Linux Desktop Hacks

Scan for Wireless Networks #66

Chapter 8, Desktop Programs

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207

HACK

Read the documentation files that come with the patch. These

instructions might indicate it is necessary to patch the driver

from a directory other than /usr/src/linux, or that you can

compile the driver separately from recompiling the kernel.

Now recompile the kernel to build the driver. Then ensure that you are load-

ing the updated driver. This might require a reboot or manually removing

the old module from memory and inserting the new one. You can do this

with the rmmod and

insmod commands:

foo@bar:~$ rmmod orinoco

foo~bar:~$ insmod orinoco

Running Kismet

Kismet is a special tool that can scan for wireless networks and indicate which

ones are available for you to connect to. Kismet is packaged for many Linux

distributions and the source code is available at http://www.kismetwireless.net.

Detailed instructions on how to install and set up Kismet are included with

the software, so I won’t cover that here. The documentation will require you

to make some adjustments to your /etc/kismet.conf file, which controls Kis-

met’s configuration. When you are reading the documentation, you should

pay particular attention to the suiduser and PID parts, as these could cause

problems with Kismet running.

To start Kismet, run the command-line program:

foo@bar:~$ kismet

When the program starts, you see an interface that displays a list of net-

works