unable to turn on wifi in backtrack 5 r3 while booting from usb

i have hp pavilion 15 with RT3290 802.11bgn WIFI-ADAPTER in my laptop there is a shotcut key to turn on(white light)/off(orange light) wifi which works perfectly on windows.

i installed backtrack 5 r3 on usb drive to use it as a live usb, but while booting in bt5 i cannot use my wifi as its not turning on. The indicator is constantly showing orange light(as it is switched off). Due to this airmon-ng shows nothing like wlan0().

please tell me how to switch on my wifi in backtrack as soon as possible.

Shubham pokhriyal

Posted 2013-10-31T18:35:59.520

Reputation: 111

did you ensure that Backtrack has drivers for your WiFi card included/installed? – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2013-10-31T18:42:57.697

how to know that? – Shubham pokhriyal – 2013-10-31T18:45:30.233

that solution is for intel wifi adapters, he has a Ralink chipset. – almonte – 2013-10-31T18:51:18.897

@almonte do you have any solution?? – Shubham pokhriyal – 2013-10-31T18:57:08.673

Answers

These commands will allow you to download, compile and install the latest version of the driver. Since these are backports, they work on any Linux kernel.

 sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-generic
 wget https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/projects/backports/2013/10/18/backports-20131018.tar.gz 
 tar xvfz backports-20131018.tar.gz
 cd backports-20131018
 make defconfig-wifi
 make
 sudo make install

MariusMatutiae

Posted 2013-10-31T18:35:59.520

Reputation: 41 321

so i have to just copy paste these commands on terminal – Shubham pokhriyal – 2013-10-31T19:23:23.990

Yes. Plus, since I forgot you are on BT, you do not need the "sudo". – MariusMatutiae – 2013-10-31T19:24:51.133

what if i download the file on windows from the link given in command? – Shubham pokhriyal – 2013-11-01T03:35:07.763

its only of 12MB. – Shubham pokhriyal – 2013-11-01T03:35:40.050

You may very well download it to Windows, no problem. Then you will have to move it to BT. Try doing it through a shared folder. And yes, it 13M, you are right. Trust me, it's enough. :-) – MariusMatutiae – 2013-11-01T04:52:35.603

ok i've downloaded it on windows, now please tell me the command of bt terminal and where should i save that file in order to access it in bt5? – Shubham pokhriyal – 2013-11-01T05:07:52.410

You must learn how to "Share a folder" between host and guest. You may Google it. Then you put the file you downloaded in the Shared folder, and start your VM. – MariusMatutiae – 2013-11-01T05:10:51.877

but i m not using VM – Shubham pokhriyal – 2013-11-01T05:45:17.170

Right. Then just copy it to a folder (any folder) on your USB key. – MariusMatutiae – 2013-11-01T05:51:37.273

not working and i am facing one more problem when i shutdown bt5 the laptop does not shutdown completely and screen goes blank nothing happens next so everytime i have to switch it off from power button – Shubham pokhriyal – 2013-11-01T09:56:35.437

This has nothing to do with your driver. What do you mean by "not working"? – MariusMatutiae – 2013-11-01T11:31:27.393

Do you know that in BT you have to configure wifi yourself? In other words: do you know that you have to use wpa_passphrase, wpa_supplicant, and dhclient (if you are linking via DHCP, otherwise you have to learn how to set up a static IP for wifi)? – MariusMatutiae – 2013-11-01T11:37:50.740

i mean that wifi is still off, in other words airmon-ng is not detecting my wifi chipset – Shubham pokhriyal – 2013-11-01T13:55:49.727

try ifconfig wlan0 up, or whatever your wifi card is called. – MariusMatutiae – 2013-11-01T15:40:47.660

"Device not found" – Shubham pokhriyal – 2013-11-02T07:43:42.337

When the drivers arent pre-installed in the systems library (aka compatible), it is very complex to explain how to install the drivers for your specific wireless card..

See these: http://back-track-linux.blogspot.com/2012/10/backtrack-wireless-cards-compatibility.html

Like I said, theres a lot of instructions that go into something like this.. sorry.