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WSL2 Installation instructions

This provides instructions on how to install, build, and use Proxmark3 on Windows 11, using WSL2 (and Ubuntu Linux).

Table of Contents

Requirements

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This WSL 2 method requires Windows 11 (Build 22000 or later), with WSL installed and set to WSL2.

While WSL 2 does not itself support passing through USB or serial devices, it can work by using the USB/IP open-source project, usbipd-win.

Install the Linux distribution

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Open the Windows App Store, and install Ubuntu Linux. I used Ubuntu 20.04 when verifying these instructions.

For general WSL configuration information, see Manage and configure Windows Subsystem for Linux.

Start the Linux distribution at least once, to ensure it's fully installed.

One-time configuration of Windows 11 host

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Install Git with Credential manager

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This is not required, but is highly recommended. It will allow you to use the credential manager to store your Git credentials more securely, and allow you to avoid entering your git passwords into the WSL2 distribution.

Details are outside the scope of this file. See the Credential Manager docs for more information, or checkout its Github page.

Install USBIPD

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On the Windows (host) machine, use the Windows Package Manager:

winget install usbipd

Or alternatively, install the latest release of usbpid-win (typically an .MSI file).

USBIPD hints

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This is NOT intended to be a full description of how to use USBIPD. Rather, this is intended only to give a starting point, as the values shown here are extremely likely to differ per machine.

It's presumed that you've already installed USBIPD, plugged the Proxmark device into a USB port, and that it appears in Windows as a COM port.

Note

Breaking changes in USBIPD 4.0.0 (released 2023-12-06)

  • You have to share the device using usbipd bind --busid <busid> first.
  • You no longer have to install any client-side tooling.
  • You no longer have to specify a specific distribution.
  • The syntax for the command to attach has changed slightly.

Get a list of attached devices.

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Note that this command does not require administrative privileges.

C:\qwert> usbipd list

Connected:
BUSID  VID:PID    DEVICE                      STATE
1-2    xxxx:xxxx  USB Input Device            Not shared
2-3    xxxx:xxxx  USB Mass Storage Device     Not shared
7-4    9ac4:4b8f  USB Serial Device (COM60)   Not shared

Persisted:
GUID                                  DEVICE

Take note of the BUSID for the proxmark device, which should show as a USB Serial Device. In the above example, the BUSID is 7-4. The VID:PID of the proxmark device is going to be one of 9ac4:4b8f, 502d:502d, or 2d2d:504d.

Bind the device via USBIPD (configure for sharing)

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This is the only command that does require administrative privileges with USBIPD v4.0.0. This must be done once per boot of the host (Windows) machine, as it configures the device to be shared via USBIPD.

In this example, it is configuring the device attached at BUSID of 7-4, as that was the proxmark device. As can be seen, at least as of v4.0.0, no output is shown on success.

C:\qwert>usbipd bind -b 7-4

Attach the shared device to the WSL2 distribution

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Continuing the example, this will attach (and re-attach) the device with BUSID of 7-4 to the WSL2 distributions.

C:\qwert> usbipd attach --auto-attach --busid 7-4 --wsl
usbipd: info: Using WSL distribution 'Ubuntu-20.04' to attach; the device will be available in all WSL 2 distributions.
usbipd: info: Using IP address 172.xxx.xxx.1 to reach the host.
usbipd: info: Starting endless attach loop; press Ctrl+C to quit.
WSL Attached
WSL Detached
WSL usbip: error: Attach Request for 7-4 failed - Device not found
WSL Attached
WSL Detached
WSL usbip: error: Attach Request for 7-4 failed - Device not found
WSL Attached

NOTE: This example used the --auto-attach option to reconnect the device automatically when it's reset, uplugged/replugged, etc. While this requires leaving the terminal that run the command running in the background, it does make updating firmware from WSL2 much easier.

One-time configuration of the WSL2 distribution

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Update / upgrade the distribution

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Start the Linux distribution you installed. First, make sure the distribution is up-to-date. For example, on Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade -y
sudo apt-get auto-remove -y

Install stuff needed to build proxmark3 binaries

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For example, on Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends \
  git ca-certificates build-essential pkg-config \
  libreadline-dev gcc-arm-none-eabi libnewlib-dev \
  libbz2-dev liblz4-dev libpython3-dev qtbase5-dev \
  libssl-dev libgd-dev

Note

  • If you don't need the graphical components of the Proxmark3 client, you can skip the installation of qtbase5-dev.
  • If you don't need support for Python3 scripts in the Proxmark3 client, you can skip the installation of libpython3-dev.
  • If you don't need support for NFC ePaper devices in the PM3 device, you can skip the installation of libgd-dev.

Configure source files and first build

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Configure git to use credential helper, etc.

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# While optional, reduces new use of 'master' as default branch name.
git config --global init.defaultbranch main
# For example, my two commands would be:
# ... config --global user.name "Henry Gabryjelski"
# ... config --global user.email "henrygab@users.noreply.github.com"
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "yourAlias@users.noreply.github.com"

If you've installed and setup the Git Credential Manager in the host Windows 11 machine, configure git to use it, so you don't have to enter your password into the WSL2 distribution:

git config --global credential.helper "/mnt/c/Program\ Files/Git/mingw64/bin/git-credential-manager.exe"

Clone the Iceman repository

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cd ~/
# For example, my command would be:
# ... clone https://github.com/henrygab/proxmark3.git
# If you are using only (will not contribute changes),
# then you could just clone Iceman's repository directly:
# ... clone https://github.com/RfidResearchGroup/proxmark3.git
git clone https://github.com/YourUsernameHere/proxmark3.git
cd ~/proxmark3
git remote add upstream https://github.com/RfidResearchGroup/proxmark3.git

Start with a release tag ("known good" version)

The following starts you at the release named "Steamboat Willie". This reduces variables in case your first build doesn't work.

cd ~/proxmark3
git checkout v4.17768

IMPORTANT! -- Setup configuration for your device

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This can be skipped for RDV4 devices. For PM3 Easy, it helps to know if your device has the external flash memory chip. Most do, but some do not.

As an example, all my PM3 Easy devices have external flash, and by default, and if I wanted to use the HF_UNISNIFF standalone mode, my final Makefile.platform would be:

PLATFORM=PM3GENERIC
PLATFORM_EXTRAS=FLASH
STANDALONE=HF_UNISNIFF
# always ensure final line ends in line feed, or comment line

Without flash memory (or if not sure it's there), only the first line of PLATFORM=PM3GENERIC is needed for a PM3Easy.

Here are the commands I would use to edit the file using the nano editor:

cd ~/proxmark3
cp Makefile.platform.sample Makefile.platform
nano Makefile.platform
REM In nano editor: Ctrl-S to save; Ctrl-X to exit

Compile the project

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Now that the project is configured for your device, it's time to build the binaries.

cd ~/proxmark3
make clean
make -j

Once completed, you should have a number of executable files in the ~/proxmark3/ directory:

$ ls -lFA ~/proxmark3/pm3*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 q q 17849 Jan 28 11:17 /home/q/proxmark3/pm3*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 q q    62 Jan 28 11:17 /home/q/proxmark3/pm3-flash*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 q q    62 Jan 28 11:17 /home/q/proxmark3/pm3-flash-all*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 q q    62 Jan 28 11:17 /home/q/proxmark3/pm3-flash-bootrom*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 q q    62 Jan 28 11:17 /home/q/proxmark3/pm3-flash-fullimage*

However, they won't work yet, as you have to configure permissions for the device first.

One-time configuration to fix permissions

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Install the udev rules

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Verify the proxmark device is appearing as a TTY device:

ls -lFA /dev/ttyACM*
crw------- 1 root root 166,  0 Jan 28 12:07 /dev/ttyACM0

Note that the permissions above only allow the root user to access the device. These next steps adjust the configuration so that the current user is added to the dialout group, and that when the device appears, it is automatically configured to permit RWX access by the dialout group.

Install the udev rules

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sudo make accessrights
sudo make udev

On Ubuntu, the above does two things:

  1. Ensures the user is a member of the dialout group
  2. Copies the ./driver/77-pm3-usb-device-blacklist.rules file to the /etc/udev/rules.d/ directory

The file is used when a new device arrives. Walking through some lines of the file...

77-pm3-usb-device-blacklist.rules

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  • ACTION!="add|change", GOTO="pm3_usb_device_blacklist_end" Having this line first means that the rest of the file is only processed when a new device is added or changed. Any other events are ignored.
  • SUBSYSTEM!="tty", GOTO="pm3_ignore" Having this line as the second ensures that, unless the subsystem is tty (e.g., COM port), the lines that grant the additional permissions are not processed.
  • Multiple VID/PID lines, ending with SYMLINK+="pm3-%n" MODE="660" GROUP="dialout"
    • The SYMLINK portion instructs to creates a symbolic link named /dev/pm3-0 (or /dev/pm3-1, etc.).
    • The GROUP="dialout" portion instructs to change the group ownership to the dialout group.
    • The MODE=660 portion instructs to set the permissions to rw for the owner (root) and the group (dialout per above).

WORKAROUND - Kick udev into action

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Note

As of December 2024, the following still needs to be done anytime the WSL2 subsystem has been restarted (e.g., host machine reboot, first WSL2 console window, first-time config, etc.). Otherwise, it appears that udev service will not see the arrival of devices, and therefore won't modify the permissions or group ownership on the /dev/ttyACM*.

The following commands cause udev to work correctly... at least until the host machine reboots, or the last WSL console window is closed for a while, or the WSL2 subsystem is updated, or ....

If you keep at least one WSL2 console open, that appears to prevent the WSL subsystem from being shutdown / restarted, and thus prevents needing to rerun this command more than once per boot:

sudo service udev restart
sudo udevadm trigger --action=change

Verify Device Exists

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Verify the device exists, and has a symbolic link created:

$ ls -lFA /dev/ttyACM* /dev/pm3*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root         7 Jan 28 15:54 /dev/pm3-0 -> ttyACM0
crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 166, 0 Jan 28 15:54 /dev/ttyACM0

Specifically, check that each /dev/ttyACM* device has its group set to dialout, and that the permissions show rw- for both the owner and the group. Also verify that each /dev/pm3* device is a symbolic link, and points to the corresponding /dev/ttyACM* device.

Using the client...

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Build and flash the client (does not update bootloader):

cd ~/proxmark3
make clean
make -j
./pm3-flash-all
./pm3

Summary of repeated commands

^Top Each time Windows restarts:

C:\qwert> REM ADMINISTRATOR PRIVILEGES REQUIRED FOR THIS COMMAND
C:\qwert> usbipd bind --busid 7-4

Each time WSL2 restarts:

C:\qwert> usbipd attach --auto-attach --busid 7-4 --wsl

and...

sudo service udev restart
sudo udevadm trigger --action=change

And for building and updating:

cd ~/proxmark3
make clean
make -j
./pm3-flash-all

Done!

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Full compilation instructions may be helpful.