How to use kismet as a command-line tool

I tried kismet, but it keeps putting me into this insane ncurses UI mode. In this mode, everything is a keyboard shortcut and it is not documented on the screen. Then when I exit, my WiFi stops working and I need to reboot. I just want something like tcpdump so I can sed, awk, and less my way to 开发者_开发百科what I want to read.

Does anyone know how I can get kismet to chill out or at least give my wifi card back when I'm done with it? Is there another tool that would fit my needs better?

I had the same problem. This fixes it on my Ubuntu system: after using Kismet, I disable wifi by unchecking the check-mark next to 'Enable Wireless' in the network applet on the launcher bar (top of the screen). After re-enabling wifi by clicking on the same setting again, I can join the wifi network.