Major Packet Path Changes
dr
Kismet-devel is undergoing enormous changes to the core packet path.  These should ultimately result in better 
security and greater ease of use, eliminating suid-root operation, kismet_monitor, and kismet_hopper, adding 
the hooks needed to support Viha capture under OSX, and giving kismet_server direct control over channel 
hopping.  

Kismet will still drop the priv level of the main packet dissector, but individual capture engines will 
each run in their own process with root privs so that they can change channel.  suid-root will be disabled by 
default (but left as an install option for single-user systems), while this will require kismet_server to be 
started as true root, it will allow it to enable monitor mode automatically.

The first stage of process separation is already in kismet-devel, each capture source runs as a seperate process and 
reports packets to the core dissector via unnamed pipes.  Monitor enabling and channel control will be arriving 
soon.  Viha/OSX support is "planned for the future", it'll show up when it shows up.