Kali Linux is a free Linux distribution that comes with many tools pre-installed for penetration and exploits testing, Virtual Box is a free open source virtual machine application that allows you to create a number of virtual machines that can be run on your PC, it’s a great way to try out a new operating system without the need to dual boot, you can create clones once you have set up your machine, if something goes wrong you can delete the VM and clone a new one. Download Kali Linux
Limitations
Although you can create several VMs, you should be aware there will be a limit on the number of VM’s you can run at a time, this will depend on the number of resources you have available on your main PC.
The more memory and CPU’s you can use for your VM will determine how fast your VM will run. On an I7 with 16 Gb of memory, you could run 4 VMs, each VM using 1 CPU and 2 Gb of memory.
The following videos will guide you through creating your Kali Linux virtual machine using Virtual Box:
Update: you can download a VM directly from the Kali Linux website Download VM
After you have created your virtual machine, this video will show you how to install Kali Linux:
Important:
After you have logged into Kali Linux you should wait 5 minutes for the system to settle before entering any commands, if you do not allow the machine to settle you will get write errors as some folders will be locked by the system.
Install Guest Additions
For the final stage you need to install the guest additions for the Virtual Box this will allow you to run the VM in full screen and use the copy and paste functions, you will need to type the commands in the video in order to install the additions, after they have been installed you can copy and paste commands into the terminal using Ctrl + Shift + V to copy commands you need to use Ctrl + Shift + C
The first command will install any updates before we go ahead and install the guest additions – this can take some time so grab a drink and wait for it to finish, once it has updated you will need to reboot the VM – unlike windows Linux needs to reboot to set up new installations.
First command:
root@kali:~# apt update & apt -y dist-upgrade
When the VM has restarted you can log in using user: root pass: the one you created during setup, you can then run this command to install the guest additions:
root@kali:~# apt -y install virtualbox-guest-x11
When it finishes installing, reboot the VM after the VM reloads, and you log in.
You can resize the VM and use the drag-drop and copy-paste commands, this will make it much easier to copy and run commands from other tutorials.
More tutorials
Please check out my other video tutorials in the Virtual Box series:
Install Windows 10 on Virtual Box
