Can BE3600 support monitor mode?

Technical Support for Routers
1

Hi, I just bought a BE3600 and tried to test its monitor mode.
Seems it can't support monitor mode, I tried below command to change the mode:

iw wlan0 set monitor none

Similar commands on MT3000 can work.

2

Try this

ip link set wlan0 down
iw wlan0 set monitor control
ip link set wlan0 up

You should make sure its capable of monitor mode

iw list | grep "Supported interface modes" -A 9
        Supported interface modes:
                 * IBSS
                 * managed
                 * AP
                 * AP/VLAN
                 * monitor  ## This
                 * mesh point
                 * P2P-client
                 * P2P-GO

Are you sure your interface is wlan0

uci export network; uci export wireless
And or
ip -br a

1 Like
3

Seems it's the problem of my commands.
I use your commands to set monitor mode of MT3000, it works well.
But I've sold my BE3600, and I can't try the commands on it.
Maybe some other people can help to confirm if it can work on the Qualcomm platform.

4

Hi, I get another BE3600, seems the iw shows it can support monitor mode but it can't really work.
I can set it interface to monitor mode in LuCI page, but the iwinfo can reflect it. iwinfo always show the interface is in Master mode.

Some detailed info:

root@GL-BE3600:~# iw list | grep "Supported interface modes" -A 9
        Supported interface modes:
                 * managed
                 * AP
                 * AP/VLAN
                 * monitor
        Band 2:
                Capabilities: 0x19e7
                        RX LDPC
                        HT20/HT40
                        Dynamic SM Power Save
--
        Supported interface modes:
                 * managed
                 * AP
                 * AP/VLAN
                 * monitor
        Band 1:
                Capabilities: 0x19e7
                        RX LDPC
                        HT20/HT40
                        Dynamic SM Power Save
--
        Supported interface modes:
                 * managed
                 * AP
                 * AP/VLAN
                 * monitor
        Band 1:
                Capabilities: 0x19e7
                        RX LDPC
                        HT20/HT40
                        Dynamic SM Power Save

root@GL-BE3600:~# ip -br a
lo               UNKNOWN        127.0.0.1/8 ::1/128
bond0            DOWN
miireg           DOWN
eth0             DOWN
eth1             DOWN
ip6tnl0@NONE     DOWN
sit0@NONE        DOWN
gre0@NONE        DOWN
gretap0@NONE     DOWN
erspan0@NONE     DOWN
ip6gre0@NONE     DOWN
teql0            DOWN
br-lan           UP             192.168.8.1/24 fe80::968
mld-wifi0        DOWN
wifi0            DOWN
soc0             DOWN
wifi1            UNKNOWN
soc1             DOWN
wlan0            DOWN
wlan1            UP             fe80::24e6:14ff:fefb:bb3/64
sta1             UP             192.168.31.226/24 fe80:

And even I run iw wlan0 set monitor control after ip link set wlan0 down, I still get this error: command failed: Operation not permitted (-1)

5

Seems the driver of this chip is not so mature, especially the support of monitor mode.
Is there any plan to improve this part?

6

I'm not sure why its not working if it was me I would try disabling "sta1" in luci then ssh in and do the commands and see what happens I would even try and see what happens if you use the commands using wlan1.

Did you install "ip-full" that could be a problem, When I did this on my mt6000 it was one of those rainy days with nothing better to do. I'm far from an expert at this stuff

EDIT: just reread you posts -- don't use lucy to put in monitor mode or use SSH

7

Hmm, what is the full output of iw list?

is wlan0 really the valid named phy interface?

Also but my knowledge is not strong on this one, but I won't think ip link would do anything here, when I used this on the Flint 2 it worked also without this for me.

8

Thanks for posting this, I am not sure if this was actually needed for monitor mode in openwrt I am used to using either Kali Linux or Ubuntu and install this since iwconfig is depreciated -- It may only be needed for information gathering but there may be more to it than that