Kali Linux 2 installation and post installation
Kali Linux 2 came out in August 2015. I removed my Ubuntu installation after an ugly kernel panic caused by the ACPI probe failed error (I've not solved this problem with my PC!). I can tell Kali is really amazing: you will have all tools for security, penetration testing and even web development like PHP, MySQL, Git, Java, Python and many other software are already installed. You have to install software like Chrome (if you don't want to use Iceweasel), Apache (if you develop in a LAMP environment), OpenOffice (I prefer it to LibreOffice), Skype and all software you will need. But let's start step by step with some tricks: I will tell you some tricks and I hope you will be able to save time with these hints. I'm writing this post for me too :)
INSTALLATION
I have installed Kali from a flash USB. You may need to create an image on your flash USB device. If you are using Windows, it will be very easy: download the image file from the official Kali linux website and use Universal USB installer or another software to create an image. If you are using Linux, you can follow these steps:
- Insert your flash USB device
- dmesg command to verify your device
- From command line type: dd if=kali.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=512k where /dev/sdb is your device path. So BE VERY SURE that THE DEVICE PATH IS CORRECT before launching this command or you can cause a damage on your machine or other devices!
Now you have your flash USB. I may need to add the persistence to the image but I have not done it.
- Start your computer and boot with the flash USB
- Select the live install and follow the instruction: the system will ask you to insert the CD. Just remove your USB, re-insert it and wait. Now the installation will go forward!
- Follow all instruction and select finish the installation if the procedure will come back to the main menu
- At the end of the whole procedure, you will be able to restart your PC. And now surprise! The system will ask you a username and password! The default root passwords are: Username: root Password: toor
- Maybe these passwords will not work! Just restart the PC and select the recovery mode to obtain a shell with the root user. With passwd you can reset the root password. Don't use the root user so often because it's not good to stay connected with the root user all the time!
- Create another user and use it to install and configure all software
Open Office
I prefer OpenOffice to LibreOffice. Both of them are not installed on Kali Linux. So I'm going to show how to install OpenOffice. Download the RPM or Debian package for your Linux version. You will NOT have a package to install so you have to follow this procedure:
- Move your zip or tar.gz file to cd /tmp. This is very important! Many websites does not tell you about this step!
- tar zxvf openofficename.tar.gz
- cd en-US/DEBS or cd en-GB/DEBS, it depends on your language you have selected before downloading the file
- sudo dpkg -i *.deb
- sudo dpkg -i en-US/DEBS/desktop-integration/*.deb
Done! Now you will have OpenOffice. Maybe you will need to restart your PC.
Chrome
Chrome will have problems starting using the root password! Vlc video player has the same problem (and maybe other software have), so I will use another user.
LAMP environment
Apache is installed but you have to configure .htaccess support, change the permission for your /var/www directory and other small things. We may need to install some extension for PHP like X-debug, Mcrypt or similar. You can see all extensions installed running php -m with the CLI. You will probably need PHPMyAdmin. I prefer using software like HeidiSQL. You can use MySQL workbench or another MySQL client software you like.
Wine
Wine is already installed on Kali. Try to use wine with the command line. To install software just type wine myfile.exe. Wine will configure its settings automatically and you will be able to install your software and the windows file system for the emulation. Wine will show an automatic configuration window only the first time you try to use it.
Post-installation tips
Disable the auto-hide sidebar: this feature is enabled by default but many people don't like it. Me too, so let's search Tweak tools between our applications list. Click on the dash to dock gear and disable the intelligent autohide option. Now the sidebar will be stable like the one you have on Ubuntu.
Keyboard shortcuts
1. General Shortcut Keys
| Alt + F1 | Opens the Applications Menu. |
| Alt + F2 | Displays the Run Application dialog. |
| Print Screen | Takes a screenshot. |
| Alt + Print Screen | Takes a screenshot of the window that has focus. |
| Ctrl + Alt + right arrow | Switches to the workspace to the right of the current workspace. |
| Ctrl + Alt + left arrow | Switches to the workspace to the left of the current workspace. |
| Ctrl + Alt + up arrow | Switches to the workspace above the current workspace. |
| Ctrl + Alt + down arrow | Switches to the workspace below the current workspace. |
| Ctrl + Alt + d | Minimizes all windows, and gives focus to the desktop. |
| F1 | Starts the online help browser, and displays appropriate online Help. |
2. Window Shortcut Keys
| Alt + Tab | Switches between windows. When you use these shortcut keys, a list of windows that you can select is displayed. Release the keys to select a window. |
| Alt + Esc | Switches between windows in reverse order. Release the keys to select a window. |
| F10 | Opens the first menu on the left side of the menubar. |
| Alt + spacebar | Opens the Window Menu. |
| Arrow keys | Moves the focus between items in a menu. |
| Return | Chooses a menu item. |
| Esc | Closes an open menu. |
| Ctrl + Alt + right arrow | Switches to the workspace to the right of the current workspace. |
| Ctrl + Alt + left arrow | Switches to the workspace to the left of the current workspace. |
| Ctrl + Alt + up arrow | Switches to the workspace above the current workspace. |
| Ctrl + Alt + down arrow | Switches to the workspace below the current workspace. |
| Ctrl + Alt + d | Minimizes all windows, and gives focus to the desktop. |
When a window has focus, you can increase or decrease the size of the window:
| Alt + F8 | Start the resize operation. |
| Arrow keys | Resize the window in the direction of the arrow key. |
| Spacebar | Complete the resize operation, leaving the window at the current size. |
| Esc | Cancel the resize operation, restoring the window to its original size. |
Move windows between workspaces:
| Ctrl + Shift + Alt + Arrow key | Use the arrow keys to move windows between workspaces |
3. Panel Shortcut Keys
| Ctrl + Alt + Tab | Switches the focus between the panels and the desktop. When you use these shortcut keys, a list of items that you can select is displayed. Release the keys to select an item. |
| Ctrl + Alt + Esc | Switches the focus between the panels and the desktop. Release the keys to select an item. |
| Ctrl + F10 | Opens the popup menu for the selected panel. |
| Tab | Switches the focus between objects on a panel. |
| Return | Chooses the selected panel object or menu item. |
| Shift + F10 | Opens the popup menu for the selected panel object. |
| Arrow keys | Moves the focus between items in a menu. Moves the focus between interface items in an applet also. |
| Esc | Closes an open menu. |
| F10 | Opens the Applications menu from the Menu Bar, if the Menu Bar is in a panel. |
4. Application Shortcut Keys
| Shortcut Keys | Command |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + N | New |
| Ctrl + X | Cut |
| Ctrl + C | Copy |
| Ctrl + V | Paste |
| Ctrl + Z | Undo |
| Ctrl + S | Save |
| Ctrl + Q | Quit |
The next step
Other softwares, more or less, can be installed like any other Linux distributions (they differ if you are using rpm or deb packages). If I will have any important exceptions, I will update this post. Software for security and all kind of testing are really amazing and powerful. It depends on what you want to do, your activities and what you want to learn. Enjoy Kali Linux 2!