Kali Linux - Alpha card AWUS 1900 (VirtualBox)

Make your AWUS 1900 Alpha card work in Kali

Configuration

My setup is VirtualBox Version 6.1.20 r143896 (Qt5.6.3) with Kali linux 5.10.0-kali7-amd64 (2021-04-12)

Kali - Update

Update your Kali

apt update
apt upgrade
apt dist-upgrade

Install additional packages for later compilation

apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
apt install build-essential
apt install bc
apt install dkms
apt install debhelper dpkg-dev

VirtualBox

Make sure that your virtualized Kali has installed Guest Additions and your VirtualBox installation has an extesion pack.

• Guest Additions which comes with your VirtualBox in form of insertable CD-ROM Image (VM menu Devices->Insert Guest Additions). Install and reboot.

• Extension Pack which improves USB functionality. You need to install the same extension pack version as your VirtualBox version.

USBv2 Ports - VM Setting

My testing VM configuration has the following port options (VM -> Settings > Ports).

Kali - Install Driver (realtek-rtl88xxau-dkms)

Install a Realtek driver for your Alpha card AWUS 1900 using package manager so the driver already exists as a package in your Kali distro.

apt install realtek-rtl88xxau-dkms

However, this driver did not work for me. Kali sees the wifi card hardware (lsusb), but no wireless card is detected (iwconfig). This means that driver compilation did not succeed or a driver is wrong for my hardware.

lsusb
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0bda:8813 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8814AU 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wireless Adapter

# shows nothing
iwconfig -a (nothing)

Remove the driver

Remove the driver installed via the package manager

apt remove realtek-rtl88xxau-dkms

Manual Driver Compilation (RTL8814AU)

Let's try a manual driver compilation with a specific driver we have found using lsusb command. Follow Debian Linux installation path in this article.

How to install driver for Wi-Fi for adapters with RTL8814AU chipset (Alfa AWUS1900)Ethical hacking and penetration testing

Compile

apt install git build-essential libelf-dev linux-headers-`uname -r` debhelper dpkg-dev dkms bc
git clone https://github.com/aircrack-ng/rtl8814au
cd rtl8814au

make dkms_install

# test
dkms status
8814au, 5.8.5.1, 5.10.0-kali7-amd64, x86_64: installed
realtek-rtl88xxau, 5.6.4.2~git20210327.c0ce817, 5.10.0-kali7-amd64, x86_64: installed
rtl8814au, 4.3.21: added

Load Driver

modprobe 8814au           
                                                                             
┌──(root💀kali)-[~]
└─# iwconfig

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off