Kali Linux 64 bit ISO-1.0.9 Will not boot from USB on macbook

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2014-09-16
mdb_007

Kali Linux 64 bit ISO-1.0.9 Will not boot from USB on macbook

Hello. I am having a problem booting from my USB drive. I followed all the steps but when I go to select the drive during boot up, it freezes. I logged into mac and looked at the files and folders of the iso image. I moved "initrd.img" out of the live directory and into the parent directory. Then restarted and it allowed me to boot to the main start menu of Kali.When I went to start the os it gave error "initrd.img" not in Live directory. I then tried copying the img file to the parent directory but I received the error not enough space.

Anyone know how to fix this?
2014-10-02
mwa

Hello! Have are problems launch Kali on the MacBook 2008 2,4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo OSX Lion 10.7.5
i use EFI, before it was OSX + Ubuntu 14.10 , after installing Kali 1.0.9 (removing Ubuntu) EFI does not see KALI....
Cant install Backtrack, it was removed from downloads....
Who can help to install KAli on my old Macbook?
2014-10-03
hackerway

Hello all -

I'm having the same issue. FYI I'm running a late 2010 MBAir with OSX 10.9.5.

I have followed the instructions from the Kali Documentation website as well as the following tutorial: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/deskt...ick-on-mac-osx

When pressing Alt/Option, my Macbook does recognize the USB EFI but either a) freezes right away when clicking on the file or b)start loading the live boot but then the screen gets all fuzzy and is completely unreadable.

I also used Mac Linux USB booter: while I was able to boot the image perfectly, I was never able to log in in Kali. The root/toor or toor/root combinations never allowed me to log in and the install process did not offer me the chance to enter my own password.

I'm pretty much out of ideas and would appreciate any insight. I have installed Kali on VMware but would really like to use the USB liveboot.

Could it be that Kali is just not compatible on certain macbooks? (old versions?)

Many thanks.
2014-10-06
SaltwaterC

Quote:

Originally Posted by hackerway

with OSX 10.9.5

I think this may be the issue. I had a Kali 1.0.9 live USB with persistence that used to work flawlessly. Then 10.9.5 came up and the live USB ceased to boot on Apple hardware. It simply states: "No bootable device - insert boot disk and press any key". I "reflashed" the drive using the same procedure described by the documentation. No dice.

I'm not 100% sure that the upgrade broke the USB boot, but so far this is the only thing that actually changed on my machine.
2014-10-15
Cheshire

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaltwaterC

I think this may be the issue. I had a Kali 1.0.9 live USB with persistence that used to work flawlessly. Then 10.9.5 came up and the live USB ceased to boot on Apple hardware. It simply states: "No bootable device - insert boot disk and press any key". I "reflashed" the drive using the same procedure described by the documentation. No dice.

I'm not 100% sure that the upgrade broke the USB boot, but so far this is the only thing that actually changed on my machine.

having same mistake on my late 2011 Macbook Pro (10.9.5 OSX) with kali iso 1.0.9a "No bootable device - insert boot disk and press any key". Works perfectly on my PC.
2014-10-25
RedFool

I had the same problems with my 2010 macbook, ever since I updated to Mountain lion, and that may have been when the kali update was to.. I'm not sure too long ago. But I've spent many sleepless, angry, USB throwing nights trying to get it to work, but I just gave up and did a Live DVD. The DVD is a bit slow at opening applications, but It runs great and easy to install if you wanted to just do a full install. Sorry this doesn't answer any questions, I've just been in the same boat for a while and have given up :(
2014-10-26
SaltwaterC

I also tried an Ubuntu live using their described procedure of making a live USB for Macbooks. Same error.

I installed rEFInd to test if another boot manager can fix the live Kali boot. It can see the USB drive, but none of the options work: (1) EFI boot, hangs on syslinux.efi; (2) legacy boot, that hybrid MBR stuff, returns the same "No bootable device - insert boot disk and press any key" error.

Even more, rEFInd couldn't detect the OS X installation as it normally should. There is the option to manually add a boot entry in refind.conf, but I'm not sure that it really works. I had to go to the recovery mode, then select the Startup Disk menu option after picking the Disk Utility from the recovery dialog. This restored Apple's boot procedure.

With the latest update, Apple managed to invent yet another incompatibility.
2014-11-09
adam.milton

I am having the same issue. I am trying to install on a Macbook Pro Mid 2012. I get tot he EFI boot menu and select Windows, how Mac OSX sees Kali, the screen turns black and there is only a blinking cursor in the top left side of the screen. I m stumped also.
2014-11-10
adam.milton

Little update! I was able to boot from my USB. I used this website and used the OSX directions.

http://docs.kali.org/installation/ka...ve-usb-install

Once I ran the "dd" command I let it run all night and the next morning I was able to boot up from the USB. NOW I have a problem with the install option. I want to install Kali on my laptop and I run through all the steps and once it finishes I try to boot up into Kali and I just get this dull grey screen.

*sigh* On to the next problem.
2014-11-15
G186

I ran in to this, and i just wanted to add the following :

I have an early 2011 MacBookPro (MBP), i5 cpu, 320GB HDD 4GB RAM OSX 10.9.5

using kali-linux-1.0.9-amd64.iso

Using a USB Flash drive , I did the diskutil thing and the dd command to image the flash drive.
After it was done, I restarted the MBP, held down the alt button after the boot-sound, and I was the boot menu, I selected the usb flash drive, pressed enter, and Kali started booting.
I checked out a couple things, everything was working, cool, so I ended the session and shut the MBP down (properly).

I booted it back up into OSX later on that day and did my thing, shut it down, things were ok.

Next day, I wanted to boot into Kali again, I plugged in the USB flash drive and turned on the MBP, pressed the alt button after the boot up-sound, and I selected the flash drive, pressed enter, and........... it just stayed there! frozen, the mouse want moving, buttons, nothing, so I pressed the power button for 5 seconds till it turned off.

ever since then, I cannot boot back into Kali off the usb drive

I tried multiple Flash drives, re-dowloaded the image, I tried both usb ports on this computer, nothing!

OSX boots fine,

so, I followed the instructions for installing refined in an attempted to install Kali on a small partition on the hard drive, refined installed, I attempted to boot off a fresh USB flash drive using the refined boot menu, it calls it Windows, but thats normal, I selected it, pressed enter, and it took me to a MS-DOS like screen and in white text it displayed one line at the top of a black screen "No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key"

what is going on !

OSX still boots fine with refined installed,

Keep in mind, I was only able to boot Kali the first time I ever attempted to boot it, which was successful.

I dont recall doing any updates in between,

G186
2014-11-27
MalboroTime

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaltwaterC

I think this may be the issue. I had a Kali 1.0.9 live USB with persistence that used to work flawlessly. Then 10.9.5 came up and the live USB ceased to boot on Apple hardware. It simply states: "No bootable device - insert boot disk and press any key". I "reflashed" the drive using the same procedure described by the documentation. No dice.

I'm not 100% sure that the upgrade broke the USB boot, but so far this is the only thing that actually changed on my machine.

It probably is not the USB port because a few others and I are getting this error as well. Do you guys know where to get some older images of kali like 1.0.8 in order to get a dual boot install out of the way on that version, then updating within Kali with a sudo apt-get update && apt-get upgrade command? I don't know how this would help in terms of booting the os from a drive, but for those like myself that are attempting to dual boot install kali on the OSX I think this might work, I'm not sure. I'll try it and be back with the results soon. If you guys are gonna try this you might want to compare the hashes.
2014-12-05
BlokeDownThePub

I was having similar problems to you. You can get torrents, but not isos, by going to the download page and manually frigging the url.

http://cdimage.kali.org/kali-1.0.8/

Are you familiar with bittorent?

Really, there should be a proper archive of older versions...
2015-01-13
KossBert

So I've got the same problem here. I'm run OSx 10.10.1 on a late 2010 macbook air. As someone else here it worked the first time but not after that.
I've tried everything I can imagine. Changing ports, flashdrives, re-downloading, downloading 1.0.8 instead and nothing works. I press the efi-boot at the boot screen and my computer just seem to freeze. Is there any news on this "bug" or what it is.
2015-01-20
Zonark777

Quote:

Originally Posted by KossBert

So I've got the same problem here. I'm run OSx 10.10.1 on a late 2010 macbook air. As someone else here it worked the first time but not after that.
I've tried everything I can imagine. Changing ports, flashdrives, re-downloading, downloading 1.0.8 instead and nothing works. I press the efi-boot at the boot screen and my computer just seem to freeze. Is there any news on this "bug" or what it is.

Also having this similar issue. For me I can boot from USB Live if I dd the 1.0.9a version to said drive, then boot Live. That does work but then trying to install it onto another device, either from the boot menu or within the Live GUI, I will sometimes get an error where it says the formatting for the drive is incorrect, or there will be no errors but when I go to boot the drive it boots as a blank screen with blinking cursor.

My other problem is with the first USB I had with 1.0.9a on it, Kali booted fine both live and with persistence, but I tried using the device to install Kali on another device (a hard drive), encountered numerous errors when attempting to format and write the changes to disk, then when I tried rebooting and reinstalling for the 4th(?) time, the USB simply did not boot, gave me an error saying "isolinux.bin missing or corrupt".

So apparently it is a problem with the iso.
2015-03-18
Boomer

Are there any news on that?

I have a similar issue with the new Kali 1.1 trying to boot from USB on a Macbook Pro running Yosemite.
It shows a Windows and EFI USB bootdevice during startup, both dont work.
Clicking on EFI just freezes the machine, clicking on Windows either just brings up a black screen or the message that there is no bootdevice.

I followed the instructions for making a bootable USB in OSX that are posted. Only difference I had, it would note let me unmount the volume on the USB stick I had to use umountdisk but the dd worked without any error.
2015-03-23
crhoads1024

Kali 1.1.0a Live USB Boot on MAC Yosemite 10.10.2 - Need serious help here....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boomer

Are there any news on that?

I have a similar issue with the new Kali 1.1 trying to boot from USB on a Macbook Pro running Yosemite.
It shows a Windows and EFI USB bootdevice during startup, both dont work.
Clicking on EFI just freezes the machine, clicking on Windows either just brings up a black screen or the message that there is no bootdevice.

I followed the instructions for making a bootable USB in OSX that are posted. Only difference I had, it would note let me unmount the volume on the USB stick I had to use umountdisk but the dd worked without any error.

I spent all weekend on this thing. I really don't want to run through virtual box but it looks like this may be the only option left.

Kali 1.1.0 on new MacBook Air OS X Yosemite 10.10.2
rEFInd installed
Using a Live USB DD'd with kali 1.1.0a verified iso per instructions from kali officail site.
When the system boots into rEFInd I'm seeing the following error depending on which USB device that is recognized I choose to boot from
The one that appears in the middle: Boot EFI\BOOT\syslinux.efi from 62 MiB FAT

Volume
rEFInd - Booting OS
Starting syslinux.efi
Using load options ' '

This MacBook Air is unresponsive and I am required to hold down left shift key + ctrl + cmd + Power and release at the same time. The system essentially bricks everytime it tries to load off the usb straight out of the gate or with this rEFInd option.

The second rEFInd discovered boot option is chosen: Boot Legacy OS From whole disk volume

Starting legacy loader
Using load options 'USB'
ERROR: Not Found while loading legacy loader
Please make sure that you have the latest firmware update installed
Hit any key to continue

Tried initially on a two different USB drives and got the same result.

As a last resort I decided I would attempt to boot from a Live DVD in the same manner as the USB was intended to work.
No luck there either, got same errors.
Beating head against wall all weekend....
Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

Tonight I will try to install a legacy iso of kali and upgrade from within as I saw was talked about earlier in this thread.
2015-03-24
voidhermes

Hey everyone, I seems i'm stuck like you all. Been 3days.

I run a MacBook Air 2013 Yosemite 10.10.2 (14C109).

I followed exactly the dd process in the guide and managed to copy successfully the .iso on the USB (8GB HP v165w formatted in FAT ms-dos).

Then got this error message . "The disk inserted was not readable by this computer"

I installed rEFInd and yet when I reboot using the ALT key, the image doesn't show.

Has anyone encountered the same problem ?

Thanks
2015-06-11
MrShuts

Hey all,

Just wanted to also pitch in saying that Kali on my 2009 10.9.5 MBP freezes when I attempt to boot from USB flash drive. I have tried multiple ways of mounting the image: disk utility, Mac Linux USB Loader (doesnt even work due to "enterprise" issues), and Terminal. All were successfully mounted and I could see all the files on the USB drive, yet still freezes when attempting to boot from "alt-option". I have searched through many different forums, reddit threads etc... and no one has come up with a solution. From what I have research, this issue occurs when upgrading to a more recent OSX. It would be great is Kali (BackTrack) is aware of this major issue occurring with their OS so they could possibly find a solution for this since I am dying to use this distro. DYING.

If ANYONE finds a solution, please post or send me a message since I am really interested in using this OS.

Mr. Shuts

EDIT: So I am attempting to just partition my other HD I installed in my MBP so I can boot into kali. I installed rEFined to aid with the boot menu, ill let you know how it goes.
2015-06-12
zebul666

Could you try Fix for Live USB boot in-EFI mode (64-bits) and report if it work for you on your mac ?
2015-06-13
WantKali!

Hi zebul666,

thanks for your help. This worked so far for me, that i could boot up to the GRUB2, select an option and try to load Kali. But then it stucks with a flashing cursor. I tried to edit the GRUB2 menu by pressing e and add nomodesetup. Same effect. Then i tried to install Kali on a fresh HDD. The installation went flawlessly, but the first boot was like the one on the USB. Flashing cursor. Funny fact. If i remove the LAN cable a message occurs, says the LAN cable was removed...

So, what can i do to get this stuff running?

Thanks for anyones help in advance!
2015-08-16
Trial&Error

Quote:

Originally Posted by MalboroTime

It probably is not the USB port because a few others and I are getting this error as well. Do you guys know where to get some older images of kali like 1.0.8 in order to get a dual boot install out of the way on that version, then updating within Kali with a sudo apt-get update && apt-get upgrade command? I don't know how this would help in terms of booting the os from a drive, but for those like myself that are attempting to dual boot install kali on the OSX I think this might work, I'm not sure. I'll try it and be back with the results soon. If you guys are gonna try this you might want to compare the hashes.

I received the no bootable device message as well. BUT I used dd to put the iso on a partition of my second SSD. have you gotten anywhere with your testing? My rEFInd setting may not be correct because I kept getting legacy error through the usb boot, which is why i tried to bypass the usb by installing the ISO on a partition. Gonna check rEFInd with a stable iso and also want to try https://forums.kali.org/showthread.p...mode-(64-bits)
2015-08-31
_jho

So I've found that rEFInd hangs on syslinux.efi, but if you change syslinux.cfg so that instead of `vesamenu.c32` the default is `menu.c32`, you can get a menu on top of a shell. I still get kernal panic when I try to boot live, but I have gotten both the Install and the Graphical Install options to load.

Hope this helps someone!

Also, fun fact - I've learned that if a configuration file is not found, you are given a (UEFI?) shell (if using rEFInd). Then when you `ls` the directory, every *.c32 file should be a possible command.
2015-08-31
_jho

Quote:

Originally Posted by _jho

So I've found that rEFInd hangs on syslinux.efi, but if you change syslinux.cfg so that instead of `vesamenu.c32` the default is `menu.c32`, you can get a menu on top of a shell. I still get kernal panic when I try to boot live, but I have gotten both the Install and the Graphical Install options to load.

Hope this helps someone!

Also, fun fact - I've learned that if a configuration file is not found, you are given a (UEFI?) shell (if using rEFInd). Then when you `ls` the directory, every *.c32 file should be a possible command.

UPDATE: I was able to successfully install Kali this way. My live is still having problems, but the install went off almost flawlessly.
2016-11-17
dachuan

Quote:

Originally Posted by adam.milton

I am having the same issue. I am trying to install on a Macbook Pro Mid 2012. I get tot he EFI boot menu and select Windows, how Mac OSX sees Kali, the screen turns black and there is only a blinking cursor in the top left side of the screen. I m stumped also.

when in step as install grub
do not install in /dev/sda (xxxxxxxxxxxxx)
but
Enter device manually
then type the previous partition, the boot disk
mine is:
/dev/sda3