[ltp] Kismet on Thinkpad R31 & SuSE 9.2

[Meidinger Chris]

Sorry i didn't get back to you quicker, been a hard week.

Answers inline. 

> >>I'm trying, without much luck, to get Kismet running on my 
> ThinkPad.  
> >>In /etc/kismet.conf, I have created a source line of 
> >>"source=hostap,wlan0,prsimsource" and also 
> >>"enablesources=prismsource".
> >>  However, when I run kismet as root, I get the following:
> >>
> >>Server options:  none
> >>Client options:  none
> >>Starting server...
> >>Waiting for server to start before startuing UI...
> >>Suid priv-dropping disabled.  This may not be secure.
> > 
> > 
> > See below.
> > 
> > 
> >>Enabling channel hopping.
> >>Enabling channel splitting.
> >>Source 0 (prismsource): Enabling monitor mode for hostap source 
> >>interface wlan0channel 6...
> >>FATAL: channel get ioctl failed 22:Invalid argument
> > 
> > 
> > The server must be started as root. In your kistmet.conf you should 
> > put a user in for priv-dropping.
> 
> There is an suiduser listed.
> 
> What server are you referring to?  Is it something else to 
> start, in addition to kismet?

`which kismet` is a shell script that starts `which kismet_server` as root
and `which kismet_client` as a user.

> > as to the actual error: what is the output from:
> > 
> > #iwconfig wlan0 mode monitor && echo "monitor works" || 
> echo "no monitor"
> > 
> > If this doesn't work, you need to check your drivers.
> 
> It works

Great! Then the problems are simple:

> >>When I try as a user, I get:
> >>
> >>Server options:  none
> >>Client options:  none
> >>Starting server...
> >>Waiting for server to start before startuing UI...
> >>Suid priv-dropping disabled.  This may not be secure.
> >>FATAL:  Unable to set up pidfile /var/run//kismet_server.pid,
> >>unlink()
> >>failed: Permission denied

As i said, this is expected behavior, /var/run and /var/log are not writable
for all users. You need to chown or chmod the directories that kismet uses
so that the drop-privilege user can write to them. After that, kismet should
run fine.

If it doesn't write again with the full output from starting kismet. Please
copy my personal address, i don't read everything in ltp, i just skim it a
couple of times a week.

Cheers,

Chris