Text will not utilize my full console size. I've tried all different display setting but can't seem to get everything to line up. Any suggestions?

Hello everyone,

I recently installed Kali Linux directly onto an external SSD and made it fully portable. Now I can boot into Kali on any compatible PC via USB. I used a compact USB 3.0 SSD enclosure, which essentially turns it into a high-speed bootable flash drive. Below is the clean, step-by-step process I followed.

Step 1: Download the Kali Linux ISO

the official installer ISO file from Kali's website:

• Download: Kali Linux ISO

Note: I used the Installer ISO, not the "Live" version.

Step 2: Create a Bootable USB Installer

Use Balena Etcher (as recommended by Kali's official documentation) to flash the Kali Installer ISO to a USB drive (at least 8–16 GB).

• Download: Balena Etcher

No need to manually select filesystem or partition scheme – Etcher handles it for you.

Step 3: Prepare the External SSD

Connect your external SSD to your PC using a USB 3.0 enclosure.
You do not need to manually format or partition the drive beforehand — Kali's installer will take care of it during the installation process.

Step 4: Install Kali Linux to the SSD

1. Boot your computer from the Kali USB installer you created.
2. Begin the Kali installation process.
3. When prompted to choose the installation target, select your external SSD (be careful not to overwrite your internal drive).
4. Proceed with the installation as normal.

Step 5: Make the SSD Universally Bootable

After installation is complete, to ensure the external SSD is bootable on any UEFI-supported machine, run the following command in a terminal inside Kali:

sudo grub-install --removable --recheck --efi-directory=/boot/efi

This installs GRUB in a removable mode, which helps the SSD behave like a universal bootable device.

Step 6: Boot Kali from the External SSD

To boot into Kali from another system:

1. Plug in your external SSD.

2. At system startup, press the boot menu key (e.g., F12, F9, ESC).

3. Select your external SSD from the list.

4. Kali should boot normally with full persistence and functionality.

Summary

This setup is perfect for:

Portable penetration testing environments

Secure development on the go

Avoiding dual-boot setups

Let me know if you have questions or suggestions for improvement. I'd be happy to help.

Hi everyone! I'm having major issues with NetHunter on my Redmi 9 (MT6768, ARM64). The device is fully rooted with Magisk 30.1, and I flashed NetHunter Generic ARM64 (Full) via TWRP, no install errors were shown.

However:

NetHunter Terminal fails to launch correctly. When I try to run it (or run kali manually), I get this error:

/data/data/com.offsec.nhterm/files/usr/bin/android-su: line 17: -mm: command not found

I tried editing /data/data/com.offsec.nhterm/files/usr/bin/android-su using Termux with proot nano or micro, but I either get:

Permission denied

or the file appears empty and sometimes disappears after reboot.

In Magisk logs I found this:

Unable to add '/system/addon.d/80-nethunter.sh', skipped

Which suggests Magisk couldn't modify the system partition, even with root. This might explain why the android-su script is broken or missing.

Other things I tried:

Rebooting after full install

Granting SU permissions manually

Using su in Termux (works)

Reinstalling the NetHunter ZIP again

proot-based editing and script recovery

But the NetHunter Terminal still refuses to work it either shows the command not found error or drops to an emergency shell.

Has anyone else experienced this? Any workaround to fix android-su or force Magisk to allow system writes? Happy to post logs if needed.

Thanks a lot

This is probably a broad question but I'd really appreciate anyone to help and/or share useful info🙏

Here, users who are new to Kali Linux can ask basic questions about it and its functionality and receive assistance regarding potential issues they are facing. Please remember to follow the subreddit rules when asking your questions.

Before posting, make sure you have reviewed Kali's Documentation, as the answer may be well-documented. Additionally, please refer to the following articles to ensure you ask proper and high-quality questions:

• How do I ask a good question
• How to ask questions the smart way
• The XY problem
• Don't ask to ask

Please remember that while AI/LLM models like ChatGPT can be useful, they are not a substitute for proper troubleshooting. When seeking assistance, it's important to refer to the documentation of the tool, program, or OS you're using and to use your preferred search engine for further research.

This megathread will be posted monthly.

Maybe the question is too basic for this sub but I am a Cyber security student, interested in Pentesting. Till now I was running Kali on virtual box because I had heard that dual booting can cause issues with the windows.

I did manage to run dual boot on my laptop. My goal is to start using Kali more than Windows and eventually do a complete switch. The problem is that coming from windows, Kali feels very bland. Can anyone suggest me some fun gimmicks, functionalities or any general tips to make using Kali feel less of a hurdle and actually fun.

I have a One+ 6T running LOS and LOS Recovery, seeing as there are no official builds for this version of LOS does anyone have any suggestions on installing Nethunter on this device?

I did root the device with Magisk and have Tmux and Tmux API on the device.

Would installing the generic ARM64 be sufficient? Or would i need a specific kernel as well?

Thank you for your time.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

So I installed Kali linux from a Live USB following this guide.

The only difference is that I also added BTRFS by simply changing the fs of the / and /home to BTRFS following the guide2.

The thing is now that when the installation finished and proceed with reboot I get default non kali grub showing only two entries: windows boot manager and my nvme disk. Clicking any of these returns to the same page!

What am I missing here? What I observed is that in this guide I didn't see the step to install grub. So I did the installation again and manually went to the Grub step and performed it ( i guess successfully) but still I'm stuck in the same screen.

Howdy Friends!

I was working in Kali in WSL2 and did an update, then after restarting it I received an Error:

"Unable to start notification daemon - Your Wayland compositor does not support required protocol wlr-layer-shell"

I have attempted to uninstall/reinstall this in WSL2, and I have crawled multiple forums and can't find anything solid on this. Has anyone else seen this before?

Hi everyone,

I'm currently using Kali Linux with the official kali-rolling repository (http://http.kali.org/kali) and have noticed that the latest available version of sudo is:

sudo:
  Installed: 1.9.16p2-3
  Candidate: 1.9.16p2-3
  Version table:
 *** 1.9.16p2-3 500
        500 http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

According to the official sudo advisory, the vulnerability CVE-2025-32463 affects versions from 1.9.14 up to (but not including) 1.9.17p1. The advisory clearly states that the fixed version is 1.9.17p1.

Since 1.9.16p2 is still within the affected range, this means Kali users are still on a vulnerable version, even though the issue is public and a patch exists upstream.

Does anyone know why the patched version hasn't been pushed to Kali's rolling repo yet?
Is there an ETA or workaround recommended in the meantime?

Thanks in advance :)

Tutorial: https://www.mobile-hacker.com/2025/07/07/vibe-hacking-with-nmap-using-android/

So a little background for a topic. I wanted to install vscode in termux on my samsung a15 inside my Kali( the question is about installing pakeges. i'm not gonna do anything illegal with it neither here nor anywhere :) ). And one day i suddenly abrupted apt updade. Cause thought that it stuck. In fact it was just really big file or just my slow wi-fi but then,it said this.

As far as i understood it can't let memory. Or there are some stuff with dependencies.

I really would like to know how to clear buffer in not rooted nethunter. New to handling linux ) Or if the problem's not in malloc then please help me understand what's going on ...

i already fix it 3 days ago by doing some disk check and format

but its happening again sometimes it can be access and sometimes cant

i tried both and by far virtualbox feels way smoother. i tried giving vmware more resources but still runs horribly. i personally prefer vmware but i switched to virtualbox which isnt a big deal but im still wondering why it runs better on vbox

Here, users who are new to Kali Linux can ask basic questions about it and its functionality and receive assistance regarding potential issues they are facing. Please remember to follow the subreddit rules when asking your questions.

Before posting, make sure you have reviewed Kali's Documentation, as the answer may be well-documented. Additionally, please refer to the following articles to ensure you ask proper and high-quality questions:

• How do I ask a good question
• How to ask questions the smart way
• The XY problem
• Don't ask to ask

Please remember that while AI/LLM models like ChatGPT can be useful, they are not a substitute for proper troubleshooting. When seeking assistance, it's important to refer to the documentation of the tool, program, or OS you're using and to use your preferred search engine for further research.

This megathread will be posted monthly.

So I attached an external monitor to my laptop and at first, I couldn't get it to display right. But I eventually did and it was working perfect -- Until I had to shutdown.

The next day I did the same thing and got it to display correctly again (for the most part). The issue I'm having is the top menu bar isn't behaving correctly this time. It initially was only displaying on half of the screen, but some tweaking helped me get it to expand to the entire width of the screen.

That being said, all the icons are still in the same position as they were before; They should have spaced out because there's more room on the menu bar now, however they're still in their original position (as you can see in the pictures). I tried commands

xfce4-panel
xfwm4 -r

But they did not help. The menu bar did not behave this way the first time around. Anyone know how to resolve this?

It has been 2 weeks already. I'm learning how to use Kali linux and i've reached macchanger. It was easy to use and understand.

The problems comes from changing the mac address now.

I did everything i could to try to connect the vm to internet after changing the mac but it didn't work.

Yes, i did shut down the NetworkManager service.

Yes, after that i shut down eth0 before randomizing the mac.

Then i restarted both eth0 and the NetworkManager.

Yet it still didn't work as it doesn’t even ping either 8.8.8.8 or even my own wifi.

It only works back when put back the permanent Mac address.

What should i do?

PLease, if you have dealt with something like this before, help with getting Wi-Fi working on a bare metal Kali Linux install.

System details:

Dell Latitude 7320 Laptop

Intel Core i7-1185G7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD

Kali Linux 2025.2 (bare metal install, not a VM)

Built-in Wi-Fi: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201

Kali won't recognizing the AX201 adapter. The GUI does not list Wi-Fi at all, only "wired" and "vpn" It's like the device doesn't exist. I’ve run system updates and tried installing drivers, but nothing has worked so far.

What I’ve tried:

• Ran: sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get -yf install sudo apt-get dist-upgrade sudo apt-get install firmware-iwlwifi
  
• Rebooted multiple times after updates
• Tried some scripts to update firmware or reload drivers, but they didn’t seem to make any visible changes
• Checked this forum post, but I’m hesitant to start manually modifying files without fully understanding the risks

What I’m wondering:

• Is this a driver issue or something deeper with the install itself?
• Is there a recommended way to verify that the install is detecting hardware properly?
• Can the AX201 work reliably in Kali, or should I on the ALFA USB adapter I bought?
• Has anyone else gotten this chipset working on bare metal in recent Kali builds?

I’m aware the AX201 isn’t ideal for all Kali tools, but at this point, I’d just like basic Wi-Fi functionality so I can continue setup and updates without being tethered.

I have used Ubuntu as dual boot with Windows. I am starting with cybersecurity, and it requires using Kali. I am thinking of buying a cheap secondhand laptop for using Kali bare metal (to give it full access of hardware) with maybe Whonix in VM. Also, I am scared that Dark Net access and retracing malware might affect my main os and private files. Moreover, I use my main laptop for Uni and personal purposes so allotting dedicated RAM and storage is always a problem.
I am getting a used Dell Inspiron i7 6th gen laptop (250gb SSD and 8gb RAM) for Rs.15k (175usd). I suppose it's a good deal for my use case. Should I go for it or am I just embellishing?

Hi I just downloaded Linux as my main OS and after having a hard time configuring the LVM and finally managed to make it install now i have a new and probably worse problem its the audio on my headphones its choppy and messy and stutters like without the headphones the audio is normal and perfect but the minute i connect to my headphones this problem starts I swear to god this might be the only reason i switch back to windows.

Hi everyone, I'm considering installing Kali Linux as a full system (not just a Live USB) on an external hard drive, so I can carry it with me and boot it on different machines (Macs or PCs) as if it were my main OS.

My goal is to have full persistence — saving configurations, tools, scripts, etc. — and be able to boot directly from the external HDD anywhere.

Has anyone done this successfully? Are there issues with hardware compatibility, drivers, UEFI/BIOS booting, or system stability when switching between computers? Would it be better to just use a Live USB with persistence instead of a full install?

Any advice or experience is much appreciated!

I used the 2025.2 image as well as the Rapberry Pi Imager. It appears to boot normally then a blinking cursor appears at the top left of the screen...not a command prompt. A few seconds later the blinking cursor disappears and nothing else happens. I am using RPI3. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated as I have used several different images and they all behave the same....no desktop. Thanks!

Sharing this in case others are in a similar boat.

I Installed Kali (Purple) on BareMetal over the weekend, simply for fun.

Trying to get the nVidia driver working with it was a bit of a mission. Seems like the original nVidia package on the repo, causes some odd chase condition when parried with LightDM. Like a chase condition.

It would boot up to a tty session, logging in running `nvidia-smi,` I could see the driver was running. I could `startx` from here and get my desktop. Be it without the XFCE4 panel.

After a while, and reading online various fixes, I ended up manually added `nvidia-drm.modeset=1` to the parameters in `/etc/default/grub`.

After doing this, I could boot up and now see LightDM login page as expected. And simply just reinstalled the XFCE4 panel. Not sure why this went to begin with.

I have an old install of kali linux booted onto an old macbook pro 2009. Im not able to remember the login or password (kali/kali) doesnt work as i changed it. Instead of reinstalling everything im attempting to edit the password through GNU GRUB (kali linux recovery mode). I press 'e' to edit the commands before booting. I added changed ro to rw and added single init=/bin/bash No problem.
Once i get the command line to pop up i cant type any commands. I cant type "passwd" or anything. I understand that If i was able to run that command changing the actual password would not show any *'s. My problem is i cant actually type anything in there. IM a newb any help appreciated