Kali/Fixes

Upgrades

Updating Aptitude Sources

Your aptitude /etc/apt/sources.list should resemble the following, and ONLY the following:

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 7.0 _Kali_ - Official Snapshot amd64 LIVE/INSTALL Binary 20150312-17:50]/ kali contrib main non-free
#deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 7.0 _Kali_ - Official Snapshot amd64 LIVE/INSTALL Binary 20150312-17:50]/ kali contrib main non-free

# default repositories

deb http://http.kali.org/kali kali main non-free contrib
deb http://security.kali.org/kali-security kali/updates main contrib non-free

deb-src http://http.kali.org/kali kali main non-free contrib
deb-src http://security.kali.org/kali-security kali/updates main contrib non-free

If you are using Kali rolling release, your aptitude sources.list file will be even simpler:

$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main non-free contrib

Doing the Upgrade

First things first

$ apt-get update
$ apt-get -y dist-upgrade

(eliminated text below refers to Kali version 1.0.)

Now add to aptitude sources as per Kali 2015-06-17 notes, and when you have added the new sources, run

$ apt-get update

Now you'll be able to install stuff.

Map CapsLock to Control

I have to do this before anything else, otherwise I go nuts.

In Kali 2.0, open the Tweak Tool, then click Typing, and change "Caps Lock Key Behavior" to "Make Caps Lock an Additional Control."

In Applications > System Tools > Preferences > System Preferences, open Keyboard. Click Layout Settings. Click Options.

On this screen, changed Alt/Win to "Left Alt swapped with Left Win" and changed Caps Lock to "Make caps lock additional Control".

Shut Off NetworkManager

Turn off this gawdawful piece of software. It does nothing but get in the way and cause headaches.

$ systemctl stop NetworkManager.service
$ systemctl disable NetworkManager.service 

Iceweasel

All browsers are obnoxious, Firefox most of all. The Pentadactyl plugin, which creates vim keybindings for Iceweasel, is great.

Annoyances:

• can't use control a to select all text - it just moves the cursor to the beginning of the line (e.g. search box)
• wildly inconsistent and unpredictable behaviors with alt/meta/control/shift and arrows
• no improvement for entering text in a field.
• Control A doesn't select all, but Alt A does?!?

Mouse Trackpad

Synaptics

In Kali 2.0, the Mouse Trackpad on the Macbook Pro "just works."

The mouse trackpad can be modified with the xserver-xorg-inputs-synaptic package (as per https://wiki.debian.org/MacBookPro#Touchpad). Double finger scrolling is disabled by default but can be enabled by picking Applications > System Tools > Preferences > System Preferences, then Mouse, then edit the settings in the Trackpad tab.

I had synclient installed on my machine: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchpad_Synaptics#Synclient

What I'm trying to do: http://askubuntu.com/questions/250336/disable-mouse-movement-in-tap-zones-on-synaptics-trackpad

I believe the synaptics stuff is provided by the gpointing-device-settings package, which I already had.

In any case, you can test settings with synclient. When you're ready, commit them to Xorg in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf to pick them up at restart.

More on these idiotic clickpads: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchpad_Synaptics#Synclient

This is very discouraging: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=188324

Guess I'll have to resort to a physical hack to fix this god-awful apple keyboard.

Annoyances:

• when i have a second finger on (or even near) the trackpad, the trackpad won't accept any input at all.
• i use the trackpad with index finger while resting thumb on bottom of trackpad
• if apple hadn't designed such an idiotic trackpad, this wouldn't be an issue
• solution is to increase the very very tiny sliver of ignored space at the bottom of the trackpad

Keyboard Shortcuts

The function keys typically have a primary function (like, you know, when you press F1 and it does the thing that F1 is supposed to do). Then there is usually a secondary action, like turn down the brightness. So far some good. Except some operating systems are so stupid that they assume you want to do the secondary action, always.

To fix the function keys to be permanently toggled, run the command:

echo 0 > /sys/module/hid_apple/parameters/fnmode

which allows you to use the function keys as function keys, without pressing a Fn key.

Installing Software

Aptitude

Yet another improvement in Kali 2.0: no aptitude problems.

You will find dozens of Kali repository URLs floating around the web - all kali.org addresses, but with various prefixes, suffixes, and repo labels. Half of these will work, all the time. Some of them will work half the time. Some will never, ever work.

The only two I have any confidence in:

deb http://security.kali.org/ kali/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.kali.org/ kali/updates main contrib non-free

These two lines go in /etc/apt/sources.list, which contains a list of repositories to look in when running apt-get.

VirtualBox

This page has a few steps for installing VirtualBox on Kali Linux: https://netsecuritystuff.wordpress.com/2013/07/05/installing-virtualbox-on-kali-linux

This page has the solution to athe problem of linux development headers not being found (solution: add additional Kali Linux aptitude repositories): https://forums.kali.org/showthread.php?5804-Kernel-headers-problem

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
wget download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.2.14/virtualbox-4.2_4.2.14-86644~Debian~wheezy_i386.deb
dpkg -i virtualbox-4.2_4.2.14-86644~Debian~wheezy_i386.deb 

Gnome-Do

Not needed with Kali 2.0.

To install gnome-do, you need to visit this link: http://repo.kali.org/kali/pool/main/g/gnome-do/

There, you can download a binary gnome-do .deb file. This can be installed like so:

dpkg -i ~/Downloads/gnome-do_0.95.3_amd64.deb

This will install gnome-do.

Upgrading to Kali Rolling

fonts broken

When upgrading a version of Kali rolling from January to July, I saw a bunch of problems show up with fonts - all the letters were replaced with little boxes after running an apt-get dist-upgrade. To fix this, I ran:

$ apt --reinstall install fonts-cantarell 

This fixed the issue.

Hat tip: [1]

sound broken

I was able to get sound working again by uninstalling pulseaudio, uninstalling alsa stuff from the apt repositories, installing the alsa sound drivers by hand, then reinstalling pulseaudio from the apt repositories.

The whole shabang, in one single script:

#!/bin/sh

apt-get remove --purge alsa-*
apt-get remove --purge pulseaudio

wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/firmware/alsa-firmware-1.0.29.tar.bz2
tar -vxjf alsa-firmware-1.0.29.tar.bz2
cd alsa-firmware-1.0.29/
./configure && make && make install

cd ../

wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/lib/alsa-lib-1.1.2.tar.bz2
tar -vxjf alsa-lib-1.1.2.tar.bz2
cd alsa-lib-1.1.2/
./configure && make && make install

cd ../

wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/plugins/alsa-plugins-1.1.1.tar.bz2
tar -vxjf alsa-plugins-1.1.1.tar.bz2
cd alsa-plugins-1.1.1/
./configure && make && make install

cd ../

wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/utils/alsa-utils-1.1.2.tar.bz2
tar -vxjf alsa-utils-1.1.2.tar.bz2
cd alsa-utils-1.1.2/
apt-get install -y libncurses5 libncurses-dev xmlto # <--- this will take a while
./configure && make && make install

cd ../

apt-get install -y pulseaudio