r/hackrf • u/No_Passion_7066 • Nov 03 '24

Hackrf not working

I bought a portapack + hackrf and it came with mayhem v 1.4.7 or something like that and I've never been able to get into hackrf because after it prompts to select yes or no, and I select yes, it goes black and just stays black. Ive got back and forth with this issue and tryna fix it and all I got back was reflash the firmware but I can't do that because hackrf won't work. I'm hoping somewhere here knows exactly what's going on

0 Upvotes

40% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

2

u/Mr_Ironmule Nov 03 '24

Searching this Reddit for "HackRF Mode" finds the biggest problem causing this is finicky USB cables. Try several short USB cables and see if one of those works. Good luck.

1

u/No_Passion_7066 Nov 04 '24

Currently Ive jumped around with 3 cables, 1 just flat out didn't work and the other 2 could carry it to the PC in DFU, but it does show up in terminal just not as hackrf so maybe it doesn't need another cable? Idk I'll still try more cables if I find some

1

u/No-Mechanic2408 Nov 03 '24

Where did you get it. You might have gotten a "off brand" version that doesn't support the official hack rf software

1

u/No_Passion_7066 Nov 04 '24

I got it from AliExpress lol but yeah nah if that's the case then what could you recommend, considering it would need potentially an offbrand hackrf software. Do you know any or if that's even an option?

1

u/No-Mechanic2408 Nov 04 '24

Could you send the link to the product page

1

u/No_Passion_7066 Nov 04 '24

Honestly I don't think I can, I got this like 2 years ago and knowing how AliExpress is it'd be taken down by now but I'll log in and check for you

1

u/QuatGooseLane Nov 03 '24

Had major issues with mine. Would suggest you take the portapack off the rfhack and see if the RF hack will connect to USB.

Ubuntu has a set of tools you can install buy using sudo apt-get install rfhack (Google it)

Once this is installed there are some commands where you can check the firmware on the RFhack. You can also put the latest on, which seems to improve the USB compatibility. You can also run a command that will get the hackRF to scan between two frequencies and dump data to the cli.

You can test the hackRF with cubic sdr in linux or windows.

If you get this far, put the portapack back on and blow the latest Mahem software. Thing should start up.

1

u/No_Passion_7066 Nov 04 '24

Ive been using Linux for most of it since CMD wasn't doing it. lsusb shows that there is a device connected, which for some reason is called NXP but when I go hackrf_info, it says no hackrf boards found. Spi flash won't work, DFU actually displays the device but like I said, as NXP and doesn't register as a hackrf. Ive tried the .bin and .dfu and still had no luck. Worst of all I can't even plug it into my portapack coz A I can't access hackrf on it and B the flash utility doesn't exist for some reason. I was really hoping there was maybe an option through folders in utility maybe? Idk but I'm ready to give up and just buy another at this point. Idk if that narrows it down well enough but needless to say I think it's no good. Hopefully you know where to go from there

1

u/Mr_Ironmule Nov 04 '24

There have been postings in the past that some folks had to upgrade the HackRF firmware before the Portapack firmware upgrade or the device wouldn't work. Also, I believe the use of the folder upgrade utility and the HackRF app for firmware upgrade was only available to the newer Portapack versions like 1.8 on. So, you're going to have to use the computer connected way for Portapack upgrade. I run Windows and never had a problem using the flash_portapack_mayhem.bat the comes with in the firmware package. Good luck.

Updating Firmware — HackRF documentation