Kali Linux Installation

Different ways of installing Kali Linux:

1. Bootable device: it is one of the fastest ways of installing Kali Linux and most favorable as well. It is because it is non-restrictive. So if we use USB to install, then no changes are needed to be made to our host system hard drive, so it's non-restrictive. It is portable, so you can carry USB where ever you go, and it is easy to install, and lastly, it is potentially persistence. You can configure your Kali Linux live USB drive to have persistence storage so that the data you collect is saved across different reboots. So, suppose we install it and perform something, and we have some data to use for the next time as well, we can use a persistence storage option with the live USB installation process.
2. Hard disk installation: Installing Kali Linux on our computer with hard disk is a bit easy process, but we need to make sure that we have compatible system configuration with Kali Linux.
3. Dual boot: We can also install Kali alongside our other operating system; it could be windows or mac. But we should exercise caution during the setup process so that the installation of Kali Linux doesn't mess up with our host operating system.
4. Virtualization: We can use some virtualization software to run Kali Linux, such as VMWare and virtual box.

We may also set up Kali Linux on ARM (Advance RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) Machine) devices like Raspberry Pie, cubic truck, trimslice, and so on.

Kali Linux using Bootable USB:

Step 1: Download Kali Linux ISO- Download the ISO image file of Kali Linux from its official website, i.e., https://www.Kali.org/downloads/. Do not download it from any other website because it may contain malware. Here, we are going to download Kali Linux 64-Bit.

Step 2: You should download any bootable image file processing tool, which allows you to create a bootable USB drive.

Step 3: Plug your USB drive into your Windows PC and remember the drive name associated with it (e.g., "H :\").

Step 4: Launch Rufus and choose the Kali Linux ISO file that you want to copy on the USB drive. Match the name of the device selected, which corresponds to the name of the USB device you inserted.

Step 5: Click the Start button to overwrite the contents of the USB device, as shown in the figure.

Step 6: Once the status bar is completed 100%, click on close and safely remove the USB drive from the PC. You can now use your USB drive to boot Kali Linux.

Step 7: Insert your bootable USB drive to your PC and start your PC. Press "Esc" on the first prompt to enter into the Startup Menu.

Step 8: Press F9 to enter into the Boot Device option. It will redirect you to the Boot Manager. These options may vary from device to device.

Step 9: Select USB Hard Drive to boot from your bootable USB Drive. It will redirect you to the Kali Linux Live Boot Menu.

Step 10: Select Live System and press enter to boot Kali Linux.

You can now use Kali Linux on the same hardware without disturbing your host operating system.

How to install Kali Linux on Windows.

If you like to try out Kali Linux but not ready to install it permanently on your PC or want to run multiple operating systems at the same time, so using an Operating System in a Virtual machine has various benefits. We can use the tools available in Kali Linux without losing access to our primary Operating System.

There are many Virtualization software available for all major operating systems, i.e., VirtualBox, VMware Workstation, Xen, KVM, and Hyper-V, etc.

Kali Linux - VirtualBox

Step 1: We are using VirtualBox here. First, download and install VirtualBox on your PC. After a successful installation, the main screen appears something like the Figure below.

Step 2: Click on New. A wizard will appear, which guides you through other steps where you are required to input parameters of the new virtual machine.

Input name for the new virtual machine, select the type of the operating system and version as Debian because, as we have discussed earlier, Kali is a Debian based OS. Click next to proceed.

Step 3: Allocate the memory to the virtual machine. We recommend you to allocate 2GB (2048 MB) of RAM because the live system uses the memory for storing changes made to the file system.

Step 4: We need to choose a physical or virtual hard disk for the new virtual machine.

Step 5: The next window allows us to choose the hard disk file type. Keep it default i.e., VDI (Virtualbox Disk Image) is the native format of VirtualBox.

Step 6: On the next window, "Storage on Physical Hard Disk." Select the default selection (Dynamically allocated) because the fixed size allocation takes time to set up and also causes waste of free memory area.

Step 7: The next window will allow you to select the hard disk size. The default selection of 8 GB is not enough for the standard installation of Kali Linux. So, we are allocating 20 GB of hard disk space. You can also use an external drive. By clicking on the create button, the virtual machine will be created.

Step 8: The virtual machine has been created, but there is no operating system installed yet. Click on the Settings on the VM Manager screen.

Step 9: Click the Storage option on the left. We need to associate the Kali Linux ISO image with the virtual CD/DVD-ROM reader. Select the CD-ROM drive in the Storage associate list and then click on the CD-ROM icon on the right side that displays a contextual menu where we can choose Virtual Optical Disk File.

Step 10: Click on the System menu on the left, then select the Motherboard tab from the right-hand side. Define the Boot Order and make sure the system will first try to boot from any optical device before trying boot from a hard disk. You can also change the amount of memory allocated to the Virtual Machine if required.

Step 11: In the same menu, but on the "Processor" tab, we can change the no. of processors assigned to the virtual machine. Enable PAE/NX if you are using a 32-bit image.

These changes are sufficient to boot the Kali Linux live system. Finally, Click Boot, and the Virtual Machine should boot properly. If not, please review all the settings again and try again.

There is one more way to install Kali Linux in VirtualBox

Step 1: Download the Kali Linux custom image, which is generated for VMware and VirtualBox mainly. You can download VirtualBox from "https://www.offensive-security.com/Kali-Linux-vm-vmware-virtualbox-image-download/."

Step 2: Install VirtualBox and then double click on the Kali Linux vbox image file you downloaded, it will redirect you to the wizard shown in the figure below.

Step 3: Now, click on the Import button. It will take you to the next wizard shown in the figure below.

Step 4: After successful completion of the status bar, it will be redirected to the home page of the VirtualBox, as shown in the figure below.

Step 5: Click on the Start button shown on the right-hand side of the window. It will boot the Linux.

Once the boot completes, it will ask you to enter the Username and Password. The default Username for Kali Linux is "root" and the Kali Linux default password is "toor". Feed the Username and Password then press Enter. It will redirect you to the Home screen of the Kali Linux.

Now you are ready to use Kali Linux without removing your host operating system (Windows or Mac).

How to Solve VirtualBox error -"Failed to open a session for the virtual machine" or "Unable to boot- Please Use a Kernel appropriate for your CPU".

If you get any error as shown in the figure below, during the boot on Virtual Machine. Restart your PC and press ESC and go to the BIOS setup and Enable virtualization. Save and start your host OS. You will knowable to boot Linux on a Virtual machine.

Kali Linux- Raspberry Pi3

Raspberry Pi is a quad-core 1.4 GHz, with 1GB of RAM. Kali Linux can be installed on an external micro SD card.

If you want to install Kali Linux on your Raspberry Pi3, follow the below instructions:

1. Buy a fast micro SD card or eMMC of size 8 GB.

2. Download the Kali Linux ARM image for your Raspberry Pi from this link: https://www.offensive-security.com/Kali-Linux-arm-images/.

3. Then use the dd utility to image the downloaded file to your micro SD card.

Xzcat Kali-$version-rpi3.img.xz | dd of=/dev/sdb bs=512k

4. Once the dd operation gets completed, boot up the Raspberry Pi3 with the microSD plugged in.

Kali Linux- Android

You can use Kali Linux on Android using Linux Deploy. You need these things to run Kali on Android.

• Need a device running Android 2.1 and above, rooted.
• Need a minimum of 5 GB of free space on internal or external storage.
• High-speed internet connection.
• Then wait for a distribution to bootstrap from the network.