Can BE3600 support monitor mode?

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.

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

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.

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)

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

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

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.

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