Live USB Kali Installation with Persistence....Except No Persistence...

[russ6105]

Hi All,


I made a live USB installation using the kali-linux-2016.1-amd64.iso using the Pendrivelinux Universal USB Installer, following it up using the Minitool Partition Wizard Free (to add persistence), then as per the instructions here:

http://null-byte.wonderhowto.com/how...ional-0162253/


I ran fdisk -l , made a directory on the file system, mounted the partition on the directory, added the .conf file to enable persistence, unmounted and rebooted, selected live usb with persistence from the splash screen -

I followed the instructions to the letter (yes, my target partition was also /dev/sdc2 as per the demo)

Kali performs wonderfully, yet after making several changes to Iceweasel, getting Burp to cough up it's CA and install it in the browser, doing a bit of testing - all went well except that upon reboot (always in persistence mode), there was no evidence of any persistence.

I booted the USB on a windows desktop and a Dell laptop - both booted and ran fine but no persistence.

Here's a couple of screenshots that may shed some light on the situation:



conf_location.jpg

volume_properties.jpg

If I have neglected to provide any pertinent info regarding this situation, I apologize and will provide it if asked.

Thanks in advance!

[rtng]

Hello russ6105,
i have to admit, that i thought that this would be a bug, wrote a ticket, and botherd the good people with this...still feeling sorry, for stealing time.
But rhertzog from the Kali Linux Bugtrackerside had been so kind to give me this hint, so it's my duty now to share it here.

if you did a clean installation following these tutorials: http://docs.kali.org/downloading/kal...sb-persistence or https://www.offensive-security.com/k...istent-stores/
you should be able to boot the non encrypted persistent partition with these steps:
1. boot from your live usb image including the persistent store
2. at the splashscreen mark "Live USB Persistence" and don't hit enter yet!
3. Tab and you shoud be able to write at the bottom of the splash.screen.
4. go to the end of what allready has been written
5. write: "[space] persistence-label=persistence" or "[space] persistence-label=work" (depending on how you labeled it) and then hit enter
6. this should let you boot into your persistent store
(maybe this would already work with the install-method you followed, give it a try)

btw; i really appreciate the multiple persistence live pendrive thing, find very recommendable to do it with a kali-light immage!
this will not only let you boot your stores on and off lightning fast but also makes you own two different kali-systems, after you suited each of them to your special needs on an usb..
and finally (for the paranoid) you can let the courious people destroy your encrypted persistence data if needed (hopefully not ) see:
https://www.kali.org/tutorials/nuke-kali-linux-luks/
if you need to get off cleanhanded.
and you can even manage to image this to an sd-card.

ingenious Kali
thanks again to rhertzog for his patient help

[rtng]

o.k. i've been courious and tried out to make a simple usb-persistence according http://docs.kali.org/downloading/kal...sb-persistence after copying my prefered image opening a terminal in the same folder and :
sudo dd if=kali-linux-light-2016.1-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=512k (Method from: http://docs.kali.org/downloading/kal...ve-usb-install )

for this simple persistence usb install you don't need to follw the steps i discribed before.
you just have to choose "Live USB Persistence" and hit enter.

for my experience ,there are a lot of tut's in the web but it's better to try the methods from the official Kali Webpages first and read them seriously.

hoping that was useful,
all the best.