Nix Kismet cross-compile aarch64 on x86_64

README.md

Cross-compile Nix Kismet package for aarch64-linux on x86_64-linux

This gist shows an overlay that can be applied to the Nix Kismet package to enable cross-compiling with pkgsCross. It also provides a modified Kismet packages with the applied changes.

NOTE: This gist is now obselete, issue was resolved with this PR: NixOS/nixpkgs#276038

Cross-compile build tool emulation

QEMU is required to emulate some of the tools in the build environment (pkg-config, protoc, protoc-c). On Debian based systems install with:

sudo apt -y install qemu-user-static

And then check that aarch64 is being emulated with:

ls -l /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc | grep aarch64

On NixOS add:

  boot.binfmt.emulatedSystems = [ "aarch64-linux" ];

To your system config, and rebuild.

Build

Apply the kismet.nix contents to nixpkgs/applications/networking/sniffers/kismet/default.nix and build the modified package with .#pkgsCross.aarch64-multiplatform.kismet from the Nixpkgs root directory, or apply the overlay to your existing project's kismet package.

kismet.nix

{ lib
, stdenv
, binutils
, elfutils
, fetchurl
, glib
, libcap
, libmicrohttpd
, libnl
, libpcap
, libusb1
, libwebsockets
, lm_sensors
, networkmanager
, pcre
, pkg-config
, openssl
, protobuf
, protobufc
, python3
, sqlite
, withNetworkManager ? false
, withPython ? false # Changed from default of true
, withSensors ? false
, zlib
}:

stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
  pname = "kismet";
  version = "2023-07-R1";

  src = fetchurl {
    url = "https://www.kismetwireless.net/code/${pname}-${version}.tar.xz";
    hash = "sha256-8IVI4mymX6HlZ7Heu+ocpNDnIGvduWpPY5yQFxhz6Pc=";
  };

  postPatch = ''
    substituteInPlace Makefile.in \
      --replace "-m 4550" ""
  '';

  preConfigure = ''
    export PATH=${pkg-config}/bin/:$PATH # configure will break trying to set cflag and library paths without this
  '';

  postConfigure = ''
    sed -e 's/-o $(INSTUSR)//' \
        -e 's/-g $(INSTGRP)//' \
        -e 's/-g $(MANGRP)//' \
        -e 's/-g $(SUIDGROUP)//' \
        -i Makefile
  '';

  nativeBuildInputs = [
    pkg-config
  ] ++ lib.optionals withPython [
    python3
  ];

  buildInputs = [
    binutils
    elfutils
    libcap
    libmicrohttpd
    libnl
    libpcap
    openssl
    libusb1
    libwebsockets
    pcre
    protobuf
    protobufc
    sqlite
    zlib
  ] ++ lib.optionals withNetworkManager [
    networkmanager
    glib
  ] ++ lib.optionals withSensors [
    lm_sensors
  ];

  propagatedBuildInputs = [
  ] ++ lib.optionals withPython [
    (python3.withPackages (ps: [
      ps.numpy
      ps.protobuf
      ps.pyserial
      ps.setuptools
      ps.websockets
    ]))
  ];

  configureFlags = [
    "--disable-wifi-coconut"  # Until https://github.com/kismetwireless/kismet/issues/478
    "--with-protoc=${protobuf}/bin/protoc" # configure will break with a missing protoc dependency without this
    "--with-protocc=${protobufc}/bin/protoc-c" # configure will break with a missing protoc-c dependency without this
  ] ++ lib.optionals (!withNetworkManager) [
    "--disable-libnm"
  ] ++ lib.optionals (!withPython) [
    "--disable-python-tools"
  ] ++ lib.optionals (!withSensors) [
    "--disable-lmsensors"
  ];

  enableParallelBuilding = true;

  meta = with lib; {
    description = "Wireless network sniffer";
    homepage = "https://www.kismetwireless.net/";
    license = licenses.gpl3Plus;
    platforms = platforms.linux;
  };
}

overlay.nix

{inputs, ...}: {
  # This is an overlay example for the current kismet package that will fix the cross-compiling issues

  modifications = final: prev: {
    kismet = let
        pname = "kismet";
        version = "2023-07-R1";
      in prev.kismet.overrideAttrs (oldAttrs: {
        src = final.fetchurl {
          url = "https://www.kismetwireless.net/code/${pname}-${version}.tar.xz";
          hash = "sha256-8IVI4mymX6HlZ7Heu+ocpNDnIGvduWpPY5yQFxhz6Pc=";
        };
        preConfigure = ''
          export PATH=${final.pkg-config}/bin/:$PATH
        '';
        configureFlags = oldAttrs.configureFlags ++ [
          "--disable-wifi-coconut"  # Until https://github.com/kismetwireless/kismet/issues/478
          "--with-protoc=${final.protobuf}/bin/protoc"
          "--with-protocc=${final.protobufc}/bin/protoc-c"
          "--disable-libnm"
          "--disable-python-tools"
          "--disable-lmsensors"
        ];
    });
  };

Thanks to @NickCao for helping clean up my PR to fix this: NixOS/nixpkgs#276038