentally removed Gnome (my bad, wasn’t paying attention and did an apt-get autoremove -y .. how bad is that.. ) So I was stuck, I couldn’t connect to Internet to reinstall my Gnome Network Manager because I’m in TEXT mode network-manager was broken. I learned a good lesson. you need internet for almost anything these days unless you’ve memorized all those manual command.

This guide will guide you on how to setup DHCP or static IP address from command Line in Linux. It saved me when I was in trouble, hopefully you will find it useful as well. In case you’ve only got Wireless, you can use this guide to connect to WiFi network from command line in Linux.

March 26, 2015 25 comments

Connect to WiFi network in Linux from command line - blackMORE Ops

How to

Connect to WiFi network from command line in Linux

by blackMORE September 18, 2014

written by blackMORE

How many of you failed to connect to WiFi network in Linux? Did you bumped into issues like the followings in different forums, discussion page, blogs? I am sure everyone did at some point. Following list shows just the results from Page 1 of a Google search result with “Unable to connect to WiFi network in Linux” keywords.

Following guide explains how you can connect to a WiFi network in Linux from command Line. This guide will take you through the steps for connecting to a WPA/WPA2 WiFi network. In case you’ve only got wired connection only, you can use this guide to setup DHCP or static IP address from command line in Linux.

WiFi network from command line – Required tools

Following tools are required to connect to WiFi network in Linux from command line

Before we jump into technical jargons let’s just quickly go over each item at a time.

Linux WPA/WPA2/IEEE 802.1X Supplicant

wpa_supplicant is a WPA Supplicant for Linux, BSD, Mac OS X, and Windows with support for WPA and WPA2 (IEEE 802.11i / RSN). It is suitable for both desktop/laptop computers and embedded systems. Supplicant is the IEEE 802.1X/WPA component that is used in the client stations. It implements key negotiation with a WPA Authenticator and it controls the roaming and IEEE 802.11 authentication/association of the wlan driver.

iw – Linux Wireless

iw is a new nl80211 based CLI configuration utility for wireless devices. It supports all new drivers that have been added to the kernel recently. The old tool iwconfing, which uses Wireless Extensions interface, is deprecated and it’s strongly recommended to switch to iw and nl80211.

ip – ip program in Linux

ip is used to show / manipulate routing, devices, policy routing and tunnels. It is used for enabling/disabling devices and it helps you to find general networking informations. ip was written by Alexey N. Kuznetsov and added in Linux 2.2. Use man ip to see full help/man page.

ping

Good old ping For every ping, there shall be a pong …. ping-pong – ping-pong – ping-pong … that should explain it.

BTW man ping helps too …

Step 1: Find available WiFi adapters – WiFi network from command line

This actually help .. I mean you need to know your WiFi device name before you go an connect to a WiFi network. So just use the following command that will list all the connected WiFi adapters in your Linux machines.

root@kali:~# iw dev
phy#1
    Interface wlan0
        ifindex 4
        type managed
root@kali:~#

Let me explain the output:

This system has 1 physical WiFi adapters.

Designated name: phy#1
Device names: wlan0
Interface Index: 4. Usually as per connected ports (which can be an USB port).
Type: Managed. Type specifies the operational mode of the wireless devices. managed means the device is a WiFi station or client that connects to an access point.

Step 2: Check device status – WiFi network from command line

By this time many of you are thinking, why two network devices. The reason I am using two is because I would like to show how a connected and disconnected device looks like side by side. Next command will show you exactly that.

You can check that if the wireless device is up or not using the following command:

root@kali:~# ip link show wlan0
4: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN mode DORMANT qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:60:64:37:4a:30 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
root@kali:~#

As you can already see, I got once interface (wlan0) as state UP and wlan1 as state DOWN.

Look for the word “UP” inside the brackets in the first line of the output.

In the above example, wlan1 is not UP. Execute the following command to

Step 3: Bring up the WiFi interface – WiFi network from command line

Use the following command to bring up the WiFI interface

root@kali:~# ip link set wlan0 up

Note: If you’re using Ubuntu, Linux Mint, CentOS, Fedora etc. use the command with ‘sudo’ prefix

If you run the show link command again, you can tell that wlan1 is now UP.

root@kali:~# ip link show wlan0
4: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP mode DORMANT qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:60:64:37:4a:30 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
root@kali:~#

Step 4: Check the connection status – WiFi network from command line

You can check WiFi network connection status from command line using the following command

root@kali:~# iw wlan0 link
Not connected.
root@kali:~#

The above output shows that you are not connected to any network.

Step 5: Scan to find WiFi Network – WiFi network from command line

Scan to find out what WiFi network(s) are detected

root@kali:~# iw wlan0 scan
BSS 9c:97:26:de:12:37 (on wlan0)
    TSF: 5311608514951 usec (61d, 11:26:48)
    freq: 2462
    beacon interval: 100
    capability: ESS Privacy ShortSlotTime (0x0411)
    signal: -53.00 dBm 
    last seen: 104 ms ago
    Information elements from Probe Response frame:
    SSID: blackMOREOps
    Supported rates: 1.0* 2.0* 5.5* 11.0* 18.0 24.0 36.0 54.0 
    DS Parameter set: channel 11
    ERP: Barker_Preamble_Mode
    RSN:     * Version: 1
         * Group cipher: CCMP
         * Pairwise ciphers: CCMP
         * Authentication suites: PSK
         * Capabilities: 16-PTKSA-RC (0x000c)
    Extended supported rates: 6.0 9.0 12.0 48.0 
---- truncated ----

The 2 important pieces of information from the above are the SSID and the security protocol (WPA/WPA2 vs WEP). The SSID from the above example is blackMOREOps. The security protocol is RSN, also commonly referred to as WPA2. The security protocol is important because it determines what tool you use to connect to the network.

— following image is a sample only —

Step 6: Generate a wpa/wpa2 configuration file – WiFi network from command line

Now we will generate a configuration file for wpa_supplicant that contains the pre-shared key (“passphrase”) for the WiFi network.

root@kali:~# wpa_passphrase blackMOREOps >> /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
abcd1234
root@kali:~#
(where 'abcd1234' was the Network password)

wpa_passphrase uses SSID as a string, that means you need to type in the passphrase for the WiFi network blackMOREOps after you run the command.

Note: If you’re using Ubuntu, Linux Mint, CentOS, Fedora etc. use the command with ‘sudo’ prefix

wpa_passphrase will create the necessary configuration entries based on your input. Each new network will be added as a new configuration (it wont replace existing configurations) in the configurations file /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf.

root@kali:~# cat /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf 
# reading passphrase from stdin
network={
 ssid="blackMOREOps"
 #psk="abcd1234"
 psk=42e1cbd0f7fbf3824393920ea41ad6cc8528957a80a404b24b5e4461a31c820c
}
root@kali:~#

Step 7: Connect to WPA/WPA2 WiFi network – WiFi network from command line

Now that we have the configuration file, we can use it to connect to the WiFi network. We will be using wpa_supplicant to connect. Use the following command

root@kali:~# wpa_supplicant -B -D wext -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Invalid argument 
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Invalid argument 
root@kali:~#

Where,

-B means run wpa_supplicant in the background.
-D specifies the wireless driver. wext is the generic driver.
-c specifies the path for the configuration file.

Use the iw command to verify that you are indeed connected to the SSID.

root@kali:~# iw wlan0 link
Connected to 9c:97:00:aa:11:33 (on wlan0)
    SSID: blackMOREOps
    freq: 2412
    RX: 26951 bytes (265 packets)
    TX: 1400 bytes (14 packets)
    signal: -51 dBm
    tx bitrate: 6.5 MBit/s MCS 0

    bss flags:    short-slot-time
    dtim period:    0
    beacon int:    100

Step 8: Get an IP using dhclient – WiFi network from command line

Until step 7, we’ve spent time connecting to the WiFi network. Now use dhclient to get an IP address by DHCP

root@kali:~# dhclient wlan0
Reloading /etc/samba/smb.conf: smbd only.
root@kali:~#

You can use ip or ifconfig command to verify the IP address assigned by DHCP. The IP address is 10.0.0.4 from below.

root@kali:~# ip addr show wlan0
4: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:60:64:37:4a:30 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 10.0.0.4/24 brd 10.0.0.255 scope global wlan0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::260:64ff:fe37:4a30/64 scope link 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
root@kali:~# 

(or)

root@kali:~# ifconfig wlan0
wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:60:64:37:4a:30 
 inet addr:10.0.0.4 Bcast:10.0.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
 inet6 addr: fe80::260:64ff:fe37:4a30/64 Scope:Link
 UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
 RX packets:23868 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
 TX packets:23502 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
 RX bytes:22999066 (21.9 MiB) TX bytes:5776947 (5.5 MiB)

root@kali:~#

Add default routing rule.The last configuration step is to make sure that you have the proper routing rules.

root@kali:~# ip route show 
default via 10.0.0.138 dev wlan0 
10.0.0.0/24 dev wlan0  proto kernel  scope link  src 10.0.0.4

Step 9: Test connectivity – WiFi network from command line

Ping Google’s IP to confirm network connection (or you can just browse?)

root@kali:~# ping 8.8.8.8
PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=3 ttl=42 time=265 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=4 ttl=42 time=176 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=5 ttl=42 time=174 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=6 ttl=42 time=174 ms
^C
--- 8.8.8.8 ping statistics ---
6 packets transmitted, 4 received, 33% packet loss, time 5020ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 174.353/197.683/265.456/39.134 ms
root@kali:~#

Conclusion

This is a very detailed and long guide. Here is a short summary of all the things you need to do in just few line.

root@kali:~# iw dev
root@kali:~# ip link set wlan0 up
root@kali:~# iw wlan0 scan
root@kali:~# wpa_passphrase blackMOREOps >> /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
root@kali:~# wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
root@kali:~# iw wlan0 link
root@kali:~# dhclient wlan0
root@kali:~# ping 8.8.8.8
(Where wlan0 is wifi adapter and blackMOREOps is SSID)
(Add Routing manually)
root@kali:~# ip route add default via 10.0.0.138 dev wlan0

At the end of it, you should be able to connect to WiFi network. Depending on the Linux distro you are using and how things go, your commands might be slightly different. Edit commands as required to meet your needs. Thanks for reading. Please share and tweet.

September 18, 2014 82 comments

Driver

Identify USB Driver. Ubuntu, Debian, Mint, CentOS, Fedora & all Linux distro

by blackMORE August 25, 2014

written by blackMORE

This guide shows how you can identify USB Driver Chipset(most commonly Wireless) Information on Linux. Often users troll different forums and blogs to find out they can identify which driver their PCI or USB device is using. This guide applies to all possible scenarios. After reading and following this guide you will be able to identify the followings:

Examples of USB devices

USB Wireless Adapters
Mouses
Keyboards
External Hard drives
Card readers etc.

In short, any device drivers can be identified that is using plugged into a USB port. This guide will work for any Linux distributions, namely –

As usual, I will start with basics first. next few paragraphs are slightly boring but if you really want to understand, you might as well read them, otherwise just skip to the technical bits. Table of contents above.

So let’s start with the basics .. what is a an USB device…

What is Universal Serial Bus or USB?

Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard developed in the mid-1990s that defines the cables, connectors and communications protocols used in a bus for connection, communication, and power supply between computers and electronic devices.

USB was designed to standardize the connection of computer peripherals (including keyboards, pointing devices, digital cameras, printers, portable media players, disk drives and network adapters) to personal computers, both to communicate and to supply electric power. It has become commonplace on other devices, such as smartphones, PDAs and video game consoles. USB has effectively replaced a variety of earlier interfaces, such as serial and parallel ports, as well as separate power chargers for portable devices. Source: Wikipedia

Question: How do I identify USB driver for anything in Linux?

This is a million dollar question, just how often you see a similar post in forums and blogs with vague and unreliable answers? I will try my best to answer anything and everything in this post about all devices and their drivers in here. So, stay tuned as this is going to a long a** post.

Identify USB Driver Chipset Information in Linux

lsusb which is a standard command in all Linux distribution will show you the PCI devices on your system.

LS = List

USB = Universal Serial Bus devices

Step 1: List all USB devices – Identify USB driver

root@kali:~# lsusb

This will give you a sample output like the following:

root@kali:~# lsusb
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 148f:2870 Ralink Technology, Corp. RT2870 Wireless Adapter
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 046d:c016 Logitech, Inc. Optical Wheel Mouse
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
root@kali:~#

Now you can see the device names, types etc. But unlike, lspci, it doesn’t give you that funky number at the front.

Step 2: Dump the physical USB device hierarchy as a tree – Identify USB driver

For some reason, USB devices were listed slight different. So similar commands like this was useless

root@kali:~# lsusb -vv -s 148f:2870

I could use the actual device serial to get lot’s of info

root@kali:~# lsusb -vv -s 003

But this again doesn’t have the ACTUAL driver info.

root@kali:~# lsusb -vv -s 003

Bus 002 Device 003: ID 148f:2870 Ralink Technology, Corp. RT2870 Wireless Adapter
Device Descriptor:
  bLength                18
  bDescriptorType         1
  bcdUSB               2.00
  bDeviceClass            0 (Defined at Interface level)
  bDeviceSubClass         0 
  bDeviceProtocol         0 
  bMaxPacketSize0        64
  idVendor           0x148f Ralink Technology, Corp.
  idProduct          0x2870 RT2870 Wireless Adapter
  bcdDevice            1.01
  iManufacturer           1 Ralink
  iProduct                2 802.11 n WLAN
  iSerial                 3 1.0
  bNumConfigurations      1
  Configuration Descriptor:
    bLength                 9
    bDescriptorType         2
    wTotalLength           67
    bNumInterfaces          1
    bConfigurationValue     1
    iConfiguration          0 
    bmAttributes         0x80
      (Bus Powered)
    MaxPower              450mA
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        0
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           7
      bInterfaceClass       255 Vendor Specific Class
      bInterfaceSubClass    255 Vendor Specific Subclass
      bInterfaceProtocol    255 Vendor Specific Protocol
      iInterface              5 1.0
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x81  EP 1 IN
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0200  1x 512 bytes
        bInterval               0
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x01  EP 1 OUT
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0200  1x 512 bytes
        bInterval               0
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x02  EP 2 OUT
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0200  1x 512 bytes
        bInterval               0
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x03  EP 3 OUT
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0200  1x 512 bytes
        bInterval               0
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x04  EP 4 OUT
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0200  1x 512 bytes
        bInterval               0
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x05  EP 5 OUT
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0200  1x 512 bytes
        bInterval               0
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x06  EP 6 OUT
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0200  1x 512 bytes
        bInterval               0
Device Qualifier (for other device speed):
  bLength                10
  bDescriptorType         6
  bcdUSB               2.00
  bDeviceClass            0 (Defined at Interface level)
  bDeviceSubClass         0 
  bDeviceProtocol         0 
  bMaxPacketSize0        64
  bNumConfigurations      1
Device Status:     0x0000
  (Bus Powered)

So I found a different way to list the driver. I used lsusb -t to dump the physical USB device hierarchy as a tree.

root@kali:~# lsusb -t

This was actually great as most computers got just 3/4 USB devices plugged in at anytime. (i.e. Keyboard, Mouse and USB Wireless Adapter etc.). In my case I had just 2 device plugged in.

So my lsusb -t output looks very small and shows me exactly what I wanted to see.

root@kali:~# lsusb -t
/:  Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=ehci-pci/3p, 480M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=hub, Driver=hub/8p, 480M
        |__ Port 5: Dev 3, If 0, Class=vend., Driver=rt2800usb, 480M
/:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=ehci-pci/3p, 480M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=hub, Driver=hub/6p, 480M
        |__ Port 4: Dev 4, If 0, Class=HID, Driver=usbhid, 1.5M
root@kali:~#

And there you go.. My USB driver in use is rt2800usb.

That mean the Kernel is using a USB driver named rt2800usb.

Step 3: Get driver info for selected device – Identify USB driver

Now to get the full details of the driver you issue the following command:

root@kali:~# modinfo rt2800usb

This will list everything and anything for that driver including the driver file.

root@kali:~# modinfo rt2800usb
filename:       /lib/modules/3.14-kali1-amd64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2800usb.ko
license:        GPL
firmware:       rt2870.bin
description:    Ralink RT2800 USB Wireless LAN driver.
version:        2.3.0
author:         http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com
srcversion:     8D709655B6AD993F0D5ACC4
alias:          usb:v20F4p724Ad*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in*
alias:          usb:v148Fp5572d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in*
depends:        rt2x00lib,rt2800lib,rt2x00usb,usbcore
intree:         Y
vermagic:       3.14-kali1-amd64 SMP mod_unload modversions 
parm:           nohwcrypt:Disable hardware encryption. (bool)
root@kali:~#

So the driver file used for this particular USB Wireless Adapter is:
filename: /lib/modules/3.14-kali1-amd64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2800usb.ko
Now we know the device name, driver used, driver filename, vendor, publisher, dependencies, license and Author details for the selected USB device (USB Wireless Adapter).

Step 4: More ways to Identify USB driver details

We can use other tools to find USB driver used for a specific device..

Step 4.1: Identify USB driver using lshw command

lshw is another command that can be used to list hardware info.

ls = List

hw = Hardwares

First you need to install lshw in your Linux system. Install using the following command:

root@kali:~# apt-get install lshw

Now list all hardware and detailed info using the following command

root@kali:~# lshw

lshw will give you anything and everything. If you want you can browse through the outputs and you will find all the things you will ever need for a particular device.However, this is tedious job.

We can actually narrow it down using CLASS.

Some classes you can use are:

Display
Multimedia
Network etc.

For VGA/Display related output, you can use -C Display with lshw command.

root@kali:~# lshw -C Display

For Audio/Multimedia related output, you can use -C Multimedia with lshw command.

root@kali:~# lshw -C Multimedia

For Network related output, you can use -C Network with lshw command.

root@kali:~# lshw -C Network

So to find more info using lshw for this Ralink RT2800 USB Wireless adapter we will use the following command:

root@kali:~# lshw -C Network

This will give you an output similar to below:

root@kali:~# lshw -C Network
  *-network
       description: Wireless interface
       physical id: 1
       bus info: usb@2:1.5
       logical name: wlan0
       serial: 00:60:64:37:4a:30
       capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rt2800usb driverversion=3.14-kali1-amd64 firmware=0.29 ip=10.0.0.4 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn

As you can see, it lists the driver name as well. We can get more details on that driver using modinfo now.

root@kali:~# modinfo rt2800usb

Step 4.2: Identify USB driver using GTK+ front-end for lshw

and finally last but not the least, lshw also got a GUI version (lshw-gtk). Install that if you don’t want to use command line tools.

root@kali:~# apt-get install lshw-gtk

Launch GTK+ front-end for lshw using the following command on terminal

root@kali:~# lshw-gtk &

Refresh the window and you will see everything as per order. Double-click to expand each section.

Note: Once you’ve identified the driver name, you need to use modinfo <driver-name> to extract the details.

root@kali:~# modinfo rt2800usb

Step 4.3: Identify USB driver using dmesg

Last but not the least, this is another way to identify which driver your Linux installation is using for a particular USB pluggable device.

So I’ve got an ALFA AWUS036H USB 802.1b/g Long-Range Wireless USB Adapter. Following is how you use dmesg

root@kali:~# dmesg

Now I will be using “dmesg | tail” command as we only want the last few lines from dmesg. BTW in case you’re wondering, dmesg will print the Linux kernel ring buffer messages.

root@kali:~# dmesg | tail
[85452.720179] usb 2-1.8: USB disconnect, device number 5
[85514.996934] usb 1-1.4: USB disconnect, device number 5
[85526.132402] usb 1-1.4: new low-speed USB device number 6 using ehci-pci
[85526.204445] usb 1-1.4: device descriptor read/64, error -32
[85526.405449] usb 1-1.4: New USB device found, idVendor=046d, idProduct=c016
[85526.405455] usb 1-1.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[85526.405459] usb 1-1.4: Product: Optical USB Mouse
[85526.405462] usb 1-1.4: Manufacturer: Logitech
[85526.408538] input: Logitech Optical USB Mouse as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.4/1-1.4:1.0/0003:046D:C016.0004/input/input17
[85526.409084] hid-generic 0003:046D:C016.0004: input,hidraw0: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [Logitech Optical USB Mouse] on usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.4/input0
root@kali:~#

As you can see the last USB device plugged in was my USB Mouse (which is using hid-generic driver.)

Now let’s plug in my ALFA AWUS036H USB 802.1b/g Long-Range Wireless USB Adapter and use this same “dmesg | tail” command.

root@kali:~# dmesg | tail
[91238.551066] usb 2-1.8: New USB device found, idVendor=0bda, idProduct=8187
[91238.551073] usb 2-1.8: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[91238.551077] usb 2-1.8: Product: RTL8187_Wireless
[91238.551080] usb 2-1.8: Manufacturer: Manufacturer_Realtek_RTL8187_
[91238.551084] usb 2-1.8: SerialNumber: 00C0CA554C3E
[91238.849020] ieee80211 phy3: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'
[91238.849293] ieee80211 phy3: hwaddr 00:c0:ca:55:4c:3e, RTL8187vB (default) V1 + rtl8225z2, rfkill mask 2
[91238.870650] rtl8187: Customer ID is 0xFF
[91238.871388] rtl8187: wireless switch is on
[91241.316186] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan1: link is not ready
root@kali:~#

So there you go, dmesg picked the newly plugged in ALFA AWUS036H USB 802.1b/g Long-Range Wireless USB Adapter and spewed some lines in there. So which one is the driver? In my case it is using rtl8187 driver.

We can double check it using both “lsusb -t” and “lshw -C Network” command

root@kali:~# lsusb -t
/:  Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=ehci-pci/3p, 480M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=hub, Driver=hub/8p, 480M
        |__ Port 5: Dev 3, If 0, Class=vend., Driver=rt2800usb, 480M
        |__ Port 8: Dev 6, If 0, Class=>ifc, Driver=rtl8187, 480M
/:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=ehci-pci/3p, 480M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=hub, Driver=hub/6p, 480M
        |__ Port 4: Dev 6, If 0, Class=HID, Driver=usbhid, 1.5M
root@kali:~#

and

root@kali:~# lshw -C Network
  *-network:0
       description: Wireless interface
       physical id: 1
       bus info: usb@2:1.8
       logical name: wlan1
       serial: 00:c0:ca:55:4c:3e
       capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rtl8187 driverversion=3.14-kali1-amd64 firmware=N/A link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg
root@kali:~#

See my list of supported Wifi Adapters that’s supported for injection and monitor mode — > 802.11 Recommended USB Wireless Cards for Kali Linux

A modinfo will show more:

root@kali:~# modinfo rtl8187
filename:       /lib/modules/3.14-kali1-amd64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rtl818x/rtl8187/rtl8187.ko
license:        GPL
description:    RTL8187/RTL8187B USB wireless driver
author:         Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@lwfinger.net>
author:         Hin-Tak Leung <htl10@users.sourceforge.net>
author:         Herton Ronaldo Krzesinski <herton@mandriva.com.br>
author:         Andrea Merello <andrea.merello@gmail.com>
author:         Michael Wu <flamingice@sourmilk.net>
alias:          usb:v1737p0073d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in*
depends:        mac80211,eeprom_93cx6,cfg80211,usbcore
intree:         Y
vermagic:       3.14-kali1-amd64 SMP mod_unload modversions 
root@kali:~#

USB Driver Installation

The obvious next question is how do I install USB driver? I’ve shown that in one of my previous post..

How to install Driver for TP-Link TL-WDN3200 N600 Wireless Dual Band USB Adapter in Linux

Any Linux driver can be installed similarly once you’ve identified the driver details. (or at least the files from either vendors website or a 3rd party website).

Summary

I hope this article clears up the confusion on how to detect a driver for a particular USB device.

Those who care directly to this post, I was planning to write a single article on how to identify USB and PCI driver but it seems that would be very very long post. So I’ve decided to divide the post into Two parts,

Thanks for reading. If you’ve found this article useful, please share.

August 25, 2014 8 comments

How to

How to fix Wired Network interface “Device not managed” error in Debian or Kali Linux?

by blackMORE November 25, 2013

written by blackMORE

Device not managed error actually is an interesting error. When I tested, Device not managed error only happened to Wired Network interfaces (such as eth0 or eth1) in both Debian and Kali Linux. It doesn’t seem to happen to wireless network interfaces. When a user connects their Laptop or Computer to a LAN cable, suddenly they get this Wired Network interface “Device not managed error” and they can’t browse internet. It is annoying and particularly confusing as the error goes not make it obvious how it was generated. Most people end up searching for “Firefox can’t connect to Internet” or “Unable to browse internet in Kali Linux” or such. Those search strings will take to nowhere. This guide takes you through step by step procedures on fixing “Wired Network interface Device not managed error” in Debian and Kali Linux.

In this guide I will quickly point you to an alternate solution where you can setup you IP addess from Command Line on Kali Linux.

The reason you should read this other guide is because if you only have one Laptop or Desktop which allows you to browse Internet and you’re stuck with this annoying “Device not managed” error, at least you will be able to setup an IP address manually and be able to browse Internet and search for instructions that will permanently fix this “Device not managed” error. Well, actually my guides fixes it forever, as you can see from the comments section. But nevertheless, to be able to setup IP address from Command line in Linux is a must learn stuff for anyone as you might be using a non-GUI Linux or your GDM3/GNOME/KDE/KDM broke.

How to fix “Device not managed” error

As of Debian 6.0 “Squeeze”, (or in Kali Linux which is based on Debian) Network Manager does not manage any interface defined in /etc/network/interfaces by default.

Unmanaged devices means Network Manager doesn’t handle those network devices.

So this is what you see in GUI

An ifconfig -a show you this:

This occurs when two conditions are met:

The file /etc/network/interfaces contains anything about the interface, even:

allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

And /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf contains:

[main]
plugins=ifupdown,keyfile

[ifupdown]
managed=false

Screenshot below:

Enabling Interface Management

If you want Network Manager to handle interfaces that are enabled in /etc/network/interfaces:

Set managed=true in /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf. So this file looks like:

[main]
plugins=ifupdown,keyfile

[ifupdown]
managed=true

Restart Network Manager

Issue the following command to restart network-manager.

service network-manager restart

Now Network Manager should come up with a connected interface. For wired, eth0 with DHCP will show you something like the following image:

Just to wrap it up, lets do another ifconifg -a from command line

That looks good. Now you should be able to connect to network and browse Internet.

Some explanations

“Auto Ethernet” and “Auto eth0”

Auto Ethernet means “Select an Ethernet interface automatically”

Auto eth0 means “autoconfigure the eth0 interface”.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading. Please share. This is an annoying problem that STOPs you from browsing Internet and no Internet means no solution …

November 25, 2013 91 comments

Command Line Interface (CLI)

CLI ifconfig – How to setup IP addess from Command Line in Linux

by blackMORE October 14, 2013

written by blackMORE

Did you even had trouble with Network Manager or ifconfig and felt that you need to try to set up static IP address from command line / CLI ifconfig? I accidentally removed Gnome (my bad, wasn’t paying attention and did an apt-get autoremove -y .. how bad is that.. ) So I had a problem, I can’t connect to Internet to reinstall my Gnome Network Manager cause I’m in TEXT mode. Similarly I broke my network manager cause I was trying to use VPN and it just wouldn’t come back. I tried reinstalling it, but you need Internet for that. So here’s a small guide for that you can setup IP address and networking from Linux Command Line or CLI. You’ll be able to browse it from your mobile device and make things work.

How to fix Wired Network interface is Unmanaged error in Debian or Kali Linux - 7 - blackMORE Ops

Firstly STOP and START Networking service

Some people would argue restart would work, but I prefer STOP-START to do a complete rehash. Also if it’s not working already, why bother?

# /etc/init.d/networking stop
 [ ok ] Deconfiguring network interfaces...done.
 # /etc/init.d/networking start
 [ ok ] Configuring network interfaces...done.

STOP and START Network-Manager

If you have some other network manager (i.e. wicd, then start stop that one).

# /etc/init.d/network-manager stop
 [ ok ] Stopping network connection manager: NetworkManager.
 # /etc/init.d/network-manager start
 [ ok ] Starting network connection manager: NetworkManager.

Just for the kicks, following is what restart would do.. similar I still prefer stop/start combination.

 # /etc/init.d/network-manager restart
 [ ok ] Stopping network connection manager: NetworkManager.
 [ ok ] Starting network connection manager: NetworkManager.

Now to bring up your interface:

 # ifconfig eth0 up
 # ifconfig eth0
 eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr aa:bb:cc:11:22:33
 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)

Now lets set IP, subnet mask, broadcast address.

 # ifconfig eth0 192.168.43.226
 # ifconfig eth0 netmask 255.255.255.0
 # ifconfig eth0 broadcast 192.168.43.255

Let check the outcome:

# ifconfig eth0
 eth0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr aa:bb:cc:11:22:33
 inet addr:192.168.43.226  Bcast:192.168.43.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
 UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
 RX packets:19325 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
 TX packets:19641 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
 RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

and try to ping Google.com (cause if google.com is down, Internet is broken).

# ping google.com
 ping: unknown host google.com

Ah Internet is broken. Maybe not! So what went wrong in our side.

Simple, we didn’t add any default Gateway. Let’s do that

# route add default gw 192.168.43.1 eth0

and Just to confirm:

# route -n
 Kernel IP routing table
 Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
 0.0.0.0         192.168.43.1    0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 eth0
 192.168.43.0    0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth0

Looks good to me, lets ping google.com again:

# ping google.com
 PING google.com (119.30.40.16) 56(84) bytes of data.
 64 bytes from cache.google.com (119.30.40.16): icmp_req=1 ttl=49 time=520 ms
 64 bytes from cache.google.com (119.30.40.16): icmp_req=2 ttl=49 time=318 ms
 64 bytes from cache.google.com (119.30.40.16): icmp_req=3 ttl=49 time=358 ms
 64 bytes from cache.google.com (119.30.40.16): icmp_req=4 ttl=49 time=315 ms
 ^C
 --- google.com ping statistics ---
 4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3002ms
 rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 315.863/378.359/520.263/83.643 ms

That’s it. Thanks for reading, do share.

October 14, 2013 8 comments

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