amazingly enough, the linux kernel shipped with ubuntu has all that is needed for packet injection on wireless interfaces, if not for one bug making it useless. the bug is related to channel selection, which refuses to get set, showing up as -1 for other programs, like aircrack.
steps to reproduce:
1- have a wireless card with drivers that can inject (i tested ralink drivers, rtl8192ce and iwlwifi)
2- install aircrack (from source, or deb package - sadly, not available in precise, but debs from oneiric work)
3- sudo airmon-ng start wlan0 1
4- iwconfig (note the lack of channel frequency on created interface)
5- run aireplay-ng in any mode except test mode, you'll get a complaint about negative channel.
please note, verifying this bug with bleeding edge compat-wireless makes no sense at all, since major modifications to drivers have happened, and the current state of compat-wireless injection is riddled with regressions.
fortunately, there is a simple solution, a patch available at: http://patches.aircrack-ng.org/channel-negative-one-maxim.patch
i took the time to download, on precise, the ubuntu linux source package, unpacked it, applied the supplied diff, applied the patch linked above, and ran the compilation as per instruction in the ubuntu wiki for compiling kernels. the end result was the linux image, headers, and tools .deb packages, which i installed. then unloaded the wireless driver (i was on a laptop using iwlwifi, a centrino 6xxx card), and loaded it again (just to make sure the new one is loaded), and tested injection, worked flawlessly.
so basically, it's just one patch, and you could make all people relying on injection, happy as they can work with stock distro kernels :)
thanks
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: linux-image-3.2.0-27-generic-pae 3.2.0-27.43
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-27.43-generic-pae 3.2.21
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-27-generic-pae i686
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu11
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices:
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC269VB Analog [ALC269VB Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/snd/controlC0: waleed 1646 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xd5700000 irq 45'
Mixer name : 'Intel IbexPeak HDMI'
Components : 'HDA:10ec0269,1179fd38,00100100 HDA:80862804,1179ff00,00100000'
Controls : 36
Simple ctrls : 13
Date: Sat Jul 14 01:12:46 2012
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release i386 (20120423)
MachineType: TOSHIBA Satellite A665
ProcEnviron:
LANGUAGE=
TERM=xterm
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-27-generic-pae root=UUID=524A7D054A7CE6DF loop=/hostname/disks/root.disk ro crashkernel=384M-2G:64M,2G-:128M quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
linux-restricted-modules-3.2.0-27-generic-pae N/A
linux-backports-modules-3.2.0-27-generic-pae N/A
linux-firmware 1.79
SourcePackage: linux
StagingDrivers: mei
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 12/23/10
dmi.bios.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.bios.version: 1.90
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: NWQAA
dmi.board.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.board.version: 1.00
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: *
dmi.chassis.type: 9
dmi.chassis.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnTOSHIBA:bvr1.90:bd12/23/10:svnTOSHIBA:pnSatelliteA665:pvrPSAW0U-0FU033B:rvnTOSHIBA:rnNWQAA:rvr1.00:cvnTOSHIBA:ct9:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: Satellite A665
dmi.product.version: PSAW0U-0FU033B
dmi.sys.vendor: TOSHIBA
Can you provide some information on the status of the patch with regards to getting it merged upstream? Has it been sent upstream, what sort of feedback has it received, is it getting applied to a subsystem maintainer's tree, etc?
People affected by this bug are probably wondering why the kernel team doesn't just apply the patch and fix it. The reason is that the kernel team is reluctant (not opposed) to apply any patch to a stable kernel that is not from upstream. Applying patches that don't come from upstream add greatly to the support of the kernel as other upstream patches may touch the same area as the non-upstream patch and may prevent them from applying cleanly.