Kali Linux is the perfect Linux distribution for learning and practicing hacking and penetration testing.
Also, if you often tinker with Linux distributions, you’ve probably tried it out of curiosity.
Warning!
The content of this article is for learning Kali Linux installation only. Do not use Kali Linux for any unauthorized behavior. Kali Linux should be used in the case of authorization to conduct reasonable penetration tests on authorized targets to understand their vulnerabilities and protect against them. Neither the translator nor the website shall be responsible for any unauthorized or illegal use or the consequences thereof.
However, no matter what you do with it, it’s not a replacement for a full-fledged desktop Linux operating system. Therefore, it is recommended (at least for beginners) to install Kali Linux using a virtual machine program such as VMware.
From the virtual machine, you can use Kali Linux as a regular application on your Windows or Linux system, just like running VLC or Skype on your system.
There are several free virtualization tools available. You can install Kali Linux on Oracle VirtualBox, use VMWare Workstation, or purchase a cloud server. This tutorial focuses on VMWare.
Install Kali Linux on VMware for Windows and Linux
Non-foss alert!
VMWare is not open source software.
For this tutorial, I’m assuming you’re using Windows, considering that most VMware users prefer Windows 10/11.
However, in addition to installing VMWare on Windows, this tutorial is also available for Linux. You can easily install VMWare on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions.
Step 1: Install VMWare Workstation Player on Windows
If you already have VMware installed on your system, you can skip to installing Kali Linux.
Go to VMWare’s official Workstation Player web page and click on the “Download For Free” button.
Next, you can select the version (if you want a specific version or have bugs with the latest version) and click “Go to Downloads.”
You will then see the Download button for Windows and Linux versions. You need to click the “Windows 64-bit” button, because that’s what we need here.
Incidentally, it does not support 32-bit systems.
Finally, when you get the downloaded.exe file, launch it to begin the installation process. You’ll need to click “Next” to start installing VMware.
Next, you need to agree to these policies and conditions to proceed.
Now, you can choose the installation path. Ideally, keep the default Settings. However, if you need better Keyboard response/on-screen Keyboard performance in a virtual machine, you may want to enable the “Enhanced Keyboard Driver”.
As a next step, you can choose to disable update checking every time you start an application (which can be annoying) and disable sending data to VMware as part of its user experience improvement plan.
If you want to use the desktop and Start menu shortcuts for quick access, you can check these Settings or uncheck them like I did.
Now, proceed to start the installation.
This may take some time, and when you’re done, you’ll see another window that lets you complete the process and gives you the option to enter a license key. If you want a commercial license, you need VMware Workstation Professional. Otherwise, the Player version is free for personal use.
Attention!
Make sure virtualization is enabled on your system. Recent versions of VMWare Windows require that you explicitly enable virtualization to use virtual machines.
Step 2: Install Kali Linux on VMware
To start, you need to download the image file for Kali Linux. Also, Kali Linux provides a separate ISO file if you plan to use it on a virtual machine.
Go to its official download page to download the pre-built VMware image available.
You can download.7z files directly or use Torrent (which is generally faster). In both cases, you can also check file integrity with the supplied SHA256 value.
Once the download is complete, you need to unzip the file to whatever path you choose.
Open VMware Workstation Player and then click “Open a Virtual Machine”. Now, look for the folder you extracted. Then browse through it until you find a file with the.vmx extension.
For example, kali-Linux-2021.3-vmware-amd64. VMX.
Select the.vmx file to open the virtual machine. It should appear directly in your VMware Player.
You can choose to start the VIRTUAL machine with default Settings. Or, if you want to adjust the hardware assigned to the virtual machine, feel free to change the Settings before starting.
Depending on your computer hardware, you should allocate more memory and at least half the processor core to get smooth performance.
In this case, I have 16GB of RAM and a quad-core processor. Therefore, it is safe to allocate nearly 7GB of memory and two kernels for this virtual machine.
Although you can allocate more resources, it may affect the performance of your host operating system at work. Therefore, it is advisable to keep a balance between the two.
Now, save the Settings and click “Play Virtual Machine” to start Kali Linux on VMware.
When it starts loading, you may see some hints that you can improve performance by tweaking some virtual machine Settings.
You don’t have to do this, but if you notice performance issues, you can improve the performance of your virtual machine by disabling side-channel mitigations (for security enhancements).
In addition, you may be prompted to download and install VMware Tools for Linux; You need to do this to have a good virtual machine experience.
Once done, you should see the Kali Linux login screen.
Considering that you are starting a pre-established VMware virtual machine, you will need to enter the default login and password to continue.
- User name:
kali - Password:
kali
That’s it! You have completed installing Kali Linux on VMware. Now, all you have to do is start exploring!
What’s next?
Here are some tips you can use:
- If clipboard sharing and file sharing are not working, install VMWare Tools on the Guest system (Kali Linux).
- If you’re new, check out this list of Kali Linux tools.