Backtrack 4 R2 Wireless network problem.
 

Simply put the problem is my Backtrack 4 R2 VMware installation is not picking up my Wireless LAN card. I don't have a wlan0 or ath0 interface showing up and BT4 thinks its a wired network. Im connected to my network by apparently on a Wired one, when it's not. Any suggestions? My WiFi card is an 802.11n Wireless LAN Card. Thanks

Hi, welcome to LQ!

VMWare doesn't expose network hardware to the guests directly
to the best of my knowledge; it may (haven't tried that) be
possible to see USB network devices.


Cheers,
Tink

Thanks for the reply. Is there anyway to solve that? If not, do you know of any other Virtual software program that I can use that enables WiFi to be seen? I can confirm your observation because everywhere I go the WiFi shows up as Wired Ethernet no matter what network I go on.

AFAIK, there is currently no virtualization software that forwards PCI(e) devices to the guest OS. So you either have to use a lice-CD or install Backtrack natively on your machine.

Ok so if I install BT4 to a Live USB i'll get the wireless?

Yup. As soon as it's the primary running OS (or KVM guest) it's gonna
see the real deal as far as your hardware goes.


Cheers,
Tink

Yes, but I would recommend to go for Backtrack 5 instead.

Alright well Ive loaded the USB and now it still doesnt pick up the wireless and I cant connect to the "Wired" connection now, which is probably a good thing. Any suggestions? Thanks for the help so far, I just really want to get this problem fixed.

What's the actual hardware? Post the output of lspci | grep -i net please.

Ok, here's what i get.

"02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] 79c970 [PCnet32 LANCE] (rev 10)"

That's not a wireless adapter, and looks very much like one of
the things VMware presents to guests by default. Are you sure
you booted the computer of the USB device holding backtrack?
Not just the VM?

Lol, sorry I Forgot. Yea that's the VM. Here's what the USB gave me:

"02:00.0 Network Controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8191SEvA Wireless LAN controller (rev 10)"

On the VM I can connect to the imaginary Wired network, but on the USB I have no internet at all. Thanks for the reply.

Doesn't look too promising; I can't find any English language posts
referring to backtrack 4 and that adapter.


Sorry, maybe you have better google-fu than me, or care enough to
translate Brazilian or Indonesian posts.


Cheers,
Tink