Am I too stupid for this?

[hpp]

I received my WiFi Pineapple Mark VII yesterday and was eager to try it out today. Unfortunately, after playing around with it for a couple of hours, my mood has completely changed and I would really like to set fire to the device now. Maybe I am too stupid for this, but there could also be quite a few bugs. Hopefully, somebody can confirm that I am not getting mad ;-)

First of all, I had to re-run the installation multiple times, starting from scratch with the mk7-recovery_1.0.1.bin. In hindsight, the main issue seems to have been that I am using hidden Wi-Fi networks to connect to, and somehow that seems causing a lot of problems. But finally, I got everything up and running using the manually uploaded upgrade-1.0.0.bin firmware. After logging in for the first time, I want to connect to a Wi-Fi-network in Settings | Networking. I choose wlan2 (there is no other option?) and scan. There I find a long, but incomplete, list of Wi-Fi-networks, from which I sometimes can, but also sometimes cannot choose my own not-hidden network. Connecting to the network often goes wrong, the system seems to hang. When it works and the settings are saved, they are forgotten the next time I boot. Whatever I do, it seems useless. The worst thing is that in many cases, the system locks and I only get to see '()'. Only rebooting helps in that case. In some cases, the system is creating error messages that are not resolved with rebooting, and I need to start all over again with the recovery image.

But this is not all. I used Active scanning to populate the SSID Pool, but decided to clear it. After clearing the pool, the device just seems not to forget about the networks it has found, and even though I am 100% sure there is only ONE network in the SSID Pool, all other network SSID's are broadcast when I enable active mode. I don't know what to do about this.

Also, In the Recon menu, I can see a long list of access points, but only very seldom a client connected to them. Only occasionally I see a client connected. This is strange, because I have specifically created a new SSID on the 2,4 GHz band and I am connecting a device to it. Only very seldom this is shown.

I have tried everything I can imagine to get a client connected to the system, but to no avail. Even though the SSID is broadcast in Active Mode and I connect to it. Forgetting the network on my device and re-connecting from scratch does not help. And yes, I have checked the filtering: the Client Filter is on Deny List which is empty, SSID Filter is on Allow and the SSID I want to use is in the list.

I am totally lost now. It could be me, being too stupid for the Wi-Fi Pineapple? Or is the Pineapple software is very buggy? I hope there is somebody who can give me a few clues on what to do next. Thanks in advance!

[heck5]

On 9/25/2020 at 11:18 PM, hpp said:

First of all, I had to re-run the installation multiple times, starting from scratch with the mk7-recovery_1.0.1.bin. In hindsight, the main issue seems to have been that I am using hidden Wi-Fi networks to connect to, and somehow that seems causing a lot of problems. But finally, I got everything up and running using the manually uploaded upgrade-1.0.0.bin firmware.

Hi,

I ran into the same issue. THe first time I could pass the setup process using another country. On other resets, I just had to go through the process 2 - 3 times.

Quote

After logging in for the first time, I want to connect to a Wi-Fi-network in Settings | Networking. I choose wlan2 (there is no other option?) and scan. There I find a long, but incomplete, list of Wi-Fi-networks, from which I sometimes can, but also sometimes cannot choose my own not-hidden network. Connecting to the network often goes wrong, the system seems to hang. When it works and the settings are saved, they are forgotten the next time I boot. Whatever I do, it seems useless. The worst thing is that in many cases, the system locks and I only get to see '()'.

I had this too. i had the "()" or (0) as result but most of the time, going to the recon page and then back to networking solved it.

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But this is not all. I used Active scanning to populate the SSID Pool, but decided to clear it. After clearing the pool, the device just seems not to forget about the networks it has found, and even though I am 100% sure there is only ONE network in the SSID Pool, all other network SSID's are broadcast when I enable active mode. I don't know what to do about this.

Maybe your setting is set so add APs to pool?

Quote

I am totally lost now. It could be me, being too stupid for the Wi-Fi Pineapple? Or is the Pineapple software is very buggy? I hope there is somebody who can give me a few clues on what to do next. 

This device is very new... It is by reporting bugs like ou did that the developpers and community will find fixes.

Take a look at the changelogs for each updates for the Tetra or Nano.. you'll see it will all get fixed.

I guess that the wifi pineapple may not be recommanded for new users too early after release because they won't know what to do when they have bugs,...

Keep hope, there will be updates and you may find workarounds to some issues too.

That being said, obviously, someone with no knowledge about networking and/or Linux will struggle more as the terminal is great to get the device to do what you want it to whern the GUI fails.

Good luck

 

[UncleBob]

I had very similar experiences. I thought it was me. I was really stoked to get the new pineapple figuring it would be an improvement, now it sits collecting dust as it doesn't function properly. Waiting patiently for an update..

[D0nni3Dark0]

So sad to read all these replies (and the ones in other posts).. arrived yesterday and experiencing same and other bugs too, extremely disappointing as I was really looking up to it. I understand there are challenges with brand new devices (especially this kind), but the saddest thing of all is the poor response of their support team, I hope my initial feelings are wrong and this will just turn out in a simple rant, but it feels like they don't care at all... bah..

[Kodiak720]

Been watching the mail like a school kid waiting for my Mark 7 to arrive. It got here yesterday and I have had nothing but problems setting it up. I followed the instructions to the letter and got frustrated when it kept hanging up on me numerous times. I think the firmware installed since I did see the LED lights flash from red to blue but then was unable to confirm this since I wasn't able to find the Pineapple network in the list of SSID's anymore??  (Had to restart after several hang-ups...waited about 15min between each) This is as far as I've gotten.

I'm a big fan of the Hak 5 organization, and I do understand that this is a fairly new product, but I am a little disappointed as I didn't read any forums prior to my purchase and it seems that a lot of folks are/had this same issue.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[Irukandji]

If it's flashing red and blue leave it. It's doing an firmware upgrade.

https://docs.hak5.org/hc/en-us/articles/360053346334-Setup-Basics

 

https://docs.hak5.org/hc/en-us/categories/360004116253-WiFi-Pineapple-Mark-VII

[Kodiak720]

I did leave it, but it sat on the welcome screen for more than 15 min without redirecting me. I reset but cant find the Pineapple network anymore.

[Irukandji]

Personally I don't own this version of the pineapple yet. So I don't know.

See if you can get to http://172.16.42.1:1471

On your computer.

[briKtop]

I'm having this exact same issue. I was excited to get this after it being on back order for several weeks and now that I have it I've spent two days trying to set it up and I just want to throw it out the back door. I seriously have lost interest in the device because I did not want to spend this kind of time on this as it was going to be just a hobby project. The setup videos make it look easy but my setup did not go anything like the ones I watched. what a nightmare.

[DevilChaos]

Hi i am having all the same issues with the mk7 yes it is new but the dev team should have had these sorted before allowing release and sale, very little in tutorials (community,youtube and hack5 website videos) and module addons, what should be a great product has let its self down for me just now. I have spent more than most as i forked out for the kismet ltd release mods as extras, added excitement  for playing with my new toy ;), will have to wait and see if it remains a paper weight.

[UncleBob]

6 months later there is a ton of dust on the unit as it sits as a paper weight. It doesn't work, it hangs on the redirect screen during setup. I've tried factory reset, firmware updates etc.. I got to the main screen once or twice in the last 6 months, but nothing would work right no matter the configuration. Currently it seems broken as setup is impossible. I have an openGL150 that I converted to a pineapple nano and it works 100x better and cost $20. This has been nothing but a headache and a huge waste of time and money. There are STILL no modules and nobody cares about developing for this poopapple.  Matter of fact, this forum is a dead zone, and nobody official is even responding to any of the issues people have. The only thing that will get hacked is your wallet and your lifespan.

[jess4140]

6 hours ago, UncleBob said:

6 months later there is a ton of dust on the unit as it sits as a paper weight. It doesn't work, it hangs on the redirect screen during setup. I've tried factory reset, firmware updates etc.. I got to the main screen once or twice in the last 6 months, but nothing would work right no matter the configuration. Currently it seems broken as setup is impossible. I have an openGL150 that I converted to a pineapple nano and it works 100x better and cost $20. This has been nothing but a headache and a huge waste of time and money. There are STILL no modules and nobody cares about developing for this poopapple.  Matter of fact, this forum is a dead zone, and nobody official is even responding to any of the issues people have. The only thing that will get hacked is your wallet and your lifespan.

I do agree with you, it seem to be a disaster. But go on Discord ,often you will find your answer there..Well for me i did.

[Mental]

I’m getting same issues here, I got my MK7 today was literally watching every step of the DHL Van haha but when I got it I came across a lot of bugs but like hope soon we get an update to fix the issues! 

[Darren Kitchen]

Initial Setup

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I am using hidden Wi-Fi networks to connect to, and somehow that seems causing a lot of problems.

The OTA installation from the stager (initial setup firmware) does not support hidden and open WiFi networks. It only supports WPA WiFi networks. This is addressed in a forthcoming update.

 

WiFi Client Mode

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Connecting to the network often goes wrong, the system seems to hang.

This is a known issue related to some WiFi networks on an old firmware (version 1.0.0) which has been solved on subsequent releases.

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When it works and the settings are saved, they are forgotten the next time I boot.

In firmware 1.0.0 the WiFi Client Mode settings were not automatically saved. There was a save button for if you wished to manually save the profile, however we learned that many people were not noticing the save button. On firmware releases after 1.0.0 the WiFi profile is saved automatically.

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The worst thing is that in many cases, the system locks and I only get to see '()'

This bug in the old firmware 1.0.0 was shown when no networks were found and was solved in version 1.0.1 onwards.

 

PineAP

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I used Active scanning to populate the SSID Pool, but decided to clear it. After clearing the pool, the device just seems not to forget about the networks it has found, and even though I am 100% sure there is only ONE network in the SSID Pool, all other network SSID's are broadcast when I enable active mode.

The Active Mode in PineAP will automatically populate the SSID Pool. If you don't want this feature enabled, you can use Advanced Mode and uncheck the Capture SSIDs to Pool box. 

There was a bug in the old version 1.0.0 where clearing the SSID Pool did not work correctly, which was addressed in a subsequent firmware update.

Also, it should be noted that some devices (I can speak from experience on older Android phones) will cache the ESSID from a single BSSID and incorrectly report the network name in the UI. Changing the BSSID (MAC Address) will force the client device to update.

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I have tried everything I can imagine to get a client connected to the system, but to no avail. Even though the SSID is broadcast in Active Mode and I connect to it. Forgetting the network on my device and re-connecting from scratch does not help. And yes, I have checked the filtering: the Client Filter is on Deny List which is empty, SSID Filter is on Allow and the SSID I want to use is in the list.

If you run into this, open the terminal (icon on top-right) and run `logread` -- you will see the association attempts which will include insights on what's happening. Without seeing those logs, I can only speculate as to what's happening between the WiFi Pineapple and the client in question here. 

Recon

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Also, In the Recon menu, I can see a long list of access points, but only very seldom a client connected to them. Only occasionally I see a client connected. This is strange, because I have specifically created a new SSID on the 2,4 GHz band and I am connecting a device to it. Only very seldom this is shown.

Recon will populate clients associated with access points when data is seen being transmitted between both nodes. The duration of the recon scan will determine how much data is seen, as the dedicated monitor radio will channel hop to see the full 2.4 GHz spectrum.
 

 

I hope this gives you some insight on these particular issues. Thank you for the bug reports and I am happy to say all of these issues had been addressed. It's posts like these, and the discussions on Discord -- both of which we monitor -- that help us make the WiFi Pineapple better with each release, so thank you for contributing.