What are some good mini laptops that I can buy for to install kali linux without any issues?
Fred Sheehan
2022-07-18, 15:18
to run only Kali?
dual boot?
run Kali in a VM?
VM is easiest as no driver issues, in that case something qaud core with at least 8GB RAM
if bare metal go for something with at least dual core, min 4GB RAM that has AMD or Intel GPU and intel wireless chipset..
Hi thank you for the input.
I need a mini laptop to run kali linux only,No VM or Dual boot.
However most mini laptops tend to have issues after installing kali,like the wifi won't work,power issues,etc.
Can you give me names of some mini laptops that won't give me hard time while installing kali on them.
Thanks much appreciated
miafrance
2022-07-20, 13:41
My main rig is setup for gaming but I want a cheap laptop just to learn Linux on, I'd like to start training on Kali eventually learning the inns and outs of network security.
My question is this:
For ?200 what would be the best laptop second hand / refurbished or new I could get?
I know for that much it won't be a great laptop but specs wise what would be the best bang for my buck?
I've been looking at some old dell xps models on eBay but I'm not sure if I'm better going that old or if I'll get a better system going for something more modern.
I know Linux doesn't really need a lot to run but I just want the best overall system for my money. I'd probably duel boot it just for the sake of it but I'm not really worried about gaming or running any special windows applications. The thing I'm most unsure of, is would I be best getting an a model with dedicated graphics to help with password hashes or would the power be better placed in the cpu?
Please feel free to mention any models or suggestions with a brief paragraph of why you think your suggestion would be a good idea.
Thank you for taking your time to help (https://www.dialedinepoxy.com/metallic-epoxy-floor-phoenix).
Fred Sheehan
2022-07-21, 07:47
@Polio
As for drivers, most issue like WiFi can be sorted, BUT thats usually only if you have an Ethernet port to get an internet connection, or you have a wireless USB adapter that is just 'plug and play' such as the Mediatek chipset based models.
If you want a laptop that will 'just work' with the inbuilt WiFi card as said earlier, go for Intel based WiFi chipsets, or Atheros based WiFi chipsets, and avoid Broadcom based, they are 'SoftMAC' models (i.e. the adapter has to have binary firmware loaded by the OS to use it, its not stored on the WiFi chip, leading to config issues, it can be fixed but can be convoluted)
I've had Kali and many other Linux flavours running on lots of different hardware over the years, and generally speaking the WiFi issues are the same for all, it's about manufacturer supplying information to the open source community more than anything else, just search 'WiFi adapter model in laptop + Linux' in a search engine, you'll soon find out if its a problematic adapter.
@miafrance
For 90% of what you do with Kali, such as network scanning, testing etc then anything at least dual core about 2 GHz or above and 4 GB RAM is a good start.
Thats about the minimum spec to get reasonable performance, but that does cover a lot of options...
Now, if you want to get into password hash cracking, thats where a good GPU comes in, and is where 'most' laptops are severely limited, it's not that they can't do it, their just slow, or if they have a really crappy GPU then it will use the CPU instead, which will mean that while doing such tasks, you won't be able to do anything else.
This is why ideally a quad core with 8 GB RAM (or more) works well, it can more easily cope with several tasks at once, and has reasonable speeds even if the GPU isn't brilliant.
200 dollars? GBP? Yen? you didn't actually say lol.. for that kind of money you'll be on a celeron (likely dual core) or similar CPU, with about 4GB RAM and 64 - 128 GB storage..
You'd get far more for your money by buying a few years old but high specced for its time model from the likes of Ebay as you thought, yes I'd go that route, you'll get better performance.