Kali linux wifi not existing

[psycodelic]

Hello, my Kali Linux does not have the Wi-Fi option, I use Kali as a virtual machine (using VirtualBox), the distro kernel is: Linux 6.12.13-amd64, date 2025-02-11 x86_64 GNU/Linux

 

[CaffeineAddict]

That's because you need to pass trough your Wi-Fi adapter which is not done automatically.

Why do you need Wi-Fi in VM?
And which Wi-Fi adapter do you have? is it USB?

 

[psycodelic]

That's because you need to pass trough your Wi-Fi adapter which is not done automatically.

Why do you need Wi-Fi in VM?
And which Wi-Fi adapter do you have? is it USB?

I'm starting a Pentest course with Solyd and one of the parts is learning how to scan Wi-Fi networks. My computer has an Aorus Pro AX B550 DDR5 motherboard and came with an antenna, Intel Corporation Gigabit AX 201 (rev 02), could you help me?

Note: The antenna is connected to the back of the computer directly to the motherboard.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

You have integrated Intel's ax adapter, so the first step is to determine whether your adapter is able to be put into monitor mode and capable to inject packets.

Which host system do you have installed? (which OS is installed on your drive?)

 

[psycodelic]

You have integrated Intel's ax adapter, so the first step is to determine whether your adapter is able to be put into monitor mode and capable to inject packets.

Which host system do you have installed? (which OS is installed on your drive?)

my personal OS: Windows 11
VM OS: Kali Linux

 

[CaffeineAddict]

You have 2 options for injection test.

1. Passtrough your wifi card to VM, here is what you need for that:

2.5. PCI Passthrough

2. Second option is much easier, you download live Kali ISO and make bootable USB.
Then boot from USB and your adapter should be recognized immediately since no virtualization is required.

The type of ISO you need is this one:

Get Kali | Kali Linux

Home of Kali Linux, an Advanced Penetration Testing Linux distribution used for Penetration Testing, Ethical Hacking and network security assessments.

www.kali.org

"Live" means it will run from USB without being installed anywhere.

To actually make bootable USB use balenaEtcher, here is tutorial:

https://www.howtogeek.com/how-to-create-a-bootable-linux-usb-drive-on-any-computer-with-balena-etcher/

When you're done with the ISO boot from it and let me know if your adapter gets recognized in Kali.
Then we'll do injection test to see if your card can be used for your tasks.

 

[psycodelic]

You have 2 options for injection test.

1. Passtrough your wifi card to VM, here is what you need for that:

2.5. PCI Passthrough

2. Second option is much easier, you download live Kali ISO and make bootable USB.
Then boot from USB and your adapter should be recognized immediately since no virtualization is required.

The type of ISO you need is this one:

Get Kali | Kali Linux

Home of Kali Linux, an Advanced Penetration Testing Linux distribution used for Penetration Testing, Ethical Hacking and network security assessments.

www.kali.org

"Live" means it will run from USB without being installed anywhere.

To actually make bootable USB use balenaEtcher, here is tutorial:

https://www.howtogeek.com/how-to-create-a-bootable-linux-usb-drive-on-any-computer-with-balena-etcher/

When you're done with the ISO boot from it and let me know if your adapter gets recognized in Kali.
Then we'll do injection test to see if your card can be used for your tasks.

My Kali Linux recognizes the adapter, using the lspci command, firmware and driver are installed, but still the Wi-Fi option does not appear. I can go to VirtualBox settings> Network> NAT for Bridge mode and select the AX201 adapter, within Kali it connects to the Internet, I can browse but the Wi-Fi option does not appear. And yes, using Kali in live mode, I can connect to the Wi-Fi network, only in the VM that does not.

correcting, my motherboard is an aorus pro ax b660m

 

[CaffeineAddict]

My Kali Linux recognizes the adapter, using the lspci command, firmware and driver are installed, but still the Wi-Fi option does not appear. I can go to VirtualBox settings> Network> NAT for Bridge mode and select the AX201 adapter, within Kali it connects to the Internet, I can browse but the Wi-Fi option does not appear. And yes, using Kali in live mode, I can connect to the Wi-Fi network, only in the VM that does not.

Likely reason why you don't have WiFi in Kali VM is because you need to manually create WiFi network within Kali in VM.
But since your adapter is recognized in VM that means passtrough worked (if you did it?)

To manually create WiFi in Kali VM right click on network icon on task bar and then "configure network connections" then "+" icon to add new network.
Specify your wireless network parameters such as ESSID, IP address and other required network parameters.

---

If you're unable to create WiFi network in Kali VM manually then ignore it for now (we'll work on that later), boot into live USB since WiFi works there and perform injection test as that's the most important thing to do to see if your NIC is supported.

Here are instruction on how to perform this test:

injection_test [Aircrack-ng]

www.aircrack-ng.org

If injection test works you can celebrate, let me know if it does, then we'll see what can be done with Kali in VM.

 

[psycodelic]

Likely reason why you don't have WiFi in Kali VM is because you need to manually create WiFi network within Kali in VM.
But since your adapter is recognized in VM that means passtrough worked (if you did it?)

To manually create WiFi in Kali VM right click on network icon on task bar and then "configure network connections" then "+" icon to add new network.
Specify your wireless network parameters such as ESSID, IP address and other required network parameters.

---

If you're unable to create WiFi network in Kali VM manually then ignore it for now (we'll work on that later), boot into live USB since WiFi works there and perform injection test as that's the most important thing to do to see if your NIC is supported.

Here are instruction on how to perform this test:

injection_test [Aircrack-ng]

www.aircrack-ng.org

If injection test works you can celebrate, let me know if it does, then we'll see what can be done with Kali in VM.

Yes, the injection test worked correctly. I would like to ask for help beyond this, could you recommend a USB network adapter for Kali that has the necessary specifications to test Wi-Fi networks (I believe it is better than the antenna I am currently using) And one thing, I may have to configure the local firmware file, because my Kali returns the message that the iwlwifi firmware needs to be configured manually

Note: I didn't need to follow the PCI passthrough step by step, as Kali automatically recognized the PCI adapter.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

could you recommend a USB network adapter for Kali that has the necessary specifications to test Wi-Fi networks (I believe it is better than the antenna I am currently using)

There are far better adapters than what you have right now, however since you have the antenna I don't think it's needed because antenna will give you better TX and RX. (Transmission and Receive strengths)

Also you adapter is working fine if it passed the test so you have all that you need for learning purposes.

But if you insist, Taiwanese Alfa adapters are the best for WiFi hacking, I have 2 of them albeit old already,
Here are few that are Kali-Linux compatible:

collection.title | strip_html

www.alfa.com.tw

I'd personally go for this one:

AWUS1900

Alfa AC1900 WiFi Adapter - 1900 Mbps 802.11ac Long-Range Dual Band USB 3.0 Wi-Fi Network Adapter w/4x 5dBi External Dual-Band Antennas Key features Superior Wi-Fi Performance Giga-Fast 802.11ac Wireless, Better Range & Coverage Increased Bandwidth, More Applications Increased Wireless Signal...

www.alfa.com.tw

But this one is AC standard which is older than what you have, you have AX which is newer standard, so again, you already have the adapter, no need to buy another one unless you experience low signal strength which is sometimes important, e.g. for distant wifi networks.

And one thing, I may have to configure the local firmware file, because my Kali returns the message that the iwlwifi firmware needs to be configured manually

Can you show the message? screenshot for example.

I didn't need to follow the PCI passthrough step by step, as Kali automatically recognized the PCI adapter.

That's great!

 

[psycodelic]

There are far better adapters than what you have right now, however since you have the antenna I don't think it's needed because antenna will give you better TX and RX. (Transmission and Receive strengths)

Also you adapter is working fine if it passed the test so you have all that you need for learning purposes.

But if you insist, Taiwanese Alfa adapters are the best for WiFi hacking, I have 2 of them albeit old already,
Here are few that are Kali-Linux compatible:

collection.title | strip_html

www.alfa.com.tw

I'd personally go for this one:

AWUS1900

Alfa AC1900 WiFi Adapter - 1900 Mbps 802.11ac Long-Range Dual Band USB 3.0 Wi-Fi Network Adapter w/4x 5dBi External Dual-Band Antennas Key features Superior Wi-Fi Performance Giga-Fast 802.11ac Wireless, Better Range & Coverage Increased Bandwidth, More Applications Increased Wireless Signal...

www.alfa.com.tw

But this one is AC standard which is older than what you have, you have AX which is newer standard, so again, you already have the adapter, no need to buy another one unless you experience low signal strength which is sometimes important, e.g. for distant wifi networks.


Can you show the message? screenshot for example.


That's great!

I will show you the print and the configuration text file that I changed to add backports, but later removed it because I was unsure whether it would actually work.

 

[psycodelic]

There are far better adapters than what you have right now, however since you have the antenna I don't think it's needed because antenna will give you better TX and RX. (Transmission and Receive strengths)

Also you adapter is working fine if it passed the test so you have all that you need for learning purposes.

But if you insist, Taiwanese Alfa adapters are the best for WiFi hacking, I have 2 of them albeit old already,
Here are few that are Kali-Linux compatible:

collection.title | strip_html

www.alfa.com.tw

I'd personally go for this one:

AWUS1900

Alfa AC1900 WiFi Adapter - 1900 Mbps 802.11ac Long-Range Dual Band USB 3.0 Wi-Fi Network Adapter w/4x 5dBi External Dual-Band Antennas Key features Superior Wi-Fi Performance Giga-Fast 802.11ac Wireless, Better Range & Coverage Increased Bandwidth, More Applications Increased Wireless Signal...

www.alfa.com.tw

But this one is AC standard which is older than what you have, you have AX which is newer standard, so again, you already have the adapter, no need to buy another one unless you experience low signal strength which is sometimes important, e.g. for distant wifi networks.


Can you show the message? screenshot for example.


That's great!

 

[CaffeineAddict]

@psycodelic
What you did is enabled additional repositories, this was required likely to get propietary Intel firmware for your NIC.
Nothing to worry about, it should be as it's shown in your screenshot.

 

[psycodelic]

@psycodelic
What you did is enabled additional repositories, this was required likely to get propietary Intel firmware for your NIC.
Nothing to worry about, it should be as it's shown in your screenshot.

So I did some more research and saw on the aircrack website that it was necessary to add backports to this souce.list repository, but I don't know, I researched a little more in depth and also saw that on the Intel website, my ax 201 network card has drivers and firmware that can be installed, but I was confused in finding the right packages for my distro

Intel® Wireless Wi-Fi Drivers for Linux*

This download record includes the Linux* driver package version Core89 for the Intel® Wi-Fi 7/Wi-Fi 6E/Wi-Fi 6 and Intel® 9000 series Wireless Products

www.intel.com

 

[CaffeineAddict]

So I did some more research and saw on the aircrack website that it was necessary to add backports to this souce.list repository, but I don't know, I researched a little more in depth and also saw that on the Intel website, my ax 201 network card has drivers and firmware that can be installed, but I was confused in finding the right packages for my distro

You do not need any backports.

Backports apply to Debian because it provides out of date packages.
But Kali is rolling release distro so all packages are the most recent, there are no backport packages.

also saw that on the Intel website, my ax 201 network card has drivers and firmware that can be installed, but I was confused in finding the right packages for my distro

You don't need any drivers as your card already works with Kali's driver.

 

[psycodelic]

You do not need any backports.

Backports apply to Debian because it provides out of date packages.
But Kali is rolling release distro so all packages are the most recent, there are no backport packages.


You don't need any drivers as your card already works with Kali's driver.

Okay, and what solution would you have for my problem?? Apart from the Kali Linux live USB, if there is no solution, I will have to use it in live mode or do a dual boot

 

[CaffeineAddict]

Okay, and what solution would you have for my problem?? Apart from the Kali Linux live USB, if there is no solution, I will have to use it in live mode or do a dual boot

What problem do you have? you said wifi works in virtualbox?

 

[psycodelic]

What problem do you have? you said wifi works in virtualbox?

Yes, if I put the network in bridge mode, select the antenna and access Kali, I can access the internet but the wifi is kind of non-existent, the wifi option does not appear, even with the network card selected and the internet working.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

Yes, if I put the network in bridge mode, select the antenna and access Kali, I can access the internet but the wifi is kind of non-existent, the wifi option does not appear, even with the network card selected and the internet working.

Getting wifi to work in VM is always a problem, and in this case I'm not sure what to suggest because I personally use QEMU for virtual machine, I have no experience with virtual box.

But first do this test.
Run Kali in VM, open up terminal and type this command:

sudo iw dev

If you're root then omit sudo and just iw dev

Does the command print your wifi adapter?

 

[dos2unix]

Some VM managers will not let you do pass-thru on the same device that you are currently using as your main network connection. And even the ones that do, usually won't you put the interface in promiscuous mode (a lot of hacker programs want the interface in promicuous mode).

I usually have to have VM network interface separate from my main LAN/management interface in order to do this.