Kali linux booting from

Booting and installing Kali Linux over the network (PXE) can be useful from a single laptop install with no CDROM or USB ports, to enterprise deployments supporting pre-seeding of the Kali Linux installation.

Setup a PXE Server

First, we need to install dnsmasq to provide the DHCP/TFTP server and then edit the dnsmasq.conf file:

In dnsmasq.conf , enable DHCP, TFTP and PXE booting and set the dhcp-range to match your environment (we are using 192.168.101.100-200). If needed you can also define your gateway and DNS servers with the dhcp-option directive as shown below:

With the edits in place, the dnsmasq service needs to be restarted in order for the changes to take effect.

Download Kali PXE Netboot Images

Now, we need to create a directory to hold the Kali Linux Netboot image and download the image we wish to serve.

Configure Target to Boot From Network

With everything configured, you can now boot your target system and configure it to boot from the network. It should get an IP address from your PXE server and begin booting Kali Linux.

Post Installation

Now that you’ve completed installing Kali Linux, it’s time to customize your system.

The General Use section has more information and you can also find tips on how to get the most out of Kali Linux in our User Forums.

Updated on: 2021-Sep-27
Author: g0tmi1k

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Kali linux booting from

Our favourite way, and the fastest method, for getting up and running with Kali Linux is to run it “live” from a USB drive. This method has several advantages:

It’s non-destructive — it makes no changes to the host system’s hard drive or installed OS, and to go back to normal operations, you simply remove the “Kali Live” USB drive and restart the system.
It’s portable — you can carry Kali Linux in your pocket and have it running in minutes on an available system
It’s customizable — you can roll your own custom Kali Linux ISO image and put it onto a USB drive using the same procedures
It’s potentially persistent — with a bit of extra effort, you can configure your Kali Linux “live” USB drive to have persistent storage, so the data you collect is saved across reboots

In order to do this, we first need to create a bootable USB drive which has been set up from an ISO image of Kali Linux.

What You’ll Need

A verified copy of the appropriate ISO image of the latest Kali build image for the system you’ll be running it on: see the details on downloading official Kali Linux images.

If you’re running under macOS/OS X, you can use the dd command, which is pre-installed on those platforms, or use Etcher.

A USB thumb drive, 4GB or larger. (Systems with a direct SD card slot can use an SD card with similar capacity. The procedure is identical.)

Kali Linux Live USB Install Procedure

The specifics of this procedure will vary depending on whether you’re doing it on a Windows, Linux, or macOS/OS X system.

Creating a Bootable Kali USB Drive on macOS/OS X (DD)

macOS/OS X is based on UNIX, so creating a bootable Kali Linux USB drive in an macOS/OS X environment is similar to doing it on Linux. Once you’ve downloaded and verified your chosen Kali ISO file, you use dd to copy it over to your USB drive. If you would prefer to use Etcher, then follow the same directions as a Windows user. Note that the USB drive will have a path similar to /dev/disk2.

WARNING: Although the process of imaging Kali on a USB drive is very easy, you can just as easily overwrite a disk drive you didn’t intend to with dd if you do not understand what you are doing, or if you specify an incorrect output path. Double-check what you’re doing before you do it, it’ll be too late afterwards.

Consider yourself warned.

Without the USB drive plugged into the system, open a Terminal window, and type the command diskutil list at the command prompt.

You will get a list of the device paths (looking like /dev/disk0, /dev/disk1, etc.) of the disks mounted on your system, along with information on the partitions on each of the disks.

3. Plug in your USB device to your Apple computer’s USB port and run the command diskutil list a second time. Your USB drive’s path will most likely be the last one. In any case, it will be one which wasn’t present before. In this example, you can see that there is now a /dev/disk6 which wasn’t previously present.

4. Unmount the drive (assuming, for this example, the USB drive is /dev/disk6 — do not simply copy this, verify the correct path on your own system!):

Proceed to (carefully!) image the Kali ISO file on the USB device. The following command assumes that your USB drive is on the path /dev/disk6, and you’re in the same directory with your Kali Linux ISO, which is named “kali-linux-2021.3-live-amd64.iso”. We will replace /dev/disk6 with /dev/rdisk6 to improve the write speeds:

Increasing the blocksize (bs) will speed up the write progress, but will also increase the chances of creating a bad USB drive. Using the given value on macOS/OS X has produced reliable images consistently.

Imaging the USB drive can take a good amount of time, over half an hour is not unusual, as the sample output below shows. Be patient!

The dd command provides no feedback until it’s completed, but if your drive has an access indicator, you’ll probably see it flickering from time to time. The time to dd the image across will depend on the speed of the system used, USB drive itself, and USB port it’s inserted into. Once dd has finished imaging the drive, it will output something that looks like this:

Creating a Bootable Kali USB Drive on macOS/OS X (Etcher)

Alternatively, Etcher can be used.

Download and run Etcher.

Choose the Kali Linux ISO file to be imaged with “select image” and verify that the USB drive to be overwritten is the correct one. Click the “Flash!” button once ready.

3. Once Etcher alerts you that the image has been flashed, you can safely remove the USB drive.

You can now boot into a Kali Live / Installer environment using the USB device.

To boot from an alternate drive on an macOS/OS X system, bring up the boot menu by pressing the Option key immediately after powering on the device and select the drive you want to use.

Updated on: 2021-Sep-27
Author: g0tmi1k

Источник

Kali linux booting from

Installing Kali Linux next to a Windows installation has its benefits. However, you need to exercise caution during the setup process. First, make sure that you’ve backed up any important data on your Windows installation. Since you’ll be modifying your hard drive, you’ll want to store this backup on external media. Once you’ve completed the backup, we recommend you peruse our Kali Linux Hard Disk install guide, which explains the normal procedure for a basic Kali Linux install.

In our example, we will be installing Kali Linux alongside an installation of Windows (10), which is currently taking up 100% of the disk space in our computer. We will start by resizing our current Windows partition to occupy less space and then proceed to install Kali Linux in the newly-created empty partition.

Installation Prerequisites

This guide will make the following assumptions:

You have read our single boot Kali Linux install guide, as this has the same Installation Prerequisites (System requirements & setup assumptions).
When downloading Kali Linux, pick the live image, rather than the installer option.
A single disk to install to (rather than a dedicated disk per operating system).

We need to use a different image from the single boot Kali Linux install guide, as we need the live image. This is because we need to edit the disk structure without mounting any partitions (otherwise they would be in-use). After we have finished altering the disk layout, we can still install Kali Linux using the live image, but there will be a few differences such as:

Both of these can be addressed post installation, as it saves swapping to the installer image (as you will need either multiple CD/DVD/USBs or to re-image half way though).

This installation has the potential to go wrong very easily as it involves editing existing partitions. Be aware of what partitions you are modifying and where you are installing Kali Linux to.
Having a backup of your Linux files available is a good idea in the event something goes wrong.

Resize Windows Procedure

Before we can install Kali Linux, there needs to be room on the hard disk. By booting into a live Kali Linux session with your chosen installation medium, we can resize the partition to our desired size, as the disk will not be in use because Kali Linux will all be in memory.

To start resizing, make sure you insert your Kali Linux installation medium and power on the device. If needed, press any keyboard shortcuts for a “boot order menu” (depends on each manufacture) or boot into BIOS/UEFI and change the boot order to point to the installation medium first.

When the boot menu/options appears, you should see at least one new option. Depending on the manufacture, hardware, how the system is configured and install medium, you may see more options (e.g. Can you boot into non-UEFI?).

You may need to try a few different options in order to find success.

You may need to disable secure boot

You should be greeted with the Kali Linux boot screen. Select Live, and you should be booted into the Kali Linux default desktop.

Now launch GParted, which we’ll use to shrink the existing Windows partition to give us enough room to install Kali Linux in the free space.

Once GParted has opened, select your Windows partition ( /dev/sda2 ) & resize it leaving enough space (we recommend at least 20 GB) for the Kali Linux installation.

Depending on your setup, it is often the second option (the largest partition). In our example, there are three partitions:

Window’s boot partition ( /dev/sda1 )
Window’s main operating system itself ( /dev/sda2 )
Window’s System Recovery partition ( /dev/sda3 )

If you are moving past into any non-white in the partition then you are editing a section that is in use.
Only remove from the area of the partition that is not in use.
It is normal to leave the third partition ( /dev/sda3 ), and only shrink the actual install ( /dev/sda2 ).

If you wish to organize the partition to group all the Windows partitions together, placing the free space at the end, you may do so.

Once you have resized your Windows partition, ensure you “Apply All Operations” on the hard disk. Exit gparted and reboot.

Kali Linux Installation Procedure

The installation procedure from this point onwards is similar to a Kali Linux Hard Disk install, until the point of the partitioning. At this point, you need to select “Guided — use the largest continuous free space” (rather than “Guided — the entire disk”) which got created earlier with gparted.

You can carry on following the single boot Kali Linux install guide, except you will not have the option to select desktop environment or metapackages as you are using the live image. Once the installation is done, reboot.

You should be greeted with a GRUB boot menu, which will allow you to boot either into Kali Linux or Windows.

Post Installation

Now that you’ve completed installing Kali Linux, it’s time to customize your system.

The General Use section has more information and you can also find tips on how to get the most out of Kali Linux in our User Forums.

Time/System Clock

One thing that may be worth knowing about is that occasionally the time will get changed between the Windows and the Linux system. To fix this, we can do the following:

To undo this we can simply do:

Updated on: 2021-Sep-27
Author: g0tmi1k

Источник

Kali linux booting from

Installing Kali Linux (single boot) on your computer is an easy process. This guide will cover the basic install (which can be done on bare metal or guest VM), with the option of encrypting the partition. At times, you may have sensitive data you would prefer to encrypt using Full Disk Encryption (FDE). During the setup process you can initiate an LVM encrypted install on either Hard Disk or USB drives.

First, you’ll need compatible computer hardware. Kali Linux is supported on amd64 (x86_64/64-Bit) and i386 (x86/32-Bit) platforms. Where possible, we would recommend using the amd64 images. The hardware requirements are minimal as listed in the section below, although better hardware will naturally provide better performance. You should be able to use Kali Linux on newer hardware with UEFI and older systems with BIOS.

Our i386 images, by default use a PAE kernel, so you can run them on systems with over 4 GB of RAM.

In our example, we will be installing Kali Linux in a fresh guest VM, without any existing operating systems pre-installed. We will explain other possible scenarios throughout the guide.

System Requirements

The installation requirements for Kali Linux will vary depending on what you would like to install and your setup. For system requirements:

On the low end, you can set up Kali Linux as a basic Secure Shell (SSH) server with no desktop, using as little as 128 MB of RAM (512 MB recommended) and 2 GB of disk space.
On the higher end, if you opt to install the default Xfce4 desktop and the kali-linux-default metapackage, you should really aim for at least 2 GB of RAM and 20 GB of disk space.
- When using resource-intensive applications, such as Burp Suite, they recommend at least 8 GB of RAM(and even more if it large web application!) or using simultaneous programs at the same time.

Installation Prerequisites

This guide will make also the following assumptions when installing Kali Linux:

Using the amd64 installer image.
CD/DVD drive / USB boot support.
Single disk to install to.
Connected to a network (with DHCP & DNS enabled) which has outbound Internet access.

We will be wiping any existing data on the hard disk, so please backup any important information on the device to an external media.

Preparing for the Installation

Download Kali Linux (We recommend the image marked Installer).

Burn The Kali Linux ISO to DVD or image Kali Linux Live to USB drive. (If you cannot, check out the Kali Linux Network Install).

Backup any important information on the device to an external media.

Ensure that your computer is set to boot from CD/DVD/USB in your BIOS/UEFI.

Kali Linux Installation Procedure

To start your installation, boot with your chosen installation medium. You should be greeted with the Kali Linux Boot screen. Choose either Graphical install or Install (Text-Mode). In this example, we chose the Graphical install.

If you’re using the live image instead, you will see another mode, Live, which is also the default boot option.

Language

Select your preferred language. This will be used for both the setup process and once you are using Kali Linux.

Specify your geographic location.

Select your keyboard layout.

Network

The setup will now probe your network interfaces, looks for a DHCP service, and then prompt you to enter a hostname for your system. In the example below, we’ve entered kali as our hostname.

If there is no network access with DHCP service detected, you may need to manually configure the network information or do not configure the network at this time.

If there isn’t a DHCP service running on the network, it will ask you to manually enter the network information after probing for network interfaces, or you can skip.
If Kali Linux doesn’t detect your NIC, you either need to include the drivers for it when prompted, or generate a custom Kali Linux ISO with them pre-included.
If the setup detects multiple NICs, it may prompt you which one to use for the install.
If the chosen NIC is 802.11 based, you will be asked for your wireless network information before being prompted for a hostname.

You may optionally provide a default domain name for this system to use (values may be pulled in from DHCP or if there is an existing operating systems pre-existing).

User Accounts

Next, create the user account for the system (Full name, username and a strong password).

Clock

The installer will now probe your disks and offer you various choices, depending on the setup.

In our guide, we are using a clean disk, so we have four options to pick from. We will select Guided — the entire disk, as this is the single boot installation for Kali Linux, so we do not want any other operating systems installed, so we are happy to wipe the disk.

If there is an pre-existing data on the disk, you will have have an extra option (Guided — use the largest continuous free space) than the example below. This would instruct the setup not to alter any existing data, which is perfect for for dual-booting into another operating system. As this is not the case in this example, it is not visible.

Experienced users can use the “Manual” partitioning method for more granular configuration options, which is covered more in our BTRFS guide.

If you want to encrypt Kali Linux, you can enable Full Disk Encryption (FDE), by selecting Guided — used entire disk and setup encrypted LVM. When selected, later on in the setup (not in this guide) prompt you to enter a password (twice). You will have to enter this password every time you start up Kali Linux.

Select the disk to be partitioned.

Depending on your needs, you can choose to keep all your files in a single partition — the default — or to have separate partitions for one or more of the top-level directories.

If you’re not sure which you want, you want “All files in one partition”.

Next, you’ll have one last chance to review your disk configuration before the installer makes irreversible changes. After you click Continue, the installer will go to work and you’ll have an almost finished installation.

Encrypted LVM

If enabled in the previous step, Kali Linux will now start to perform a secure wipe of the hard disk, before asking you for a LVM password.

Please sure a strong password, else you will have to agree to the warning about a weak passphrase.

This wipe may take “a while” (hours) depending on the size and speed of the drive.
If you wish to risk it, you can skip it.

Proxy Information

Kali Linux uses a central repository to distribute applications. You’ll need to enter any appropriate proxy information as needed.

Metapackages

If network access was not setup, you will want to continue with setup when prompt.

If you are using the Live image, you will not have the following stage.

Next you can select which metapackages you would like to install. The default selections will install a standard Kali Linux system and you don’t really have to change anything here.

Please refer to this guide if you prefer to change the default selections.