Linuxlandit & The Conqueror Penguin 
Why does CachyOS hold the top spot in the DistroWatch ranking?
Di CachyOS holds the top spot on DistroWatch primarily due to its immense popularity, driven by gaming and the Arch Linux trend. Its focus on gaming performance, inclusion of proprietary Nvidia drivers by default, and offering an optimized version for Steam Deck have attracted a large number of users who click on its news, boosting its position in the visit rankings. Focus on gaming: CachyOS is optimized for gaming performance. It includes packages like Proton and Wine, and is compatible with Steam Deck, making it very attractive to gamers. Arch Linux base: It is built on Arch Linux, allowing it to inherit its simplicity, lightweight nature, and quick access to recent software, but with a more user-friendly and pre-configured experience. Arch Linux's growing popularity: Linux's increasing market share in the gaming sector (driven by Steam's popularity) has boosted interest in Arch-based distributions. Appeal due to performance and ease of use: It's marketed as a "turbo" version of Arch that doesn't require complicated initial setup, attracting users seeking performance without the complexity of pure Arch Linux. What is CachyOS? In the competitive world of Linux distributions, CachyOS shines for its focus on extreme performance . Based on
You can install VMware workstation or player on Kali Linux, allowing you to use Virtual Machines (VMs) inside of Kali Linux. However if you wish to use Kali Linux as a virtual machine, you will want our Kali Linux Guest VMwareguide. VMs are great, as there are many reasons why to use them. One of the being, able to run multiple Operating Systems at the same time. You can have your host machine “untouched”, and then only interact with the guest VMs. Another is when something is going right, take a snapshot. When something goes wrong, revert back. VMware Workstation & Fusion is a commercial software (there is VMware Player which is free but it is limited in features). There are various free or open source solution (such as VirtualBox, QEMU, KVM/Xen with virt-manager). Preparation Before trying to install VMware, please make sure your version of Kali Linux is up-to-date, and if required, reboot the machine: kali@kali:~$ sudo apt update [...] kali@kali:~$ kali@kali:~$ sudo apt full-upgrade -y [...] kali@kali:~$ kali@kali:~$ [ -f /var/run/reboot-required ] && sudo reboot -f kali@kali:~$ Download To start with, you will need to download VMware. You can do this by going to VMware’s download page. At the time of writing, the latest version is 15.5.1-15018445. Alternatively, you can do the following command line method: kali@kali:~$ sudo apt install -y curl [...] kali@kali:~$ kali@kali:~$ curl -A "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/115.0" \ -o Downloads/vmware.bundle \ -L https://www.vmware.com/go/getworkstation-linux kali@kali:~$ kali@kali:~$ file Downloads/vmware.bundle Downloads/vmware.bundle: a bash script executable (binary data) kali@kali:~$ kali@kali:~$ ls -lah Downloads/vmware.bundle -rw-r--r-- 1 kali kali 514M Oct 3 02:13 Downloads/vmware.bundle kali@kali:~$ When everything is up-to-date, and ready to go, make sure the file is executable and then call it: kali@kali:~$ chmod +x ~/Downloads/vmware.bundle kali@kali:~$ kali@kali:~$ sudo ~/Downloads/vmware.bundle Extracting VMware Installer...done. Installing VMware Workstation 17.0.2 Configuring... [######################################################################] 100% Installation was successful. kali@kali:~$ We can see we have installed VMware Workstation 17.0.2. The version number may be needed later on. After the installer is installed, you should be able to just run vmware to continue setup: kali@kali:~$ vmware kali@kali:~$ At this point, you should be be straight forward, often just clicking through. Setup The first part may be VMware Kernel Modules. If vmware wasn’t called with superuser privileges, you may be prompted for a password. At this point, it may not install correctly, and get the error message: Unable to install all modules. See log /tmp/vmware-kali/vmware-*.log for details. (Exit code 1). This is often due to Kali’s kernel being newer than what VMware is expecting. Looking at the log may help with troubleshooting the issue as well as the guide at the end of this post, vmware-host-modules. You will need to accept the legal agreement. You may wish for it VMware to check for any updates. You may wish to join “VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program”. Enter the current username. Enter a location for Shared VMs (this is different to each users own VMs). Enter a port for HTTPS access If you have a product key, you can enter it now, else it will be a trial for 30 days. You may be once again prompt for superuser privileges if you didn’t execute the setup file with it. The final screen should look like this. If you now wish, you are able to install Kali Linux in a VMware VM (on Kali Linux). Troubleshooting libaio missing If you see the following problem, upon trying to run vmware. Try installing the libaio1package: kali@kali:~$ vmware [AppLoader] Use shipped Linux kernel AIO access library. An up-to-date "libaio" or "libaio1" package from your system is preferred. kali@kali:~$ kali@kali:~$ sudo apt install -y libaio1 [...] kali@kali:~$ Then the next time you start vmware, it should of gone away. Missing Packages From time to time, things may not go right. There could be a number of reasons why VMware may not install. The first thing to check would be you have all the necessary packages installed: kali@kali:~$ sudo apt install -y build-essential linux-headers-$( uname -r ) vlan libaio1 [...] kali@kali:~$ Try running vmware again, and see if now setup continues. Too Newer Kernel A common issue is because the setup file for VMware isn’t supporting the latest kernels, which could be an issue as Kali Linux is a rolling distribution and receives frequent updates. If this is the case, we can patch VMware modules to support this: kali@kali:~$ sudo apt install -y git [...] kali@kali:~$ kali@kali:~$ sudo git clone \ -b workstation-$( grep player.product.version /etc/vmware/config | sed '/.*\"\(.*\)\".*/ s//\1/g' ) \ https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules.git \ /opt/vmware-host-modules/ [...] kali@kali:~$ kali@kali:~$ cd /opt/vmware-host-modules/ kali@kali:/opt/vmware-host-modules$ sudo make kali@kali:/opt/vmware-host-modules$ kali@kali:/opt/vmware-host-modules$ grep -q pte_offset_map ./vmmon-only/include/pgtbl.h && \ sudo sed -i 's/pte_offset_map/pte_offset_kernel/' ./vmmon-only/include/pgtbl.h kali@kali:/opt/vmware-host-modules$ kali@kali:/opt/vmware-host-modules$ sudo make install kali@kali:/opt/vmware-host-modules$ Try now to install VMware, by doing vmware. If you are still having issues, you may need to restart your Kali Linux before trying one more final time. vmware-host-modules + Kernel Updates As VMware has various kernel modules, we need to make sure they are kept up-to-date and re-patched when Kali Linux’s kernel gets updated. This can be achieved by the steps in the following guide: kali@kali:~$ sudo tee /etc/kernel/install.d/99-vmmodules.install << EOF #!/bin/bash export LANG=C COMMAND="\$1" KERNEL_VERSION="\${2:-\$( /usr/bin/uname -r )}" BOOT_DIR_ABS="\$3" KERNEL_IMAGE="\$4" VMWARE_VERSION=\$(/usr/bin/grep player.product.version /etc/vmware/config | /usr/bin/sed '/.*\"\(.*\)\".*/ s//\1/g') ret=0 { [ -z "\${VMWARE_VERSION}" ] && exit 0 /usr/bin/git clone -b workstation-"\${VMWARE_VERSION}" https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules.git /opt/vmware-host-modules-"\${VMWARE_VERSION}"/ cd /opt/vmware-host-modules-"\${VMWARE_VERSION}"/ /usr/bin/make VM_UNAME="\${KERNEL_VERSION}" /usr/bin/make install VM_UNAME="\${KERNEL_VERSION}" ((ret+=\$?)) } || { echo "Unknown error occurred." ret=1 } exit \${ret} EOF kali@kali:~$ Still can’t start up VMware? vmware-modconfi If VMware is unsuccessful, we can dig a little further by running the following: kali@kali:~$ sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all [...] kali@kali:~$ kali@kali:~$ sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all 2>&1 | grep error [...] kali@kali:~$ Looking at the output, may either give us the exact issue, or at the very least something to search the Internet for. Can’t Power on a Virtual Machine You may also face the following issues, when trying to power on a VM. Failed to initialize monitor device Could not open /dev/vmmon: No such file or directory. Please make sure that kernel module 'vmmon' is loaded Unable to change virtual machine power state: Transport (VMDB) error -14: Pipe connection has been broken. The quickest solution to fix these would be to reboot Kali Linux and try again.
Kali Linux Guide; Virtualization, Running Kali Linux as a Virtual Machine in Windows
As time moves on Antivirus and EDR programs are working to implement new capabilities to identify hacking tools. These hacking tools are usually signatured by Antivirus programs to protect the host operating system from being infected. Many of the tools, exploits, and resources that are contained in Kali Linux have been signatured by these Antivirus products. So how does signature based detection work? An antivirus signature is a sequence of bytes that are contained within a program. The files on your host system are scanned and the antivirus program compares them against there database that contains these signatures to see if there is a match. When a match is identified the file is quarantined and removed from the host system. Although the antivirus program is doing its job, there are some ways that we can protect our Kali Linux Virtual Machine from being quarantined by the host Antivirus Software. This process will focus on implementing these exclusions with Windows Security: Setting an Exclusion Folder in Windows Security This process will work on Windows 10 and Windows 11 In Windows you can stop Windows Security from alerting you or blocking your virtual machine by adding it to the exclusion list. To do this you need to go to the following: Select “Start” > “Settings” > “Update & Security” > “Windows Security” > “Virus & threat protection”. Under “Virus & threat protection settings”, select “Manage settings”, and then under “Exclusions”, select “Add or remove exclusions”. Select “Add an exclusion”. A drop down menu will appear and then you can select files, folders, file types, or process. If you select the folder exclusion will apply to all subfolders within the folder as well. Select the folder you want to use that will contain the files needed to run your Kali Linux Virtual Machine. (In this situation I want to save my Kali Linux Virtual Machine in a folder that I made on my Desktop.) Now that the folder is set as an exclusion, Windows Security will not scan the folder that contains your Kali Linux Virtual Machine. References https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/add-an-exclusion-to-windows-security-811816c0-4dfd-af4a-47e4-c301afe13b26
Kali Linux Guide; Virtualization, Kali inside Proxmox (Guest VM)
Proxmox has two ways of accessing a nested environment. The first is through virtualization, using QEMU. The other is through containerization using LXC. We will discuss both methods (for QEMU there are two ways of installation). Kali as a Proxmox VM (Virtualization) using prebuilt virtual machine Go to Kali images and select “Pre-built Virtual Machines” Download the proper image (Qemu64 or Qemu32) Extract the image from the downloaded file (note that this is 7Zipformat) Rename the file to *.iso (i.e. change the file extension from qcow2 to iso). Take a note of the file name (eg. kali-linux-2025.3-qemu-amd64.iso) Open Proxmox Select the storage to be used (eg. locate correct node and find local) in the left pane In the middle pane select ISO images and click Upload Click Select File and then select the previously extracted (and renamed) file. Click upload and wait for upload to complete Click Create VM: Fill in ‘VM ID’ and ‘Name’. Enable ‘Start at boot’ if this is wanted. Click Next Select ‘Do not use any media’. Click Next Enable ‘Qemu Agent’. Click Next Click on Delete next to the scsi0 disk (will change to No Disks). Click Next Set needed number of CPUs (or leave to default). Clck Next Set memory to 2048 or more. Click Next Set network according to need (or leave to default). Click Next Review configuration and click Finish Right click on node and select Shell Locate the uploaded file by issuing a find / -name {filename} (eg. find / -name kali-linux-2025.3-qemu-amd64.iso) Change directory to the location of the file Rename file from *.iso to *.qcow2 (eg. mv kali-linux-2025.3-qemu-amd64.iso kali-linux-2025.3-qemu-amd64.qcow2) Run command qm importdisk VM-ID {filename.qcow2} {storage} (eg. qm importdisk 108 kali-linux-2025.3-qemu-amd64.qcow2 local-lvm) Close shell In Proxmox, locate the created VM In the middle pane, click Hardware and then locate the ‘Unused disk 0’ in the right pane. Click Edit Make necessary changes to the configuration and then click Add A new disk has been created so boot order must be adjusted; click Options in the middle pane then click ‘Boot Order’ in the right pane. Click Edit Enable the (only) disk and then change the boot order so that the disk is either #1 or #2 (preceded by ide2 / CD). Click OK Now Kali is ready to start. Please remember that the default credentials “kali/kali” is to be used when logging in (ie. remember to change these) Kali as a Proxmox VM (Virtualization) We will go over the steps and discuss some of the changes that can be made. Download the latest ISO from get Kali NOTE: Use the standard, weekly, or everything installer ISOs. The net installer ISO does not have necessary drivers for virtual network adapters supported in Proxmox. Select “Create VM” Assign the VM a name and ID Select the ISO we downloaded previously We can skip past “System” using the defaults Create a disk with at least 20 GiB, you may need more so think about your needs when selecting storage Select 2 for both “Sockets” and “Cores” to get our total cores to 4, you may be able to use less or may need more, again think about your needs Use at least 2048 MiB Be sure to select the proper network device, if you are unsure which to select leave it as default Confirm your settings From here we select the new VM under our node and after selecting “Console” we select “Start Now”. From here we can proceed as though it is a normal install. Kali as a Proxmox CT (Containerization) We will go over the steps and discuss some of the changes that can be made. We first need to install the container template to be used. To do this we navigate to a LXD repo and determine what our requirements are. For this guide, we have a Proxmox system that is run on amd64 hardware, so we select that. We are going to select default, this will go for all hardware options. Next we select the most recent date. Now we download the “rootfs.squashfs”. To convert “rootfs.squashfs” to “rootfs.tar.xz” you can use sqfs2tar: Install sqfs2tar with sudo apt install squashfs-tools-ng. Run sqfs2tar rootfs.squashfs | xz > rootfs.tar.xz Upload rootfs.tar.xz to your “CT Templates” location in Proxmox (rename as needed). To create a container in Proxmox using this template: Select “Create CT” Assign the container a hostname and a password. If relevant, supply a SSH public key as well. Select the template we uploaded previously Depending on the use-case of this container, you may want to give the system more storage. A good balance would be to give it 20 GiB for a typical Kali install. Up the “Cores” to be 2, you may be able to use less or may need more, think about your needs Again, depending on the use case you may want to up the amount of memory. A good balance would be to give it 2048 for a typical Kali install, with 1024 swap. Select network settings if necessary, otherwise leave as default. If necessary change the DNS settings Confirm settings and finish setup From here we wait for the container to be created and finish with “TASK OK”. Once this is complete we can close this window, select the container under our node, select console, and select “Start” on the top bar. We login with “root” user and the password we input earlier.
Kali Linux Guide; Virtualization
Customizing a Kali Vagrant Vagrantfile Vagrant has a great feature when getting started where you create a Vagrantfile unique to the box you are trying to install. For example, Kali has this Vagrantfile when starting up a Kali Vagrant machine: kali@kali:~$ cat Vagrantfile | grep -v '#' Vagrant.configure("2") do |config| config.vm.box = "kalilinux/rolling" end What we see here is that Vagrant is configuring to use ‘2’ and the ‘vm.box’ is Kali. Perfect! But what does that mean? Well, ‘2’ is actually just what version of Vagrant we are running (Vagrant 1.1 and newer) and ‘vm.box’ just says that we are using Kali. So what can we do with this? Well HashiCorp actually provides some pretty nice documentationon how to configure it and discusses all of the different configuration values, so we aren’t going to go through them all. Instead we will discuss some of them that will make Kali a better experience for you. Vagrantfile configuration to improve Kali We will not be discussing the actual description of the configuration option, as that is better explained by HashiCorp, but we will discuss how Kali may benefit from it. config.vm.base_address - Setting the default IP address may be useful for quite a lot of circumstances, however it also is just helpful to know what your IP is when setting up reverse shells. config.vm.hostname - Set a new hostname so you don’t have the default one! config.vm.provider - It may be helpful to select which VM provider you want if you have multiple. Note that this can also be done with the command flag --provider. config.vm.provision - This optionmay be helpful for people who want to configure some type of option post Vagrant start up. For example, if we want to post-startup ensure that Kali is up-to-date and we have kali-linux-large installed, we can do that pretty easily. config.vm.usable_port_range - If we want to use a larger port range then this is a must know. config.ssh.forward_x11 - This option may be helpful if you are wanting GUI access for a certain app.
Deploying Kali over Network PXE Install
It is possible to boot and installing Kali Linux over the network, using Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE). There is a range of environments where this beneficial such as a single laptop install with no CDROMor USBports, to enterprise deployments supporting pre-seedingof the Kali Linux installation. By using a “slimed down” image, network booting (Netboot), it only has the essential packages in order for the setup to work. Everything else is pulled down during installation, making sure everything is fully up-to-date after the installation. We will cover a few different ways of using PXE. The first way will be how to manually set up PXE with dnsmasq. The final way will utilize netbootxyz, which hosts the PXE files and uses a separate DNS server to properly direct computers. Manually setting up a PXE Server with dnsmasq First, we need to install dnsmasqwhich will provide the DHCP/TFTP service: kali@kali:~$ sudo apt install -y dnsmasq [...] kali@kali:~$ 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 DNS servers (8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4) and gateway (192.168.101.1) with the dhcp-option directive as shown below: kali@kali:~$ cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/dnsmasq.conf interface=eth0 dhcp-range=192.168.101.100,192.168.101.200,12h dhcp-boot=pxelinux.0 enable-tftp tftp-root=/tftpboot/ dhcp-option=3,192.168.101.1 dhcp-option=6,8.8.8.8,8.8.4.4 EOF kali@kali:~$ Now in our above example, we used /tftpboot/ for the home directory of TFTP, which we now need to create, as this will hold the Kali Linux Netboot image: kali@kali:~$ sudo mkdir -pv /tftpboot/ mkdir: created directory '/tftpboot/' kali@kali:~$ With the edits in place, the dnsmasq service needs to be restarted in order for the changes to take effect: kali@kali:~$ sudo systemctl restart dnsmasq kali@kali:~$ kali@kali:~$ sudo systemctl enable dnsmasq kali@kali:~$ kali@kali:~$ sudo systemctl status dnsmasq [...] kali@kali:~$ Download Kali PXE Netboot Images We can now download the Kali Netboot image we wish to serve: # 64-bit: sudo wget https://http.kali.org/kali/dists/kali-rolling/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/netboot.tar.gz -P /tftpboot/ The last step is to extract the contents and do a little bit of house keeping: kali@kali:~$ sudo tar -zxpvf /tftpboot/netboot.tar.gz -C /tftpboot [...] kali@kali:~$ kali@kali:~$ sudo rm -v /tftpboot/netboot.tar.gz removed '/tftpboot/netboot.tar.gz' kali@kali:~$ 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. Depending on the manufacture, will depending on the keyboard shortcut required to bring up the boot menu. Common keys are: ESC, F2, F8 and F12: Afterwards, select the network card: If everything works right, you should shortly see a screen similar to the following. Please note, it may take a few seconds in order to get an IP address: Finally, you should see the Netboot GRUB: Troubleshooting If you see either of the following screens, it could be due to the machine unable to get an IP address from the PXE service: The first thing would be to check the status of dnsmasq: kali@kali:~$ sudo systemctl status dnsmasq [...] Active: active (running) since Wed 2023-06-07 13:48:15 BST; 17s ago [...] Jun 07 13:48:15 kali dnsmasq-dhcp[1960]: DHCP, IP range 192.168.101.100 -- 192.168.101.200, lease time 12h Jun 07 13:48:15 kali dnsmasq-tftp[1960]: TFTP root is /tftpboot/ Jun 07 13:48:15 kali dnsmasq[1960]: reading /etc/resolv.conf Jun 07 13:48:15 kali dnsmasq[1960]: using nameserver 8.8.8.8#53 [...] Jun 07 13:48:31 kali dnsmasq-dhcp[1960]: no address range available for DHCP request via eth0 lines 1-23/23 (END) The line which sticks out here is: no address range available for DHCP request via eth0 A possible reason for this is the IP range (192.168.101.100 -> 192.168.101.200) is outside of the range used by the interface (192.168.0.3): kali@kali:~$ ip a [...] 2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000 [...] inet 192.168.0.3/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global dynamic noprefixroute eth0 [...] kali@kali:~$ We can have a go at dynamically, generating the configuration: kali@kali:~$ interface=eth0 kali@kali:~$ kali@kali:~$ network=$( ip -4 addr show dev ${interface} | grep -oP '(?<=inet\s)\d+(\.\d+){2}' ) kali@kali:~$ kali@kali:~$ cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/dnsmasq.conf interface=${interface} dhcp-range=${network}.100,${network}.200,12h dhcp-boot=pxelinux.0 enable-tftp tftp-root=/tftpboot/ dhcp-option=3,$( ip -4 route show dev ${interface} | grep -oP '(?<=default\svia\s)(\d+(\.\d+){3})' ) dhcp-option=6,8.8.8.8,8.8.4.4 EOF kali@kali:~$ kali@kali:~$ sudo systemctl restart dnsmasq kali@kali:~$ kali@kali:~$ sudo systemctl status dnsmasq [...] Please note, you will need to disable your existing DHCP service, else there will be a race in which service is able to response quicker. 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. Auto Updating One last thing we need to do if we want to use this system in the future is set up a cron job to pull in the new Netboot images regularly in case of kernel updates. We will create a simple script and set its permissions: kali@kali:~$ sudo mkdir -pv /opt/pxe/ mkdir: created directory '/opt/pxe/' kali@kali:~$ kali@kali:~$ cat <<'EOF' | sudo tee /opt/pxe/tftpboot.sh #!/usr/bin/env sh ## Our desired path for the PXE image to be saved to tftp=/tftpboot ## amd64 (64-bit) arch=amd64 ## Complete remove and create the previous directory containing the PXE image rm -rfv "${tftp:?}"/* ## Download the newest version wget "https://http.kali.org/kali/dists/kali-rolling/main/installer-${arch}/current/images/netboot/netboot.tar.gz" -O "${tftp}/netboot.tar.gz" ## Extract tar -zxpvf /tftpboot/netboot.tar.gz -C "${tftp}" ## Clean up rm -v "${tftp}/netboot.tar.gz" EOF kali@kali:~$ kali@kali:~$ sudo chmod 0700 /opt/pxe/tftpboot.sh kali@kali:~$ kali@kali:~$ sudo chown root: /opt/pxe/tftpboot.sh As we are going to quickly make a new user, tftp and set both folders permissions: kali@kali:~$ sudo adduser --system --home /opt/pxe/ tftp adduser: Warning: The home dir /opt/pxe/ you specified already exists. Adding system user `tftp' (UID 117) ... Adding new user `tftp' (UID 117) with group `nogroup' ... adduser: The home directory `/opt/pxe/' already exists. Not touching this directory. adduser: Warning: The home directory `/opt/pxe/' does not belong to the user you are currently creating. kali@kali:~$ kali@kali:~$ sudo chown -R tftp: /opt/pxe/ /tftpboot/ kali@kali:~$ The last item left is to setup a schedule task. We will use cron: kali@kali:~$ sudo crontab -u tftp -e [...] 0 5 * * 2 /opt/pxe/tftpboot.sh >/dev/null kali@kali:~$ Now, every Tuesday at 05:00, our Netboot image should self-update! Pre-seeding PXE Pre-seed file We can use the following pre-seed file to automatically install our Kali instance. Be sure to change package selection, user information, region information, and hard drive to match what you are using. Alternatively, should you want to be prompted for any of those, just comment out the line: kali@kali:~$ cat <<'EOF' | sudo tee /opt/pxe/preseed.cfg # Package selection d-i pkgsel/include string kali-linux-default kali-desktop-xfce # User information d-i passwd/user-fullname string kali d-i passwd/username string kali d-i passwd/user-password password kali d-i passwd/user-password-again password kali # Region Information d-i time/zone string US/Eastern d-i debian-installer/locale string en_US d-i debian-installer/language string en d-i debian-installer/country string US d-i debian-installer/locale string en_US.UTF-8 d-i keyboard-configuration/xkb-keymap select us # Hard drive d-i grub-installer/bootdev string /dev/sda d-i netcfg/get_hostname string kali d-i netcfg/get_domain string unnasigned-domain tasksel tasksel/first multiselect standard d-i mirror/country string enter information manually d-i mirror/suite string kali-rolling d-i mirror/codename string kali-rolling d-i mirror/http/hostname string http.kali.org d-i mirror/http/directory string /kali d-i mirror/http/proxy string d-i partman-auto/method string regular d-i partman-auto-lvm/guided_size string max d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe select atomic d-i partman-partitioning/confirm_write_new_label boolean true d-i partman/choose_partition select finish d-i partman/confirm boolean true d-i partman/confirm_nooverwrite boolean true d-i partman-md/confirm boolean true d-i partman-partitioning/confirm_write_new_label boolean true d-i partman/choose_partition select finish d-i partman/confirm boolean true d-i partman/confirm_nooverwrite boolean true d-i grub-installer/only_debian boolean true d-i grub-installer/with_other_os boolean true d-i finish-install/reboot_in_progress note d-i apt-setup/services-select multiselect d-i apt-setup/non-free boolean true d-i apt-setup/contrib boolean true d-i apt-setup/disable-cdrom-entries boolean true d-i apt-setup/enable-source-repositories boolean false d-i pkgsel/upgrade select full-upgrade d-i passwd/root-login boolean false d-i preseed/early_command string anna-install eatmydata-udeb d-i pkgsel/update-policy select none popularity-contest popularity-contest/participate boolean false encfs encfs/security-information boolean true encfs encfs/security-information seen true console-setup console-setup/charmap47 select UTF-8 samba-common samba-common/dhcp boolean false macchanger macchanger/automatically_run boolean false kismet-capture-common kismet-capture-common/install-users string kismet-capture-common kismet-capture-common/install-setuid boolean true wireshark-common wireshark-common/install-setuid boolean true sslh sslh/inetd_or_standalone select standalone atftpd atftpd/use_inetd boolean false EOF kali@kali:~$ Pre-seed integration to initrd To incorporate this into our initrd to automatically run we must do the following: Please note, we are using 64-bit/AMD64. kali@kali:~$ cd /tftpboot/debian-installer/amd64/ kali@kali:/tftpboot/debian-installer/amd64$ kali@kali:/tftpboot/debian-installer/amd64$ sudo gunzip initrd.gz kali@kali:/tftpboot/debian-installer/amd64$ kali@kali:/tftpboot/debian-installer/amd64$ sudo cp -v /opt/pxe/preseed.cfg preseed.cfg '/opt/pxe/preseed.cfg' -> './preseed.cfg' kali@kali:/tftpboot/debian-installer/amd64$ kali@kali:/tftpboot/debian-installer/amd64$ echo preseed.cfg | sudo cpio -H newc -o -A -F initrd 6 blocks kali@kali:/tftpboot/debian-installer/amd64$ sudo gzip initrd kali@kali:/tftpboot/debian-installer/amd64$ Now all that is left to-do, is boot from network, and select “Install” and watch the unattended setup progress! Using netbootxyz to host our PXE files To install and use netbootxyz we recommend to follow the official documentation. This will allow us to set up a server and use our existing DHCP server to point to it, rather than creating a new DHCP server, as well as having a web interface to manage items.
ZenLake OS (or ZenLake Linux) is a modern and lightweight Linux distribution
ZenLake OS 26.04 was released on May 8, 2026, based on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS ("Resolute Raccoon"). This new version features the GNOME 50 desktop, Linux kernel 7.0, and aims to be a user-friendly, lightweight distribution with a Windows-like layout. Key Updates and Features (As of May 2026) Release: ZenLake OS 26.04 is now available. Base: Built upon Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. Desktop: Features GNOME 50 with a customized, user-friendly layout including a taskbar, for users familiar with Windows-like workflows. Core: Powered by Linux Kernel 7.0. Features: Includes Wayland display server, built-in system restoration capabilities, and supports both Snap and Flatpak. Availability: Refreshed ISOs are typically aimed at new installations to minimize update requirements. [
BTRFS Install (Kali Unkaputtbar)
Have you ever wished you could travel back in time after deleting that all important customer report or installing a broken driver just before heading into the board meeting? Well, you better read on, because now you can! All it takes is to install Kali Linux 2022.1or newer with btrfs as file system and to enable snapshotting after installation. You can even boot into any of your saved snapshots via the boot menu and easily rollback to a previous system state: Content Content Overview Installation Overview Partitioning Scheme Kali Linux BTRFS Installation Steps Kali Linux Installation Procedure Usage Modify configurations Create additional configurations Create a snapshot List snapshots Delete snapshots Rollback Diff Browse snapshots Full recovery from an unbootable system Boot into a last known good snapshot Rollback References Overview btrfsis a modern Copy on Write (CoW) filesystem for Linux aimed at implementing advanced features such as pooling, snapshots, checksums, and integrated multi-device spanning. In particular, the snapshotsupport is what makes btrfs attractive for Kali installations on bare metal. Virtualization solutions such as VMware and VirtualBox provide their own snapshotting functionality and using btrfs in those environments is not really required. The snapshotting strategy of this walk-through centres around a tool called “snapper” from our friends over at SUSE. Snapper transparently hooks into the apt workflow and automatically creates snapshots before and after any apt operation. This neat little feature allows to easily rollback a system after a botched upgrade. To top things off, we added grub-btrfsby Antyneato automatically add a list of snapshots to the grub boot menu. Snapper-guiby Ricardo Vieirais another great tool we use to make our lives easier. Installation Overview Installing Kali Linux with snapshotting functionality is very similar to a standard installation except that we install it with btrfs as file system. After the installation, we will install some tools and create a default configuration for snapper. Partitioning Scheme When selecting “btrfs” as file system, the installer will automatically create the following subvolume layout: Mount Point | Subvolume | Description ------------------------------------------------------------------------- / | @ | The root filesystem incl. /boot /.snapshots | @.snapshots | Snapper's snapshot directory /home | @home | User home directories /root | @root | The root user's home directory /var/log | @var@log | Log files /srv | @srv | Site-specific data served by this system /tmp | @tmp | Temporary files /usr/local | @usr@local | Tertiary hierarchy for local data Kali Linux BTRFS Installation Steps Kali Linux Installation Procedure To start your installation, boot with your chosen installation medium. You should be greeted with the Kali Boot screen. Choose Graphical Install. The installation steps are identical to a default Kali installation except changing “ext4” to “btrfs” as file system: At the “Partition Disk” screen, choose “Guided - use entire disk”: Click “Continue”: Double-click on the / partition: Choose “btrfs”: Select “Done setting up the partition” and continue: Select “Finish partitioning and write changes to disk” and continue with the installation. Login after installation and run the following commands in a terminal: # Set a secure root password or you'll struggle to log into a recovery shell $ sudo passwd # Install some essential tools $ sudo apt update && sudo apt install btrfs-progs snapper snapper-gui grub-btrfs # Create the snapper configuration for the root filesystem "/" $ sudo cp /usr/share/snapper/config-templates/default /etc/snapper/configs/root $ sudo sed -i 's/^SNAPPER_CONFIGS=\"\"/SNAPPER_CONFIGS=\"root\"/' /etc/default/snapper # Prevent "updatedb" from indexing the snapshots, which would slow down the system $ sudo sed -i '/# PRUNENAMES=/ a PRUNENAMES = ".snapshots"' /etc/updatedb.conf We need to tweak the desktop managers to work in read only snapshots. Pick your DE from the following: GNOME: # Reconfigure gdm to allow booting into read-only snapshots # GDM needs to have write access to "/var/lib/gdm3" and "/var/lib/AccountService" during login. # We have to create additional subvolumes for them: $ mount # Pick your main partition, </dev/sda1> in our example, replace </dev/sda1> it with yours $ sudo mount </dev/sda1> /mnt $ sudo btrfs subvolume create /mnt/@var@lib@gdm3 $ sudo btrfs subvolume create /mnt/@var@lib@AccountsService $ sudo mv /var/lib/gdm3/* /var/lib/gdm3/.* /mnt/@var@lib@gdm3 $ sudo mv /var/lib/AccountsService/* /var/lib/AccountsService/.* /mnt/@var@lib@AccountsService/ $ sudo vi /etc/fstab # Add the following (substitute the <UUID> with yours) # /var/lib/gdm3 was on /dev/sda1 during installation UUID=<dc1ca012-9349-4fcf-b761-ca323379b019> /var/lib/gdm3 btrfs defaults,subvol=@var@lib@gdm3 0 0 # /var/lib/AccountsService was on /dev/sda1 during installation UUID=<dc1ca012-9349-4fcf-b761-ca323379b019> /var/lib/AccountsService btrfs defaults,subvol=@var@lib@AccountsService 0 0 # Reboot for the changes to take effect $ sudo reboot KDE: # KDE works out of the box, just reboot and enjoy $ sudo reboot XFCE: # Reconfigure lightdm to allow booting into read-only snapshots $ sudo sed -i 's/^#user-authority-in-system-dir=false/user-authority-in-system-dir=true/' /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf $ $ sudo reboot The first reboot will create the first automatic snapshot. Reboot again to find the new boot menu entry for this snapshot: Congratulations, you have just installed a Kali system with automatic snapshotting functionality! Next, we will cover some basic usage examples. Usage Modify configurations Out of the box Kali creates snapshots of the root directory to allow system rollbacks. Snapshots are automatically created during apt operations, at specified time intervals, and on every boot. The configuration can be changed via the “snapper-gui” tool. Just click on the little icon in the top left hand corner and select “Properties”: Create additional configurations To create snapshots of your home directory, you can create a new configuration using snapper-gui. Click on “New” -> “Create Configuration” Create a snapshot To manually create a snapshot using snapper-gui, select the appropriate configuration tab (home in this case) and click “New” -> “Create Snapshot” List snapshots Snapshots are listed in the snapper-gui: Alternatively, snapshots on all configurations can be viewed using the snapper command line tool: $ sudo snapper list -a Delete snapshots The easiest way to delete a snapshot is by using the snapper command line tool: sudo snapper delete <number-or-number-range> Voilà, easy. Now is probably the right time to flick through the snapper command line options via: snapper --help Rollback To roll back to a previous snapshot we have to remember two things: The root / of the file system has been installed in a subvolume /@" and not the root of the btrfs partition / A snapshot is treated like just another subvolume except that they are read-only You can easily boot into your read-only snapshots to find the one you want to roll-back to. Thus all we have to do is mount the btrfs partition and replace the current root subvolume @ with the last snapshot. To be safe we’ll backup the current root (@) subvolume. E.g.: # get the device that contains your "/" subvolume and remember it for the next step: mount | grep 'subvol=/@)' # mount your root partition (replace "/dev/sda2" with yours from above): sudo mount /dev/sda2 -o subvol=/ /mnt # Move the old root away: sudo mv /mnt/@ /mnt/@_badroot # Roll back to a previous snapshot by creating a read-write copy of it as "@"": sudo btrfs subvolume snapshot /mnt/@.snapshots/XXXXX/snapshot /mnt/@ # That's it, reboot: sudo reboot -f Diff Snapper is chock-a-block with powerful features like diffs between snapshots: Browse snapshots You can even browse the content of snapshots: Full recovery from an unbootable system Boot into a last known good snapshot Let’s assume that the last upgrade broke our machine. Every run of “apt install” creates to snapshots, one “pre” snapshot is created before the installation and one “post” snapshot is created after the installation. To undo the last “apt upgrade”, we would boot into the last “pre” snapshot and check if everything is working again: Now you can login to the snapshot. Please note that the snapshot is read only and you might receive an error message from an applet or two after logging in. Just ignore that. Have a look around ensure that this is what you would like to roll-back to. Rollback Remember that “/” itself is the subvolume “@”. To rollback to a snapshot, all we have to do is replace “@” with the snapshot we want. First we have to mount the physical partition that holds all our subvolumes. Let’s find it first mount | grep 'subvol=' and then mount it (/dev/sda2 in this example: sudo mount /dev/sda2 -o subvol=/ /mnt If we list the content of that partition we can see all the subvolumes, including the one containing our snapshots: Before we replace the current root with our snapshot, let’s move “@” away just to be safe: sudo mv /mnt/@ /mnt/@_old Now we can create a read-write snapshot of the current read-only snapshot (in this example we booted into the read-only snapshot “6” according to the query above): sudo btrfs subvolume snapshot /mnt/@.snapshots/6/snapshot /mnt/@ And that’s all there is to it, now we can reboot as if nothing ever happened to our beautiful machine: References Btrfs Wiki Btrfs Debian site Snapper Snapper-GUI grub-btrfs
Dual Booting Kali with Linux
Installing Kali Linux alongside another Linux installation can be quite useful. However, you need to exercise caution during the setup process. First, make sure that you’ve backed up any important data on your Linux 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 Ubuntu (Server 18.04), which is currently taking up 100% of the disk space in our computer. We will start by resizing our current Linux 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: Changing or removing the desktop environment. Installing or removing any metapackages. 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 Linux 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 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 Linux partition to give us enough room to install Kali Linux in the free space. Once GParted has opened, select your Linux partition (/dev/sda1) & resize it leaving enough space (we recommend at least 20 GB) for the Kali Linux installation. Depending on your setup, the disk structure may be different to include: A swap partition Separate partitions for certain directories (e.g. /home, /var and /tmp) You often just want to select the largest partition (commonly the data/home directory) 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. If you wish to organize the partition to group all the Linux partitions together, placing the free space at the end, you may do so. Once you have resized your Linux 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, expect you will not have the option to select desktop environmentor 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 the other Linux operating system. Post Installation Now that you’ve completed installing Kali Linux, it’s time to customize your system.
Installing Kali Linux
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) platforms. 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. 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 is a 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 recommendthe 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. In the UEFI settings, ensure that Secure Boot is disabled. The Kali Linux kernel is not signed and will not be recognized by Secure Boot. Kali Linux Installation Procedure Boot 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 ISOwith 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 Next, set your time zone. Disk 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 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 be sure a strong password is used, or else you will be prompted with a weak passphrase warning. 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 metapackagesyou 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 guideif you prefer to change the default selections. Boot Information Next confirm to install the GRUB boot loader. Select the hard drive to install the GRUB bootloader in (it does not by default select any drive). Reboot Finally, click Continue to reboot into your new Kali Linux installation. 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.
Kali Linux Installation Sizes
Kali has a lot of customization that can be done during the package selection part of installation. Specifically, there are a total of 20 ways to configure your system during package selection. To help give an idea of what storage size someone should look to have for their preferred packages, we have created this documentation reference page. In general, a disk size of about 60GB will allow for any installation and provide a bit of extra storage for use. If you want a more specific answer, then keep reading! For this page we are going to break down the installations into five sections, each representing what tool metapackages are selected. In each section, we are also going to list out all four desktop environment choices. The following table shows the total size of the installation based on which metapackage is chosen. The largest possible installation is 35G, while the smallest possible installation is only 1.8G. Metapackage/DE Xfce GNOME KDE Headless kali-linux-core 3.7G 4.1G 5.2G 1.5G kali-tools-top10 6.7G 7.0G 8.2G 5.0G kali-linux-default 13G 13G 15G 13G kali-linux-large 20G 20G 21G 19G kali-linux-everything 34G 35G 36G 34G
Zorin OS 18.1 is released.
Zorinannounces the launch of Zorin OS 18.1, just six months after the launch of Zorin OS 18 and with more than 3.3 million discharges. This version incorporates improvements, new functions and better compatibility with hardware in our version of Zorin OS, which includes twenty records. This means that you will enjoy an even better computing experience, whether you are a user of Zorin OS or are ready to migrate from Windows. How to get Zorin OS 18.1 Upgrade If you’re using Zorin OS 18. You can upgrade to Zorin OS 18.1 by installing the latest updates from the Software Updater today. If you’re using Zorin OS 17. You can directly upgrade to Zorin OS 18.1 without erasing your files and data. To do so, view our upgrade guide › Download All editions of Zorin OS 18.1 are now available from our website. Download Zorin OS 18.1 If you’ve already purchased Zorin OS 18 Pro, you can download a new copy of Zorin OS 18.1 Pro from the download link in your original purchase email.
Kali Linux: Installing old i386 images
Since October 2024, there is no longer a i386 kernel, nor i386 images for Kali Linux. As a reminder, i386 is the name used in Kali (and Debian) to refer to the 32-bit x86 CPU architecture. In all practicality, it means that it’s no longer possible to run Kali on machines that have such a (rather old) CPU. However, it’s still possible to run programs that were compiled for i386 on a 64-bit machine. In fact, at the time of writing, most of the i386 packages are still available in the repository, and i386 Kali containers are also available. This change was announced in a blog post, it contains much more details for those interested. Using old i386 images The last Kali Linux release that supported the i386 architecture was 2024.3. At the moment, those images are still available for download at https://kali.download/base-images/kali-2024.3/. After they get removed from the mirrors, users can still use old.kali.org and download the last i386 images from there.
Installing Kali Linux on desktops & laptops using ".ISO" files (x64/x86) Bare-bones Kali
Bare-bones Kali Kali traditionally has been solely recommended as a penetration testing distribution, and for good reason. However, through the years Kali has become more stable and evolved into something that users can use no matter what their reasoning is. While still primarily a penetration testing distribution, we accept that many users may not even be in the cybersecurity field. For those users wanting to install Kali, but may not need the tools or just want the UI, this guide is for you. Installing a bare-bones Kali To get a Kali without any tools is quite easy. We will be following the hard disk installfor the most part. The important part is to select the following packages: Of course, you can select whichever desktop environment you wish. It is worth mentioning now that KDE has great support for Wacom tablets! Be careful not to mix KDE with another desktop distribution however, as there are some bugs that can occur when this happens. Now that we are installed and logged in, there are a few things we should do. Keep in mind, these should always be done, not just for a daily use case! Let’s first change the root user’s password: kali@kali:~$ sudo su [sudo] password for kali: root@kali:/home/kali# root@kali:/home/kali# passwd New password: Retype new password: passwd: password updated successfully root@kali:/home/kali# After this we can make sure our system is up-to-date: kali@kali:~$ sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade -y .... kali@kali:~$ kali@kali:~$ [ -f /var/run/reboot-required ] && sudo reboot -f We can now finish off our setup by making sure kali-tweaks is configured properly: kali@kali:~$ kali-tweaks What we are looking for are changes required in ‘Hardening’, unchecking any options to make our system more secure.
Kali Press Release
Introducing Kali Linux Free All-in-One Solution for Professional Security Auditing Popular BackTrack Linux Evolves Into Mature, Enterprise-Ready Penetration Testing Toolkit. Black Hat Europe, Amsterdam – 13th March 2013 – OffSec (previously known as Offensive Security)today announced the availability of Kali Linux, the evolution of its popular BackTrack Linux, a free security auditing operating system and toolkit. Showcased at Black Hat Europe in Amsterdam, Kali Linux incorporates more than 300penetration testing and security auditing programs with a Linux operating system, delivering an all-in-one solution that enables IT administrators and security professionals to test the effectiveness of risk mitigation strategies. “For IT professionals, an experiment is worth a thousand theories. Applied to security, it means that simulating attacks to assess the defenses protecting your organization is the only sure way to understand their effectiveness and the impact of an attack,” said Mati Aharoni, Lead Trainer and Developer, OffSec. “That’s why we created Kali Linux; we’ve developed the most advanced penetration testing and security auditing toolkit available to help IT administrators and security professionals put themselves in the shoes of potential attackers.” The new Kali Linux offers a smoother, easier penetration testing experience, making it more accessible to IT generalists as well as security specialists. The new infrastructure incorporates Debian development standardsto provide a more familiar environment for IT administrators. The result is a more robust solution that can be updated more easily. Users can also customize the operating system to tailor it to their needs and preferences. All the programs packaged with the operating system were evaluated for suitability and effectiveness before being included. They include Metasploit-Frameworkfor network penetration testing, Nmapfor port and vulnerability scanning, Wiresharkfor monitoring network traffic, and Aircrack-ngfor testing the security of wireless networks. “When it comes to security, the best defense is offense; you need to test the effectiveness of your own security practices before a real intruder does it for you,” said HD Moore, Chief Architect for Metasploit at Rapid7. “We built Metasploit to level the playing field for defenders; arming them with the same tools the attackers have. OffSec takes this even further, bringing hundreds of such tools together in Kali Linux to streamline security auditing.” Additionally, Kali Linux can now run on a wide variety of hardware and is compatible with numerous wireless and USB devices. It also introduced support for ARM devices– typically miniature, battery-powered computers – which are becoming more prevalent and inexpensive. More information on which devices are supported, as well as other documentation, is available on the Kali Linux documentation site. Pricing and Availability Like its predecessors, Kali Linux is completely free and always will be. OffSec is committed to supporting the Open-sourcecommunity with the ongoing development of Kali Linux. The development tree and all sources are available for those who wish to tweak and rebuild packages. Kali Linux is available immediately for download from kali.org/get-kali/. About Kali Linux Kali Linux(formerly known as BackTrack Linux) is an open-source, Debian-based Linuxdistribution aimed at advanced Penetration Testing and Security Auditing. Kali Linux contains several hundred toolstargeted towards various information security tasks, such as Penetration Testing, Security Research, Computer Forensics and Reverse Engineering. Kali Linux is a multi platform solution, accessible and freely available to information security professionals and hobbyists. About OffSec Founded in 2007, Offensive Security was born out of the belief that the only way to achieve sound defensive security is through an offensive approach. The team is made up of security professionals with extensive experience of attacking systems to see how they respond. They share this information through trainings, free tools and publications. With the motto “Try Harder”, the Company’s trainings and certifications are well-respected and considered amongst the most rigorous available, creating a model adopted across the industry. In addition, the Exploit Database, VulnHub, Metasploit Unleashed and BackTrack Linuxcommunity projects are highly-regarded and used by security teams in governmental and commercial organizations across the world. In March 2023 Offensive Security was renamed to OffSec. For more information about OffSec, please visit offsec.com.