Live persistence install on bootable USB not saving root password change

[Uvatha]

Kali Version: 1.0.2
Kali Architecture: i386

Hello,

I installed Kali on a bootable USB key with a persistence partition (in order to save settings modification or documents), following the official guides (http://docs.kali.org/installation/ka...ve-usb-install). Settings are saved (e.g. keyboard layout changed is kept if I shutdown and reboot again with "persistence" option in command line from boot menu). Also, additional users created or documents created and put on desktop are saved.

However, if I change the root password (with command passwd). Then if I logout (so, without rebooting, juts logout), then I have to use the new password to login again, as expected. But, if I reboot completely (going through the boot menu, adding persistence in the command line), then the new password is not saved and I have to use again the default one (toor). Note that changing password for additional users works perfectly with both logout and full reboot: the new password for these additional users are saved.

Is it linked to the default parameters proposed by the boot menu ?
Today I am only pressing TAB key and adding "persistence" at the end of the line.
Without modification of the begining (sudo..., username=root..., etc....)

Best regards,

Uvatha

[otto]

I have the same question but would like to expand to saving system settings between reboots. I am running Kali on USB with persistence. I would like to save system settings and possibly packages. Any help is appreciated.

[Hitman_86]

And still im waiting too, thanks.

[drinkeru]

I also have a similar issue, my problem is that even the items on the desktop aren't being saved.
Everytime I boot I have to reinstall flash to view tutorials.

For persistence I used the official doc here http://docs.kali.org/installation/ka...ve-usb-install

[ElJuan]

I have the same issue. Has anyone been able to solve this issue yet?

[vonderaelic]

there is nothing to solve. Persistence is for files you wish to save not configurations, programs, env variables etc... thats how its supposed to work. ever used tails? same ideah. If you want a different system do the live build scripts or finish reading to the end of the instruction page and you will see that from your usb you can make a install to another usb and have "true" persistence. -the female orgasm, thats the myth

[alexosumi]

there is nothing to solve. Persistence is for files you wish to save not configurations, programs, env variables etc... thats how its supposed to work. ever used tails? same ideah. If you want a different system do the live build scripts or finish reading to the end of the instruction page and you will see that from your usb you can make a install to another usb and have "true" persistence. -the female orgasm, thats the myth

Well, i just trying to do something to protect my persistence login and i found the way to do it,ex:
1. make your login with root using toor pw
2. use #passwd root to change your root password
3. enter in /etc/passwd and copy root's password hash
4. after copy root's password hash you need to put it in "/lib/live/config/0031-root-password" , just clean old hash and put the new one
5. restar and test =)

TIP:
if you and no roots login, you can edit /etc/passwd and change thw first line changing /bin/bash to /bin/false,of course if you need use root previlegies you must edit /etc/sudoers and put your regular user to use any program with root previlegies.

i hope this tips can help.

[cliffskier]

there is nothing to solve. Persistence is for files you wish to save not configurations, programs, env variables etc... thats how its supposed to work. ever used tails? same ideah. If you want a different system do the live build scripts or finish reading to the end of the instruction page and you will see that from your usb you can make a install to another usb and have "true" persistence. -the female orgasm, thats the myth

So I think what you are saying is that, instead of doing a live boot from my usb, I can create a Kali installation on the usb and boot from that. That will allow me to password-protect everything, and even encrypt the installation. I can also keep any settings and any additional software I want to install.

I would create the installation by booting from my existing live usb, or from a dvd, and installing Kali with the usb as my boot drive. I have already tried this and I know it works.

Why would I want to do it any other way? This allows me to boot into Kali any time I want just by inserting the usb stick. The computer boots into Windows any time the stick is not inserted. There's no need for a dual-boot installation, and I can keep my Kali installation totally independent of the Windows installation. (It does seem that I have to go into the BIOS and change the boot order whenever I insert the usb drive. The BIOS doesn't remember the boot order. It would be really ideal if it would keep the usb stick first in the boot order, and skip over it to the Windows hdd if it didn't find the usb.)

This seems better than the live usb. Is there any down side to doing it this way? Would my installation still be portable to another machine (if I kept all of my Kali files on the usb stick)? Is there any risk of corrupting Kali or Windows, more than there would be with the live usb?

[worldborg]

Well, i just trying to do something to protect my persistence login and i found the way to do it,ex:
1. make your login with root using toor pw
2. use #passwd root to change your root password
3. enter in /etc/passwd and copy root's password hash
4. after copy root's password hash you need to put it in "/lib/live/config/0031-root-password" , just clean old hash and put the new one
5. restar and test =)

TIP:
if you and no roots login, you can edit /etc/passwd and change thw first line changing /bin/bash to /bin/false,of course if you need use root previlegies you must edit /etc/sudoers and put your regular user to use any program with root previlegies.

i hope this tips can help.

Great info man.

You can also just comment out the line that is setting the password to toor on boot.
sed -i '/usermod/s/^/#/' /lib/live/config/0031-root-password

##################################################
@K9:~# cat /lib/live/config/0031-root-password | grep user ;sed -i '/usermod/s/^/#/' /lib/live/config/0031-root-password ; cat /lib/live/config/0031-root-password | grep user
usermod -p 'X014elvznJq7E' root
#usermod -p 'X014elvznJq7E' root
################################################## ####
Once this has been commented out by adding the # in front of the usermod command then your password will no longer be changed back to toor everytme you boot up.

Thanks !

[Picker]

Why would I want to do it any other way? This allows me to boot into Kali any time I want just by inserting the usb stick. The computer boots into Windows any time the stick is not inserted. There's no need for a dual-boot installation, and I can keep my Kali installation totally independent of the Windows installation. (It does seem that I have to go into the BIOS and change the boot order whenever I insert the usb drive. The BIOS doesn't remember the boot order. It would be really ideal if it would keep the usb stick first in the boot order, and skip over it to the Windows hdd if it didn't find the usb.)

This seems better than the live usb. Is there any down side to doing it this way? Would my installation still be portable to another machine (if I kept all of my Kali files on the usb stick)? Is there any risk of corrupting Kali or Windows, more than there would be with the live usb?

I've actually been wondering the same thing back when I started using the Live USB Persistence option. I remember reading somewhere that Live USB is faster than an actual install on a USB drive - however with the USB drives today having read/write speeds around 200-300 MB/s I can't really imagine that still being true...
Have you tried installing directly to USB? Any quirks?
(I haven't gotten around to it myself - but I think I will pretty soon, since I can't get my GPU to work correctly)

[whitehat]

Great info man.

You can also just comment out the line that is setting the password to toor on boot.
sed -i '/usermod/s/^/#/' /lib/live/config/0031-root-password

##################################################
@K9:~# cat /lib/live/config/0031-root-password | grep user ;sed -i '/usermod/s/^/#/' /lib/live/config/0031-root-password ; cat /lib/live/config/0031-root-password | grep user
usermod -p 'X014elvznJq7E' root
#usermod -p 'X014elvznJq7E' root
################################################## ####
Once this has been commented out by adding the # in front of the usermod command then your password will no longer be changed back to toor everytme you boot up.

Thanks !

Commenting out the usermod line on a live USB boot may cause startpar to fail during post with [fail] startpar: service(s) returned failure: live-config ... failed!

Instead of commenting out the line you can simply replace X014elvznJq7E with the new password from /etc/shadow.

1. passwd --change to new password
2. cat /etc/shadow |grep root
3. copy the value between the first and second ":" after root:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:
4. using your method of choice replace the password, I used:
vi /lib/live/config/0031-root-password
5. press i for Insert --if using vi
6. replace X014elvznJq7E with the new password which was copied from the shadow file
7. press the Esc key, then :wq! --if using vi
8. reboot