Proxmark3 Installation on Kali

- Rajat

Posted on Jul 22, 2014 in HowTo | 5 comments

backtrack error firmware HowTo kali

I recently purchased a Proxmark3 from GeZhi Electronics. The proxmark3 client wouldn’t work. In fact the `dmesg` output did not even show the /dev/ttyACM0 device as was said all across the forum. i tried flashing the firmware but kept getting this error:

~/proxmark3/client# ./flasher -b ../bootrom/obj/bootrom.elf 
Loading ELF file '../bootrom/obj/bootrom.elf'...
Loading usable ELF segments:
0: V 0x00100000 P 0x00100000 (0x00000200->0x00000200) [R X] @0x94
1: V 0x00200000 P 0x00100200 (0x00000b38->0x00000b38) [RWX] @0x298
Attempted to write bootloader but bootloader writes are not enabled
Error while loading ../bootrom/obj/bootrom.elf

Also this is what showed up in the dmesg:

[ 7953.991935] usb 2-1.4: new full-speed USB device number 40 using ehci_hcd
[ 7959.078302] usb 2-1.4: New USB device found, idVendor=9ac4, idProduct=4b8f
[ 7959.078314] usb 2-1.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 7959.078321] usb 2-1.4: Product: ProxMark-3 RFID Instrument
[ 7959.078326] usb 2-1.4: Manufacturer: J. Westhues
[ 7959.078331] usb 2-1.4: SerialNumber: ChangeMe
[ 7959.080485] hid-generic 0003:9AC4:4B8F.0014: hiddev0,hidraw0: USB HID v1.00 Device [J. Westhues ProxMark-3 RFID Instrument] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.4/input0

Note that in the above the device doesn’t show up as a /dev/ttyACM0 device which is what we need for the proxmark3 client application to work.
So it seemed like there was an issue with the Proxmark3 not being recognized as a CDC device. So I went through the googlecode repository and went to a version of firmware where CDC was not being used. It also seemed that the flasher was the issue. So I used an old flasher to flash with the latest firmware and boom it worked! Remember to keep the button on the Proxmark3 pressed when you plug it in, and keep holding it down until the firmware update has finished.
Here are the commands:

# svn checkout http://proxmark3.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ proxmark3
# export DEVKITPRO=$HOME/proxmark3/
# export DEVKITARM=$DEVKITPRO/devkitARM
# export PATH=${PATH}:${DEVKITARM}/bin
# cd proxmark3
# make all
# cd ..
# svn checkout -r 629 http://proxmark3.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ ~/proxmark3-old-3
# cd proxmark3-old-3/
# make all
# cd client
# ./flasher -b ../../proxmark3/bootrom/obj/bootrom.elf ../../proxmark3/armsrc/obj/osimage.elf ../../proxmark3/armsrc/obj/fpgaimage.elf

And boom! There you … all flashed and now the device is recognized as a /dev/ttyACM0 device.

Community Answers

11-5-14

Tes La says:

Hi my friend, you’re a genius. All is okay with my new PM3, I had the same problem and …. BOOM NENA!!! 😀 Thanks in advance!


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10-3-15

zaahir says:

Hey, I have the same issue but it won’t resolve, I get a full read out when I put in dmesg, i have follwed every step to install from: https://code.google.com/p/proxmark3/wiki/Linux still not working. anyway you can help?


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- This solution has been deemed correct by the post author
  
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  1-31-16
  
  Rajat says:
  
  Zaahir,
  Not sure what you mean by not working? Do you have any information of what you see in the dmesg log?
  
  Thanks,
  Rajat.
  
  
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6-23-16

Leo says:

svn: E170013: Unable to connect to a repository at URL ‘http://proxmark3.googlecode.com/svn/trunk’
svn: E160013: ‘/svn/trunk’ path not found

Can I get this software from some other place?


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9-23-17

pouyan says:

hi i brought a proxmark3 and the LED A and C are on and the device doesn’t recognize even in the dmesg Help please


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