Raspberry Pi and Nano USB WiFi (EDIMAX EW-7811Un) on Kali Linux

Hey there,

yesterday my order arrived. An Wireless USB Adapter for my Raspberry Pi. Right after plugging it into the Pi and booting it up, it was found:

root@kali:~# dmesg

...
usb 1-1.2: new high-speed USB device number 4 using dwc_otg
usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=7392, idProduct=7811
usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
usb 1-1.2: Product: 802.11n WLAN Adapter
usb 1-1.2: Manufacturer: Realtek
usb 1-1.2: SerialNumber: 00e04c000001

You can also list the usb devices via lsusb, to make sure the device is recognized:

root@kali:~# lsusb

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:9512 Standard Microsystems Corp.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:ec00 Standard Microsystems Corp.
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 7392:7811 Edimax Technology Co., Ltd EW-7811Un 802.11n Wireless Adapter [Realtek RTL8188CUS]

I'm using Kali 1.0.5 with the original kernel which is 3.6.11-cutdown:

root@kali:~# uname -r
3.6.11-cutdown

I've read that the since kernel 3.0 and higher a driver called rtl8192cu should be available that is supporting the chipset RTL8188CUS. After searching for "*8192*" I've found the module in kali:

root@kali:~# find / -name "*8192*" -print
/sys/bus/usb/drivers/rtl8192cu
/sys/module/8192cu
/sys/module/8192cu/drivers/usb:rtl8192cu
/opt/metasploit/apps/pro/ui/db/migrate/20130208192816_add_hidden_to_task_chain.rb
/lib/modules/3.6.11-cutdown/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rtl8192cu
/lib/modules/3.6.11-cutdown/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rtl8192cu/8192cu.ko
/lib/firmware/rtlwifi/rtl8192defw.bin
/lib/firmware/rtlwifi/rtl8192cfwU.bin
/lib/firmware/rtlwifi/rtl8192cfw.bin
/lib/firmware/rtlwifi/rtl8192cfwU_B.bin
/lib/firmware/rtlwifi/rtl8192cufw.bin
/lib/firmware/rtlwifi/rtl8192sefw.bin
/lib/firmware/RTL8192E
/usr/share/exploitdb/platforms/php/webapps/18192.txt

As no driver was loaded automatically, I've tried to load the module manually:

root@kali:~# modprobe 8192cu 

root@kali:~# lsmod

Module                  Size  Used by
ipv6                  207600  12
8192cu                411588  0
leds_gpio               1668  0
led_class               1788  1 leds_gpio

So the driver is loaded and now we can bring up the interface:

root@kali:~# ifconfig wlan0 up

root@kali:~# ifconfig wlan0
wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  Hardware Adresse 80:1f:02:b3:50:8b
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metrik:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          Kollisionen:0 Sendewarteschlangenlänge:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

You can make a quick scan of available wifi networks via:

root@kali:~# iwlist wlan0 scan

Now you can either use the graphical WiFi manager or you can configure your WiFi via terminal, which is what I did. Just add the following lines to your /etc/network/interfaces:

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-ssid <your SSID here>
wpa-psk <your wlan-key here>

After restarting the network you should have a working wifi connection.

root@kali:~# service networking restart

Note:
If you're using a hidden SSID you should read the following thread.