Kali Linux Live USB on MAC

[34d30y]

1.download Kali Linux iso images from http://www.kali.org/downloads/
2. Format the usb stick in disk utility as msdos
3. Open Terminal Window and run the following

diskutil list

The result is

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            250.1 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *8.0 GB     disk1
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:       Microsoft Basic Data KALILINUX               7.7 GB     disk1s2

4. my USB device is /dev/disk1, Then unmount disk by diskutil command

 diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk1

The result is

Unmount of all volumes on disk1 was successful

5. You may have to run this as sudo

sudo dd if=kalilinux.iso of=/dev/disk1 bs=512 conv=noerror,sync

Waiting for complete
When It success

4288416+0 records in
4288416+0 records out
2195668992 bytes transferred in 1763.590690 secs (1244999 bytes/sec)

Enjoy!!

[xenakes]

4275840+0 records in
4275840+0 records out
2189230080 bytes transferred in 3430.899032 secs (638092 bytes/sec)

and right away I get a message saying the disk I've inserted can't is not readable by this computer initialize, ignore or eject and when I try to boot from usb the drive doesn't show up to be selected. I've tried it twice with the same results. Any ideas what it could be?

[joker]

You will get that error in OSX when the DD command finishes. OSX tries to read the disk you just finished cloning and cannot. You need to reboot your Mac and boot from the USB stick.

Unfortunately, I have been unsuccessful in getting this to work. I have a mid-2011 Macbook Pro. Tried with refInd and without.

4275840+0 records in
4275840+0 records out
2189230080 bytes transferred in 3430.899032 secs (638092 bytes/sec)

and right away I get a message saying the disk I've inserted can't is not readable by this computer initialize, ignore or eject and when I try to boot from usb the drive doesn't show up to be selected. I've tried it twice with the same results. Any ideas what it could be?

[devpro]

Does not find bootable USB on macbook 2007... What could be wrong?

[infomaniac]

I am having the same trouble as with most linuces I try to boot from USB. Following the directions above (and restarting the Macbook Pro 2008 while holding ALT/OPTION, EFI see the USB flash and then returns this message:

Starting legacy loader
Using load options 'USB'
Error: Not Found returned from legacy loader
Error: Not Found from LocateDevicePath (repeats 10 x)
Error: Load Error while (re)opening our installation volume

The firmware refused to boot from the selected volume. Note that external
hard drives are not well supported by Apple's firmware for legacy OS booting

* Hit any key to continue*

A clue is that when I reboot normally, leaving the USB thumb drive connected, OS X says that it is unreadable and asks whether I want to initialize. This is the same experience I have had with most other linuces using the above method.

I think I'll try http://forums.kali.org/showthread.ph...all-Kali-Linux next.

[dbird]

I am having the same trouble as with most linuces I try to boot from USB. Following the directions above (and restarting the Macbook Pro 2008 while holding ALT/OPTION, EFI see the USB flash and then returns this message:

Starting legacy loader
Using load options 'USB'
Error: Not Found returned from legacy loader
Error: Not Found from LocateDevicePath (repeats 10 x)
Error: Load Error while (re)opening our installation volume

The firmware refused to boot from the selected volume. Note that external
hard drives are not well supported by Apple's firmware for legacy OS booting

* Hit any key to continue*

A clue is that when I reboot normally, leaving the USB thumb drive connected, OS X says that it is unreadable and asks whether I want to initialize. This is the same experience I have had with most other linuces using the above method.

I think I'll try http://forums.kali.org/showthread.ph...all-Kali-Linux next.

Every other Linux distro I have tried requires a USB drive and an optical copy of the installer to work properly. I have not had a chance to test this, but will try as soon as the image is done downloading.

Process is as follows:
1. Burn Kali CD
2. DD bootable USB
3. With both connected to Mac, reboot
4. Hold "C" at boot sound
Note: If you have rEFIt or rEFInd installed, you can use it, just make sure you select the optical media, not USB
5. Enjoy

[Edit]
Sorry it took so long to respond, I am working on this now, and will let everyone know the results as I get them.

[dbird]

I was able to test this, and it works wonderfully, I am posting this reply from my mid 2011 MBP using Kali. After using this method, I am able to remove the DVD and continue running Kali off of the USB drive. I will be replacing my Ubuntu partition with Kali, and will let you know how it works out.
I can say that everything works except for tap to click, but that may just be a synaptics setting that needs to be changed.

[cowboy89]

You will get that error in OSX when the DD command finishes. OSX tries to read the disk you just finished cloning and cannot. You need to reboot your Mac and boot from the USB stick.

Unfortunately, I have been unsuccessful in getting this to work. I have a mid-2011 Macbook Pro. Tried with refInd and without.

Have you tried updating the MBR? if you cannot change the bootable flag on the USB (like you can on a disk manager on windows) then rEFit wont recognize it.

[bigEgg]

4275840+0 records in
4275840+0 records out
2189230080 bytes transferred in 3430.899032 secs (638092 bytes/sec)

and right away I get a message saying the disk I've inserted can't is not readable by this computer initialize, ignore or eject and when I try to boot from usb the drive doesn't show up to be selected. I've tried it twice with the same results. Any ideas what it could be?

Did you have any luck with this?

[ramused]

After i entered the code :

sudo dd if=~/documents/kalilinux.iso of=/dev/disk1 bs=512 conv=noerror,sync

Nothing happened, my terminal just stayed blank

[dookie]

dd does not provide any output while it is running and it can take quite some time to complete. When it finishes, it will return you to the prompt with the summary displayed.

[redmarket]

After i entered the code :

sudo dd if=~/documents/kalilinux.iso of=/dev/disk1 bs=512 conv=noerror,sync

Nothing happened, my terminal just stayed blank

Send SIGINFO to the dd process

E.g. kill -s SIGINFO pid

[cyrano]

Also note, if you enter a wrong command but get no errors, look at the root of your disk. That's were the output file that was written, usually ends up.

I've seen people filling up their entire harddisk when experimenting with dd writes ;-)

[1negroup]

1.download Kali Linux iso images from http://www.kali.org/downloads/
2. Format the usb stick in disk utility as msdos
3. Open Terminal Window and run the following

diskutil list

The result is

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            250.1 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *8.0 GB     disk1
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:       Microsoft Basic Data KALILINUX               7.7 GB     disk1s2

4. my USB device is /dev/disk1, Then unmount disk by diskutil command

 diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk1

The result is

Unmount of all volumes on disk1 was successful

5. You may have to run this as sudo

sudo dd if=kalilinux.iso of=/dev/disk1 bs=512 conv=noerror,sync

Waiting for complete
When It success

4288416+0 records in
4288416+0 records out
2195668992 bytes transferred in 1763.590690 secs (1244999 bytes/sec)

Enjoy!!

I could not get this to work. I don't have a Disk drive i just downloaded the ISO. Any other options?

[1negroup]

Could not get this to work


1.download Kali Linux iso images from http://www.kali.org/downloads/
2. Format the usb stick in disk utility as msdos
3. Open Terminal Window and run the following
Code:
diskutil list
The result is
Code:
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *251.0 GB disk0
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 250.1 GB disk0s2
3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *8.0 GB disk1
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1
2: Microsoft Basic Data KALILINUX 7.7 GB disk1s2
4. my USB device is /dev/disk1, Then unmount disk by diskutil command
Code:
diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk1
The result is
Code:
Unmount of all volumes on disk1 was successful
5. You may have to run this as sudo
Code:
sudo dd if=kalilinux.iso of=/dev/disk1 bs=512 conv=noerror,sync
Waiting for complete
When It success
Code:
4288416+0 records in
4288416+0 records out
2195668992 bytes transferred in 1763.590690 secs (1244999 bytes/sec)
Enjoy!!

i don't have a disk drive. any other options?

[emsef]

Every other Linux distro I have tried requires a USB drive and an optical copy of the installer to work properly.

Thanks, this saved me much time. I can now boot Kali fast from SD card.

[poolsclosed]

it works fine until i type "sudo dd if=kali-linux-1.1.0a-i386.iso of=/dev/disk1 bs=1m" and it reply's "dd: kali-linux-1.1.0a-i386.iso: No such file or directory". i have downloaded kali linux and it is on the usb.

[ghsotBiologist]

it works fine until i type "sudo dd if=kali-linux-1.1.0a-i386.iso of=/dev/disk1 bs=1m" and it reply's "dd: kali-linux-1.1.0a-i386.iso: No such file or directory". i have downloaded kali linux and it is on the usb.

Try using the whole path. When I first tried to DD the iso I didn't use the path and spent ages trying to figure out why it wasn't working and when i tried that it worked. If that doesn't work try re-downloading the iso.

[Gweilo]

it works fine until i type "sudo dd if=kali-linux-1.1.0a-i386.iso of=/dev/disk1 bs=1m" and it reply's "dd: kali-linux-1.1.0a-i386.iso: No such file or directory". i have downloaded kali linux and it is on the usb.

Don't put the ISO on the USB stick - you're going to erase it - put it on your HD.
CD to the directory of your HD where the ISO is, then run dd. (or use the full path)
Example:
dd if=/path/to/kali...iso of=/dev/rdisk1 bs=512k

it's better to use /dev/rdisk1 than /dev/disk1
It's also sometimes better to limit the blocksize to 512k (bs=512k)

[lernaean_hydra]

Hello folks!! Been bashing my head against this Kali live USB thing for a couple weeks now, with no success. I have a macbok, dual booting Arch and OSX. I have tried to make a live USB under both of them, with zero success. Everything seems to work fine, up until the dd finishes. On mac, the disk is still readable, and I have no clue why. On either, when I try to boot from the USB, holding option, and then selecting it, the system freezes. Immediately, it doesn't even get past the boot disk selection screen. Any ideas?

[Setho246]

Hello folks!! Been bashing my head against this Kali live USB thing for a couple weeks now, with no success. I have a macbok, dual booting Arch and OSX. I have tried to make a live USB under both of them, with zero success. Everything seems to work fine, up until the dd finishes. On mac, the disk is still readable, and I have no clue why. On either, when I try to boot from the USB, holding option, and then selecting it, the system freezes. Immediately, it doesn't even get past the boot disk selection screen. Any ideas?

I too am experiencing the same issue, with one other main addition.

My USB is 32GB, erased before steps described in the Kali Docs method. After following through to completion, including making sure that I was in the correct directory (Where my Kali-Linux.iso was found). The .iso was, as told to me by my system running OSX Mavericks, took up 3.something GB, but when I used the dd command to image the file, the resulting USB had two partitions, where only one was mountable and this mountable partition had a volume of about 100 megabites and was completely full, and all of this is according to Disk Utility. Also, Disk Utility was telling me that the two partitions only took up a very small space (total of about 2 GB out of 32 GB, and the rest of the space was inaccessible.

I also tried to boot this, and my computer froze. Any help is appreciated, and thanks in advanced

-Setho246

[lernaean_hydra]

I too am experiencing the same issue, with one other main addition.

My USB is 32GB, erased before steps described in the Kali Docs method. After following through to completion, including making sure that I was in the correct directory (Where my Kali-Linux.iso was found). The .iso was, as told to me by my system running OSX Mavericks, took up 3.something GB, but when I used the dd command to image the file, the resulting USB had two partitions, where only one was mountable and this mountable partition had a volume of about 100 megabites and was completely full, and all of this is according to Disk Utility. Also, Disk Utility was telling me that the two partitions only took up a very small space (total of about 2 GB out of 32 GB, and the rest of the space was inaccessible.

I also tried to boot this, and my computer froze. Any help is appreciated, and thanks in advanced

-Setho246

The partitioning layout on your USB sounds about right, the 100mb section would be the efi partition, containg the bootloader, and the 2 gb partition should contain the system. The rest of the disk should just be unallocated, and you should be able to use Disk Utility (on OS X) or fdisk, gdisk, cgdisk, parted, etc (on linux) to make a partition and add a filesystem to it. It is interesting that you get the same hang/freeze that I do. I was hoping updating to Mavericks might fix it. What method did you use? DD? If so, do you mind trying "Mac Linux USB creator, from sevenbits? I helped a buddy get that to work for elementry OS from OS X Maverics, so maybe it will work for Kali, since it is also Debian based.

full link for Mac_Linux_USB_Creator

[mattbrei]

Has anyone made any progress with this? I'm having a similar issue where I can successfully create the USB stick and even begin to boot from it by selecting EFI from the boot menu after holding Option. I get the grub screen and select either Live (amd64) or Live (amd64 Failsafe) both of which fail almost immediately with a kernel panic saying unknown filesystem in one instance and the other just locked up the machine after Uncompressing Linux....OK. I'm not sure what's going on here, but I'm going to try a few other things and I'll post my results.

FYI I'm using a MacBook Pro 15" from mid 2009. Its got a 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB of RAM and I'm attempting to boot into Kali 2.0 AMD64 on a 32GB PNY flash drive built using the dcfldd utility (basically the same as dd but provides status output to STDERR) which was installed using the Homebrew utility (awesome btw, I highly recommend it). I wrote the flash drive using /dev/disk1, not /dev/rdisk1, so I think I'm going to start there. Also maybe lower my blocksize from 1mb to 512k and see what happens.

[slider]

I think I'm having a similar issue, I can create the bootable usb drive, and when I reboot my macbook and press the option key, I have 2 options the standard Mackintosh HD and the EFI usb drive, then I select the USB drive I get a blank screen then nothing? The data light on the USB stick stops as well...

I will keep searching for an answer and let you know if I come up with anything.

[lernaean_hydra]

I was finally successful by following the steps here http://computers.tutsplus.com/tutori...s-x--cms-21253. The only difference was that at the end i blessed the drive. It still freezes if I try to boot from the option menu, but refind boots it just fine.

[YoGoY]

anyone managed to run kali on mac from live-usb without Refind?
Macbook Pro mid 2010 2,4 GHz Intel Core i5
somehow i got the 2.0 version to boot once (but with kernel panic) once - then never again!?

tried both 2.0 and 2016.1 with the regular instructions, on 2 different sticks - no success

Also tried the "Mac Linux USB Loader" enterprise EFI - no success (only Ubuntu worked)
2.0 doesnt boot at all, 2016.1 boots but after the "welcome message" i don't get a prompt

Update:
Now installed rEFInd, and sometimes it starts booting, sometimes systems hangs up (like without rEFInd / without "Max Linux USB Loader)
but anyway getting kernel panic...
Kali 2.0:
http://postimg.org/image/r4h8rzg1v/
Kali 2016.01:
http://postimg.org/image/s50mpb11x/

[Poisony]

Please, FIX THIS! It's so **** hard to install Kali on a Mac... I have tried everything. Your guide does not work at all.

I'm using Kali 2016.1 with an iMac 5K El Capitan. I have done over 10 different guides on this, it does not work!

[butters_stoch]

Probably just me but I was selecting the 'EFI Boot' to boot kali linux... BUT I should've picked 'Windows' to boot kali. Booted just fine when I picked the correct boot drive.

hope this helps.

[blackdolphin]

I'm using a 2015 Macbook pro and I'm also unable to boot Kali Linux from Live USB. Actually, I burned the image to a DVD as suggested by a previous comment, but even selecting the DVD at boot time (and with the USB plugged), I couldn't make it work. Any advances here?

[jemdem]

Ok, I followed the procedure with a 32GB usb stick and a macbook pro 15" retina late-2013 --> it doesn't work.

[jemdem]

if you just want to install it permanently on your hard drive, just burn a live-dvd...

[jemdem]

Here's a tuto that's worked fine for me (and really simple) : https://pentestmac.wordpress.com/201...rsistence-mac/

[jemdem]

Wouldn't it be a good idea to change http://docs.kali.org/downloading/kal...ve-usb-install this page of the kali doc to avoid so much people getting confused?

I haven't found any "contact" link on the website, nor any way to edit the doc...