HOWTO : Kali Linux 1.0.6 for All Purpose

This article is also suit for Kali Linux 1.0.9a

Kali Linux is designed for penetration testing. I am going to make it for daily use operating system as well as for penetration testing.

Installation

Make sure you select full disk encryption when install the Kali Linux on your computer. Your root password should be as strong as possible.

(A) Sudoer

Basic user of Kali Linux is root. For daily usage, a sudoer is much better.

Login as root. Create a new user, e.g. "Samiux" at Applications -- System Tools -- Preferences -- System Settings -- User Accounts. Make sure the new user password is strong enough.

adduser samiux sudo

* where samiux is the new user name.

Then, you need to logout and re-login to make the setting effective. Now, you can use command with "sudo" with your user's password.

(B) Apparmor

It is not effective to use "NoScript" Add-ons on Iceweasel as almost all web pages are using javascript. To protect your browser from being compromised, an alternative way is to implement the Apparmor. Apparmor for Iceweasel can be used in penetration testing and daily use.

sudo apt-get install apparmor apparmor-docs apparmor-notify apparmor-profiles apparmor-utils dh-apparmor python-libapparmor

Edit the /etc/default/grub to make apparmor to active after boot.

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Locate the following string :

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet"

To make it looks like :

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet apparmor=1 security=apparmor"

Then run the following command :

sudo update-grub

After that, create a file namely usr.lib.iceweasel.iceweasel at /etc/apparmor.d/ :

sudo nano /etc/apparmor.d/usr.lib.iceweasel.iceweasel

Copy the following content to the file and save it.



Then change the mode of iceweasel apparmor to enforce by using the following command :

sudo aa-enforce /etc/apparmor.d/usr.lib.iceweasel.iceweasel

To update the rule of apparmor, just run the following command and ask some questions. Most likely, you just need to answer "Allow".

sudo aa-logprof

(C) Iceweasel Add-ons

You may need to install "FoxyProxy" Add-ons to Iceweasel.

sudo apt-get install xul-ext-foxyproxy-standard

You can install any available Add-ons by searching the database :

sudo apt-cache search xul-ext

(D) Power Saving for Laptop

Applying the following setting, your battery life of your laptop will be extended a bit, for example 2 hours battery life more. I have tested this setting on Lenovo ThinkPad X201s and Apple MacBook Air (Mid 2013) with Live USB as well as a Zotac small PC with nVidia display.

Although the i915 is for Intel display, but it is no harm to add them to your box.

nano /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf

Append the following :

options i915 i915_enable_rc6=1
options i915 i915_enable_fbc=1
options i915 lvds_downclock=1

update-initramfs -u

This file "99macbookair6" is for USB 3.0 power saving. Download this file, "99macbookair6", make it executable and place it at /etc/pm/power.d/99macbookair6



nano /etc/rc.local

Insert the following before "exit 0".

/etc/pm/power.d/99macbookair6 true

Then install the tlp.

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Append the following :

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/linrunner/tlp/ubuntu lucid main

Save and exit. Then run the following :

apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 02D65EFF

apt-get update
apt-get install tlp tlp-rdw

nano /etc/default/tlp

Change the following values.

DISK_IDLE_SECS_ON_AC=0
DISK_IDLE_SECS_ON_BAT=2
MAX_LOST_WORK_SECS_ON_BAT=60
CPU_SCALING_GOVERNOR_ON_BAT=powersave
DISK_APM_LEVEL_ON_BAT="1 1"
RUNTIME_PM_ALL=1
RESTORE_DEVICE_STATE_ON_STARTUP=1

* Or, leave the /etc/default/tlp settings untouch

To examine the power saving condition, you can install and run "powertop" or/and run "tlp-stat".

sudo apt-get install powertop

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Locate the following string :

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet apparmor=1 security=apparmor"

And make it looks like :

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet pcie_aspm=force apparmor=1 security=apparmor radeon.dpm=1 acpi_backlight=vendor"

Then run the following command :

sudo update-grub

No matter your display card is Intel, nVidia or AMD Radeon, you can apply the captioned setting. Meanwhile, you can alter the settings at the /etc/default/tlp for your display card (any) even the settings labelled as "radeon".

If your laptop is Lenovo ThinkPad, you need to install the following too. After that, restart the tlp or reboot.

sudo apt-get install tp-smapi-dkms acpi-call-tools

(E) Changing Repositories Mirror

If your Kali Linux update/upgrade is slow due to slow mirror, you can hard code the repositories mirror in order to improve the update/upgrade performance.

There is a mirror list of Kali Linux. You can change the mirror at /etc/apt/sources.list by refering to this link.

(F) nVidia CUDA

If you have an nVidia card and wanted to use CUDA to do password cracking, you can refer to this link for the installation.

(G) Some Useful Applications

There are some useful applications that you may want to install to the Kali Linux. You can refer to this link for the installation.

Apparmor for Hexchat (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.hexchat) :



Apparmor for Radiotray (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.radiotray) :



Apparmor for VirtualBox (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.VBox) :



(H) Lenovo ThinkPad TrackPoint

nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-thinkpad.conf

Copy the following to the 20-thinkpad.conf :



(I) Kali Linux GRUB Background Reborn

After the installation, the GRUB background of the Kali Linux will be blue on black. However, it should be a Kali Linux background. We are going to get it back.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get remove grub-pc
sudo apt-get install grub-pc

After that, you can reboot your computer.

That's all! See you.