Howto: Build a Kali MATE Image (The right way)

[scorpius]

So what's wrong with the standard MATE build? Well, one thing is that a display manager is not installed (resulting in a text mode login, then you have to run startx manually). Also airmon-ng doesn't work out of the box because of missing packages. And lastly, there is no network manager. These are easy to fix.

# Setup
apt-get install -y live-build debootstrap
git clone git://git.kali.org/live-build-config.git
cd live-build-config/

# Add missing packages
echo "" >> kali-config/variant-mate/package-lists/kali.list.chroot
echo usbutils >> kali-config/variant-mate/package-lists/kali.list.chroot
echo ieee-data >> kali-config/variant-mate/package-lists/kali.list.chroot
echo wavemon >> kali-config/variant-mate/package-lists/kali.list.chroot
echo network-manager-gnome >> kali-config/variant-mate/package-lists/kali.list.chroot

# Fix autologin and startx
unzip ~/1002 -d kali-config/common/includes.chroot

# Make ISO
./build.sh --distribution sana --variant mate --verbose --arch i386

The Kali docs say go get a cup of coffee while the image builds. I say go do something that lasts over 3.5 hours, because that's how long it takes on my P4! Also, about 3GB of packages will be downloaded. So if you make one little change and rebuild, the cache is cleared and there goes another 3GB. You can eliminate the repeated downloads by removing the --purge option in the build.sh script.

[maxximummuziky]

Invalid Attachment specified please fix it.

[scorpius]

You were not able to download the zip file? Make sure you are logged in and try again.

[Magnethelm]

You were not able to download the zip file? Make sure you are logged in and try again.

I'm logged in.

Answer: "Invalid Attachment specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator"

[scorpius]

I don't know what's wrong with the attachment, but you can recreate the tiny 642-byte zip file by pasting this one-liner.


echo 504b03041400020008006d9d5a47f4397e4d7d000000930000 0026001c006574632f73797374656d642f73797374656d2f78 696e69742d6c6f67696e2e7365727669636555540900039eba 2e56a4ba2e5675780b000104000000000400000000258d3b0e c2301044fb3dc55e606338800b9028a8c3a7885c046741961c 5bf2ae51727b1cd2cd3c3dcd0cf714d4c1e9ad5cacaca23c4f 54850b098b849ca46be51b3c03c2d0efd1c16561dfeb58d49a 5748462a969c152922793455ca8e376341227cdc0ec76de09a 1a8bd1c1734ccad379b5738d1afe8f5db33facf003504b0304 0a0000000000fb9d5a473acab8c027000000270000003e001c 006574632f73797374656d642f73797374656d2f6d756c7469 2d757365722e7461726765742e77616e74732f78696e69742d 6c6f67696e2e736572766963655554090003aabb2e56e1bb2e 5675780b0001040000000004000000002f6574632f73797374 656d642f73797374656d2f78696e69742d6c6f67696e2e7365 7276696365504b01021e031400020008006d9d5a47f4397e4d 7d00000093000000260018000000000001000000a481000000 006574632f73797374656d642f73797374656d2f78696e6974 2d6c6f67696e2e7365727669636555540500039eba2e567578 0b000104000000000400000000504b01021e030a0000000000 fb9d5a473acab8c027000000270000003e0018000000000000 000000ffa1dd0000006574632f73797374656d642f73797374 656d2f6d756c74692d757365722e7461726765742e77616e74 732f78696e69742d6c6f67696e2e7365727669636555540500 03aabb2e5675780b000104000000000400000000504b050600 00000002000200f00000007c0100000000 | xxd -ps -r - autologin-startx.zip

[Magnethelm]

I don't know what's wrong with the attachment, but you can recreate the tiny 642-byte zip file by pasting this one-liner.


THX

#Magnethelm

[BlokeDownThePub]

Roughly how much disk space is used at the peak of the process? It's been a while since I did a respin (1.0.9 IIRC) and it used a lot more than the size of the output .iso

I've previously done my respins from within a kali VM in virtualbox and I like to allocate enough space but not too much.

[scorpius]

It downloads about 3GB of packages, plus it needs space to create a temporary iso, so I'd say your need at least 10GB.