Kali Linux VMware Installation

Summary

In this documentation you will find the necessary steps to set up a Kali Linux Virtual Machine on VMware Workstation or Oracle VM VirtualBox.

VMware

Requirements

• Kali Linux Image File: Kali Linux 2021.1 amd64 (download from https://www.kali.org/downloads/ )
• VMware Workstation (Version 15.5 is used in this tutorial)

Setup

Open VMware Workstation and follow these configurations for a successful installation:

• Click on File -> New Virtual Machine; a window with the configuration will pop up
• Choose Typical as the type of configuration and click Next>
• Choose Installer disc image file (iso) and find path to the downloaded Kali ISO file, then click Next>
• As Guest operating system select Linux and set the Version to Debian 9.x 64-bit, then click Next>
• Set Maximum Disk Size to 40 GB and choose Split virtual disk into multiple files, then click Next> and Finish

Now you're all set for configuring the Kali Linux Installer:

• Select Graphical install and set language and country preferences
• Set hostname and if you want also the domain name, otherwise skip it
• Set up users and passwords
• As partitioning method for the disks choose Guided - use entire disk and then just confirm the disk
• As partitioning scheme choose All files in one operation (recommended for new users)
• Choose Finish partitioning and write changes to disk, and when prompted whether to write the changes to disks, just click yes
• You can leave the software selection on default:

• Click yes when prompted to install the GRUB boot loader to your primary drive and then as Device for boot loader installation enter /dev/sda; now you should be all set and your installation is finished as soon as the login window pops up

Used Hardware

• Virtual machine in VMWare: 4 vCPUs, 8GB RAM, 100GB SCSI HDD

Oracle VM VirtualBox

Requirements

• Pre-Made Kali VirtualBox VM [kali-linux-2024.3-virtualbox-amd64] (downloaded from: https://www.kali.org/get-kali/#kali-virtual-machines )
• Oracle VM Virtual Box (Version 7.0.14 is used in this tutorial)

Steps

• After downloading Pre-Made Karli VirtualBox VM the file will be a .zip file. Unzip it (for example with 7-Zip file Manager or any other Tool of your choice)
• Launch the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager
• Click on "Add" (de: Hinzufügen)

• Select the File you just unzip

• Click on "Start" and your Karli Linux is all setup

References

• https://www.kali.org/downloads/
• https://www.kali.org/get-kali/#kali-virtual-machines