Dual Booting Kali Linux with Windows 7

[muts]

Dual booting setups should always be preformed carefully, after you have preformed a full backup of all your important data. If you are unfamiliar with the instructions on Installing Kali Linux to hard disk, you should read that first to understand the general outline of the installation process. In this article we will we installing Kali Linux alongside an installation of Windows 7 which is currently taking up 100% of the disk space.

To read the full document, check our Dual booting Kali Linux with Windows article.

If you have any issues with this procedure, please post them in this thread.

[Unknownktx]

Hello,

I have two hard drive, one filled with windows 7, and one that I myself buy vien is blank is that Kali can I install it? There is no problem in aurra Grub or something else? Advice to give me? What os install first? Thank you for reading.

[jakesumer]

If you have any issues with this procedure, please post them in this thread.

First I saved sensitive data in windows on an external drive. Then rebooted, poped in the iso-dvd and booted it as live.

Well inside of Kali I used gparted to resized my hdd as instucted. Saved and rebooted again.

This time I chose the graphical installation instead of live. Followed the instuctions as in the "Installation to Harddrive" with exception when it came to choosing partion as explained in "Dual booting with Windows".

The installation went fine uptil "use network mirrors" (not sure if the title is correct of that part of the installation). Here it wouldn't accept any of my choices on what mirror to use. Just returned to me as an error. So I just tried them all specific for my country and region. But still nothing. Then it hit me, maybe my wireless card was deactivated during this step. (still not sure?) Anyhow, in with the network cable and I rechose my firsthand mirror. And all continued as nothing had happend.

Later when it came to install grub. The installation prompted me and asked if any or all of my existing installed OS was present above: "Windows(vista loader), Windows(vista loader), and Windows(vista loader)". I think I didn't read carefully enough on this part and thought these name are surely correct. Everything else had been pretty much preset in the installation. Then the installation was complete and I was prompted to reboot. So I did.

Well booted up in grub these options were available to me: (Please note that I only have one Windows 7 installation)

*kali
*kali recovery
*windows (vista loader)
*windows (vista loader)
*windows (vista loader)

Ok, let's bring up windows I said to myself. I chose to top windows loader and : BLUE SCREEN. Small freakout and a automated reboot. I chose the second one and BS. Bigger freakout! Tried the third one and was presented with recovery. Hugely relieved. I chose the fix startup and 15 minutes later windows booted perfectly from the first loader option. Then rebooted and logged into kali, perfect boot.

So to sum up I now have three windows loaders: one for normal boot, second=beats me and third=recovery. I tried to change the name of the loaders in grub.cfg beacuse the it doesn't seemed to have a menu.lst but after reboot the change wouldn't be present. Still reading into how to fix the names and what the second windows loader is? But this was my story on troubles installing Kali. Hope it helps someone, and sorry it became longer then originally planned.

-Try screaming now and again, it will make people leave you alone. Best regards Jake

[jakesumer]

...The installation went fine uptil "use network(edit:/software?) mirrors". Here it wouldn't accept any of my choices on what mirror to use. Just returned to me as an error. So I just tried them all, specific for my country and region. But still nothing. Then it hit me, maybe my wireless card was deactivated during this step?

(and)

...So to sum up I now have three windows loaders: one for normal boot, second=beats me and third=recovery. I tried to change the name of the loaders in grub.cfg beacuse the it doesn't seemed to have a menu.lst but after reboot the change wouldn't be present.

Anybody know if wireless is unactive during mirror setting stage? And Any suggestions on how to fix grub. Rename the options. Is the problem so simple as there is a backup of grub-cfg that I need to remove after editing the file. Also I updated grub after editing the cfg.

Thanks

[Mistwraith]

Anybody know if wireless is unactive during mirror setting stage? And Any suggestions on how to fix grub. Rename the options. Is the problem so simple as there is a backup of grub-cfg that I need to remove after editing the file. Also I updated grub after editing the cfg.

Thanks

Jake, to my knowledge 99% of operating systems INCLUDING Win 7, don't support wireless networking when installing the OS (Win 7 might but it's been awhile so I cannot confirm), however; I do know it's great practice to have WAN disabled during OS install as it's not 100% reliable. It's hardwire or bust on that normally...You are correct in your understanding of why you couldn't reach the mirrors first go-around, it was because you weren't on the network.

As for the deal with your Grub loader....Each one of those "Loaders" you have, means there is some kind of MBR there for either an Operating System or One that was there, MBR's rarely get deleted. Grub detected them and took note of them, so instead of setting you up with a dual boot system, it kind of gave you the ability to have a quadruple boot. There is great commercial software that lets you fix and clean that **** up. I use it at my work, it's called "EasyBCD" URL: http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/ It literally let's you arrange MBR's for all OS's like they were smarties to be eaten. You can clean up the MBR's, rename them, move them to different HD's etc... That's just what I use personally, take it with a grain of salt.

Funny Fact: Win 7 by default installs the MBR to the first "Hard Drive" listed in your BIOS and installs the Operating System wherever you told it too. I recently had to use Easy BCD to move my MBR to my SSD where my Win 7 OS was, because during Kali installation Grub pointed out to me that it was on my Sata III 500 GB Storage HD. Glad, I didn't decide to reformat that drive during the past year I've had my PC. Silly M$.

[BeanTS]

install went fine and now i'm booting the os for the first time and its asking me for a username and password but whenever I type anything in it says that authentication failed I don't remember being asked to give login credentials during the install, have I done something wrong?

[Swblk]

I would like to ask, if there is any reccomended way how to remove old OS (backtrack) from dual boot?

I have been searching on internet, but I found several guides with different ways how to do it, and im not sure which one should i use.

[jakesumer]

Thank you Mistwraith!

I'll try this and get back to you on the grub-fix and EasyBCD.

I have not had the time to experiment within Kali with cleaning and customization/personalizing (excuse my spelling) these last couple of weeks. But now I have an excuse to get around to it.

[leevai]

About the wireless card during the installation... My inbuild wireless card from the pc doesn't work during installation. However my alfa awus036H works perfectly during installaton

[RedForman]

Question:
I have an hp Pavilion dv7 running Win 7. Trying to install Kali as a dual boot following the instructions given, free up 30GB of space on the HD for install, but when I go through the process to use the "largest continuous free space", it chooses my USB stick from the Live Install. When I manually select the space I want to use, Kali says it's |unusable". I have 4 "Partitions" in total. Recovery, Win 7, HP_TOOLS, and "SYSTEM". Is it possible it's saying the 30GB of unallocated space is unusable because of the amount of partitions? Is there a way around this without trashing the recovery software (recovery and HP_TOOLS are both part of the "Recovery software")?

[RedForman]

Anybody know if wireless is unactive during mirror setting stage? And Any suggestions on how to fix grub. Rename the options. Is the problem so simple as there is a backup of grub-cfg that I need to remove after editing the file. Also I updated grub after editing the cfg.

Thanks

jakesumer,

To answer your question about wireless, it appears it's not active during the mirror setting stage. As for fixing the mirrors not being found problem, if you connect via ethernet cable and choose the option to add manually, you can add the mirrors from the following mirror list

http://http.kali.org/README.mirrorlist

Just put the full mirror name in the first box at the top, and /kali/ in the box at the bottom.

Cheers, hope this helps others that were in the same predicament as I.

[daedlanth]

I would like to ask, if there is any reccomended way how to remove old OS (backtrack) from dual boot?

I have been searching on internet, but I found several guides with different ways how to do it, and im not sure which one should i use.

Hello Swblk

I can help you out on this and I can answer a few of the other questions here as well. When I started my Kali install on my dual booted machine I was surprised that my disc would not boot under GRUB; There must be some way but at this point I do not know. I did a work-around by booting into windows & erasing the BT5 r3 partitions. I did not format for obvious reasons; NTFS vs. EXT4 journaling. When that was completed the machine would not boot because the MBR was trashed so I booted my window 7 pro CD. (which booted fine.) I selected repair & then advanced options. In that screen I selected the DOS prompt & issued a bootrec /fixmbr & a bootrec /fixboot command and rebooted. Windows was back as usual. Be careful with letting the machine do an auto repair. I made that mistake today, forced the machine down, & had a helluva time getting the win 7 DVD to boot. The Kali disc wouldn't either at that point. OOF-DAH, don't do that IMO. I have a work-around for that too but I'm not going to get into it. After you do this work-around the Kali DVD will boot & and you can have at it.

As for wireless if you noticed in the prompts during networking you could select it. I used my normal ethernet myself but I'm pretty sure you could configurate the net adaptors at that point & use them; just watch for it. I cannot stress it enough to READ everything and not click away until you understand perfectly how Kali installs.

3rd question. Stop & read everything. Yes you were prompted to input a root password. maybe you clicked past it without inputting anything (if that's possible, I don't know.) Maybe it is NULL?

GL & HF I am.

daed

[Andrei]

Hello. I had 3 attempts to install at first backtrack then kali. I seem to have a constant problem : when trying to make a dual boot , the installer thinks my whole hard drive is empty. I've tried win7 with backtrack -64 bit win8 with backtrack and now win8 with kali. Why is this happening?

[cobblerschris]

I have kali linux and windows 7 on dual boot. they both work fine, however slightly annoying is when i switch the machine i i get Grub : “error: no argument specified” when i select the windows intstall. i then have to press any key to continue. how do i fix this?

[thephoenix25]

I have kali linux and windows 7 on dual boot. they both work fine, however slightly annoying is when i switch the machine i i get Grub : “error: no argument specified” when i select the windows intstall. i then have to press any key to continue. how do i fix this?

I have this exact same problem. I have grub automatically select my win7 os and after 8 seconds boot win7 unless I intervene and select Kali, which means I have to hang around and press the keyboard each time I boot, kind of defeats the point. Not a massive issue of course but a nuisance none the less. Is there anything I can do to solve this issue please?

[unlock]

Olá, vou citar meu problema. Ao tentar instalar em um notebook ( 4G RAM, Chipset Sis M672, Intel pentium) só me dá a mensagem a seguir, ja tentei todas as versões do kali possiveis, meu computador possui windows seven x64. Obrigado pela ajuda.

Erro: [0.000000] tsc:Fast TSC calibration failed

[1.763939] registered taskstats version 1

Hello, I will quote my problem. When trying to install on a notebook (4G RAM, Sis M672 Chipset, Intel pentium) only gives me the following message, already tried all possible versions of kali, my computer has windows seven x64. Thanks for the trouble.

[0.000000] tsc:Fast TSC calibration failed

[1.763939] registered taskstats version 1

[DrMTR]

Hi !

I try to install Kali along Windows 7 on the same partition. I follow a YouTube tutorial from Kali but when boot Kali and go to partitioning step, give me: 'Unusable partition ' and cannot install Kali on that partition.. Help.?

[out0fstep]

I would like to ask, if there is any reccomended way how to remove old OS (backtrack) from dual boot?

I have been searching on internet, but I found several guides with different ways how to do it, and im not sure which one should i use.

I was migrating over from.a similar dualboot, win7 & bt5. what I did is use the suggested usb installer, the first time I tried yumi, but that gave me live options only with no install options. then I used disk management in windows and deleted the partitions that had bt5. left it as unallicated space and booted off the usb. chose graphical install and followed the steps. when it got to partitioning, chose use the use unused space.

[Xreiazetai8arros]

Hello guys i need your help,i follow instructions from dual boot but when i am at livecd and trying with gparted to part my hard disk i cant,i have 4 partitions one SYSTEM,one RECOVERY,one HP_TOOLS and one with a warning next it,the problem is that the one partition with the warning next to it is the450GB hard disk and the other are like some GBs and MBs...how can i partition my hard disk and dual boot with windows7?

[korol]

cobblerschris, thephoenix25

I have same problem and i find (in internet, of course) way to fix it:
we need to edit file etc\grub.d\30_otheros

we can find string like this: search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 180c9d7e0c9d5798
and change it like this: search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 180c9d7e0c9d5798

Then run command "sudo update-grub" and error is gone.

[SoCalDiegoRob]

Hello all, New to Kali here. I am haveing a problem with dual booting my Windows 7/ Kali Linux grub. I have both OSes installed fine but when I boot into Windows 7 I get an "error no argument specified" error, and "press enter to continue". After I press enter Windows 7 boots and everything is fine. My questions are; Why am I getting this error?, and, Is there a way I can fix it? Please help!

[korol]

Hello all, New to Kali here. I am haveing a problem with dual booting my Windows 7/ Kali Linux grub. I have both OSes installed fine but when I boot into Windows 7 I get an "error no argument specified" error, and "press enter to continue". After I press enter Windows 7 boots and everything is fine. My questions are; Why am I getting this error?, and, Is there a way I can fix it? Please help!

Can`t you read? Try to do that. 1 post up...

[yunqhero]

Question:

In reference to dual booting with kali, where can I find documentation about dual booting kali with BT5 r3 already installed? I appreciate any suggestion about this operation but I am really looking for documentation about it. Further, would this documentation work for dual booting kali and bt5 r3?

[tolle250]

Question:

In reference to dual booting with kali, where can I find documentation about dual booting kali with BT5 r3 already installed? I appreciate any suggestion about this operation but I am really looking for documentation about it. Further, would this documentation work for dual booting kali and bt5 r3?

I like this idea! There seems to be a large population of users in this situation that are encountering issues. The guide only offers a model that does not fit everyones scenario.

[viper_pranish]

I am having a problem that when I try to dual boot my laptop, and install kali after windows 8, it shows the disk as whole disk without partition. But when I use kali withot installing, it shows all the files and again when I do gparted while running kali without installind, it shows as unlocated space. Please help me
Thank you

[RaZZeR]

Hihi everyone.

Got a problem too, I just installed Kali in Dualboot with Windows 7 and now I can't have any sound when I boot windows and I only have sound when I boot with Kali if I plug external speakers (like headphones). Any ideas???

Thanks for the help.

[EvanCalo]

Hello,

I am having some difficulty installing Kali on my windows 7 laptop. I have resized the partition and freed up about 45gb for the install i have 3 primary partitions on the disk due to recovery hibernation and OS that came standard with the xps laptop.

I can get all the way to the point of partitioning and choosing the mount points in the install. When i try and setup /boot / and swap it tells me it is unable to mount / at sda partition #5 using the ext4 file system.

I have tried ext3 and ext2 to try and get around this. everytime i get the same error message.

Has anyone else seen this problem. also note that i have used grub to try and create each individual partition i will need for the install and format them to the ext4 file system and when i attempt to install and select mount points i get the same error message.

please advise thanks
Evan

[doneathome]

Hi all, please help. When installing kali linux, namely when it comes to checking the network equipment laptop freezes (stops installation) and then nothing happens. In what may be the Problem? Laptop Lenovo v580c. Did everything according to the instructions on the site docs.kali.org/installation/dual-boot-kali-with-windows

[aizonic]

Hi,

I am new here, and I have successfully installed Dual Boot Windows 7 and Kali.
I used a bootable USB with the Kali image (DVD Rom is not working)
But after the successful installation of Kali,I am unable to boot to my old Windows 7.

I get this error message:

got this error message:
“Windows failed to start. A recent hardware of software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:

1. Insert Windows installation disk (etc)
2. Choose language settings
3. Click “Repair your computer”
"

Any ideas? Do I need to find a Windows installation Disk?

[BriDog]

Hi,

I am new here, and I have successfully installed Dual Boot Windows 7 and Kali.
I used a bootable USB with the Kali image (DVD Rom is not working)
But after the successful installation of Kali,I am unable to boot to my old Windows 7.

I get this error message:

got this error message:
“Windows failed to start. A recent hardware of software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:

1. Insert Windows installation disk (etc)
2. Choose language settings
3. Click “Repair your computer”
"

Any ideas? Do I need to find a Windows installation Disk?

Read up the thread. Someone has fixed this issue. As for people trying to multiboot on say an HP laptop with factory setup. Here is a quote from a simple google search: "With MBR, you only get 4 primary partitions, and then you must create logical partitions after that, which is frustrating and isn't compatible with certain operating systems." And for Windows 8, it uses a new more secure GUI boot. Duel booting Win7 & 8 is a headache on it's own. If your really set on installing Kali. Make recovery discs on said laptops using given tools by the company or Acronis software, then reformat the whole drive. Set up partitions FIRST. Clean install Windows (Google it), then install Kali using a WIRED connection to your router. OK, I think that solves most the issues I've read. Sorry if it didn't help you.

[Mambo]

Morning Lads and Lasses,

Would greatly appreciate getting a bit of help with this.

While installing everything seems to go fine but the installation process hangs when it reaches the installation report phase, if I reboot the install appears not to have gone through.

I'm running windows 7 on an HDD and am trying to install Kali on an SSD, I've tried installing with an image on a CD and on a USB and the result has been the same.

Cheers

[sksuraj428]

Hello,
I'm new user of kali linux.
So, I have a query in my mind.
Which option I have to choose while installing so that my Windows 8 is totally is replaced by kali linux as primary os without affecting other drives?

[str3amcy]

Guys, Please help me ?
I have a problem installing "Kali",
in section (search network hardware).
installation does not run after it
My PC:
Compaq CQ43-304ua <Amd>
2gb of ram
Broadband network hardware

[UFO12321]

i recently installed kali on dualboot besides windows 7, the installation went just fine, and kali is working without problems. my only problem is that when i rebooted to go into windows it send me to the GRUB window giving me choices between:
Kali linux
kali linux(recovery)
memorytest
memorytest with some options
memory test with some more options
memorytest with even more options
windows recovery enviroment(loader) (/dev/sda1)
everytime i choose windows i runs the starting windows screen, get to the background of the recovery enviroment, and then reboots the total system sending me back to square one at GRUB
what to do?

[dupek]

I have that problem too. I try the password(toor) and the one at time of install. Nothing work. Had to get back to win7. The installation went smooth and wireless worked fine. I try to "kali" as username and "toor" but that fail too. Could use help here.

[BlokeDownThePub]

Partitioning for a 80G hard disk.

I have an Asus eee with an 80G HD, currently has XP installed on it, planning to dual boot Win 7 & Kali.

Kali apparently needs 10G, Win 7 about 16G so I was thinking of giving them 10 extra each (i.e. 20 and 26) and then I can play with the rest as needs evolve (D: for windows, LVM volumes ...)

Is this sensible?

[kosikin]

its working for win7 , anyone know how to kali linux dualboot with win 8 ?

[carongangoo]

Hello guys n Girls ( if any !) lol!

Thank you for posting such valuable infos but I 've got a puzzle for all of you !
I have just tried - and succeed to boot Windows 7 from a Usb 16 gb flash drive on a Dell Vostro 1015-with waik and NT6 FAST INSTALLER.
I now intend to create a bootable external laptop hdd-like I did with Ubuntu 14.04-BUT I also intend to install kali as dual boot on this external so that I can boot either on Win 7 -32 bit home basic-and Kali 64 bit .
Is it possible and in your opinion will it work ?!?!!? EVERYBODY'S OPINION WELCOMED

Caron

p.s : i already put Kali as guest in a Vm on my Mint 17 Quiana 64 bit as host

[Jadek061]

I have been running Kali from a live USB for about a year and when i tried to install it dual boot with the default Windows 7 OS on the HDD, the install fails at the 39% mark, i have tried formatting the patitions both using gparted as well as using the installer, neither the graphical or text installs work, but the worse part is now when i attempt to load back to my windows boot, nothing happens, the screen goes black and a blinking line appears in the top left, it just stays like that.
Does anyone know how to fix this??

[lenikadali]

Hello all. I am dual booting Kali Linux v1.07 with Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate on an Acer Travelmate 5744 laptop.

When I first installed the earlier versions of Kali, GRUB recognized the Win OS as 'Windows Vista' and that is how it was displayed in the boot menu.
When I'd click on it, I'd get the message 'error: no argument specified'. Pressing the Enter key would bring me to Windows 7.
However in the recent versions of Kali, this problem has been solved and GRUB recognizes the Win OS as 'Windows 7'.
My problem is that since I've been dist-upgrading, both the 'Windows Vista' and 'Windows 7' entries appear in the boot menu.
How can I remove the 'Windows Vista' entry from the boot menu? Any assistance would be helpful.

[1jstrong]

Hello All,

Sorry if someone has already asked this questions. I looked through the 4 pages and didn't see it asked. I did the dual boot with Kali and Windows 7. Got through the install no problem, and then I started the Nvidia graphics upgrade that the documentation says to do. I completed all of this:

apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get install -y linux-headers-$(uname -r)
apt-get install nvidia-kernel-dkms

On the next line, sed 's/quiet/quiet nouveau.modeset=0/g' -i /etc/default/grub it gave me an error. I don't remember what it was at this time, but it was something about sed being unavailable or not there. So I updated the "update-grub" and did the reboot command. Once it rebooted, I got the boot menu fine, but once it was done with all the (booting maybe) where all the instructions launch, I just get the blinking cursor. Nothing I can do brings up anything. I am able to boot to Windows fine though.
Any thoughts?

Thanks in Advance,

Jason

[1jstrong]

Hey guys,

Get through the install just fine. I tried to upgrade the Nvidia drivers like the Kali.org docs say to do and there I am having problems. I get through all of this fine:

apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get install -y linux-headers-$(uname -r)
apt-get install nvidia-kernel-dkms

Once I type and enter this line:

sed 's/quiet/quiet nouveau.modeset=0/g' -i /etc/default/grub

It gave me an error like the sed wasn't there or available. So I did this:

update-grub
reboot

It gives me the three options to load fine. Windows will load as normal, but once all the boot config launches, all I get is a black, blank screen with a blinking cursor. All I can do is reboot via ctrl-alt-del. I've waited for minutes thinking it just needed time to load up, but nothing.

Any Thoughts?

Jason S.

[AMSK]

Hello everyone...
I`m trying to install kali dual boot with windows 7 but I faced a problem that I couldn`t find a solution for fixing it on google , hope find a solution here...
As you can see in the picture below I already have 5 partitions on my HDD:
http://upload7.ir/imgs/2014-08/02092226130945836694.png
and I plan to install kali on that partition named KALI-LINUX but when I want to install kali I can`t find the specific partition:
http://upload7.ir/imgs/2014-08/54767923120336946438.jpg
I want to know the reason and how can I fix this..
I want to install kali along side windows 7 and also I dont want to format any of my partitions...
I will be so grateful if you can help me...
thank you..

[Archer]

Question:
Excuse my ignorance but I m a newbie linux user. I try to dualboot Kail 1.08 ISO (burnt on DVD) on an, recently purchased, Asus Laptop. The laptop uses EFI/UEFI like most modern day laptops do. Inside the UEFI is a secureboot option. When I have a secure boot option enabled Kali boot gives an Error and refuses to boot.

After some research on the web it seemed UEFI's Secure Boot was the badguy. I disabled it but now it gave me a black screen only leaving me the possiblity to hard-reset the laptop.

I understood 1.08 had UEFI Secure boot support enabled? I hope someone can shine a light?

thank you in advance

[tnkusaeri]

my laptop was hanging in "scanning disk" still in there very long time please help me

[lokifeast]

I tried dual booting kali with windows 7. Im pretty new to all this but i followed the steps. I first went live into kali and partitioned the drive. I then tried the install using the Kali Linux 64 bit ISO version 1.0.9a but I got an error when trying to connect to the WLAN0 step. I also tried with ethernet but it didn't work. So I looked online and people said that the new versions had that problem and you had to get the Kali linux 1.0.6 version or before. I did and it works but now I'm getting a new problem. A step fails in the "Installing the System" part. So i downloaded earlier version of kali and it got further (like 60% done) but I still get this same failure. I even tried BackTrack R3 and got the same problem. How can I fix this?
Also if it matters I put 150Gb on the partition I am trying to install it on, so i doubt space is the problem.

[clone]

I tried dual booting kali with windows 7. Im pretty new to all this but i followed the steps. I first went live into kali and partitioned the drive. I then tried the install using the Kali Linux 64 bit ISO version 1.0.9a but I got an error when trying to connect to the WLAN0 step. I also tried with ethernet but it didn't work. So I looked online and people said that the new versions had that problem and you had to get the Kali linux 1.0.6 version or before. I did and it works but now I'm getting a new problem. A step fails in the "Installing the System" part. So i downloaded earlier version of kali and it got further (like 60% done) but I still get this same failure. I even tried BackTrack R3 and got the same problem. How can I fix this?
Also if it matters I put 150Gb on the partition I am trying to install it on, so i doubt space is the problem.

Hey Lokifeast, you seem to have a few somewhat unrelated issues going on here at once. you have waited a few days for an answer, so here are some thoughts in regard to your post. You should *probably* be using the Kali 1.09 installer. Preferably from a bootable USB pen/flash drive. Do you have any experience using and configuring Grub? You may (or will) find the easiest way to setup dual boot Kali or any other nix hdd install is to install the winbloat of your choice to the entire drive as sda first. use a partition editor to shrink the partition,moving it foward; to create the necessary space for the linux install afterwards. Use the Kali installer from the usb pendrive to install to the partition sdb and allow it to create the necessary swap partition,etc. When Grub scans the hdd during the Kali HDD installation, Grub will look for other installed operating systems and will detect the windows/and loader installation; but it will also inform you that installation of the Grub bootloader will safely install to the Master Boot Record and allow you to select between the windows loader and Kali. You should then be able to select between 3 options in Grub bootloader. Kali will be the first 2 listed, and your Windows loader will be the third line down. I usually prefer setting up dual boot with 2 seperate physical drives, sda and sdb;but its basically the same config. I set up the sda drive with the other operating system and then switch the jumper on the sda to slave and then connect the Kali installed sdb as master. then install Grub to the master boot record and configure accordingly. neat switching between them without actually rebooting them

Network interface configuration in Kali is relatively easy and well documented; but something you probably should tackle once you actually have the system installed,configured, and booting properly.
b|t 5 r3 was very nice but it's probably not going to help you at all to accomplish your current endeavors goal.

regards.

[Orea]

First I saved sensitive data in windows on an external drive. Then rebooted, poped in the iso-dvd and booted it as live.

Well inside of Kali I used gparted to resized my hdd as instucted. Saved and rebooted again.

This time I chose the graphical installation instead of live. Followed the instuctions as in the "Installation to Harddrive" with exception when it came to choosing partion as explained in "Dual booting with Windows".

The installation went fine uptil "use network mirrors" (not sure if the title is correct of that part of the installation). Here it wouldn't accept any of my choices on what mirror to use. Just returned to me as an error. So I just tried them all specific for my country and region. But still nothing. Then it hit me, maybe my wireless card was deactivated during this step. (still not sure?) Anyhow, in with the network cable and I rechose my firsthand mirror. And all continued as nothing had happend.

Later when it came to install grub. The installation prompted me and asked if any or all of my existing installed OS was present above: "Windows(vista loader), Windows(vista loader), and Windows(vista loader)". I think I didn't read carefully enough on this part and thought these name are surely correct. Everything else had been pretty much preset in the installation. Then the installation was complete and I was prompted to reboot. So I did.

Well booted up in grub these options were available to me: (Please note that I only have one Windows 7 installation)

*kali
*kali recovery
*windows (vista loader)
*windows (vista loader)
*windows (vista loader)

Ok, let's bring up windows I said to myself. I chose to top windows loader and : BLUE SCREEN. Small freakout and a automated reboot. I chose the second one and BS. Bigger freakout! Tried the third one and was presented with recovery. Hugely relieved. I chose the fix startup and 15 minutes later windows booted perfectly from the first loader option. Then rebooted and logged into kali, perfect boot.

So to sum up I now have three windows loaders: one for normal boot, second=beats me and third=recovery. I tried to change the name of the loaders in grub.cfg beacuse the it doesn't seemed to have a menu.lst but after reboot the change wouldn't be present. Still reading into how to fix the names and what the second windows loader is? But this was my story on troubles installing Kali. Hope it helps someone, and sorry it became longer then originally planned.

-Try screaming now and again, it will make people leave you alone. Best regards Jake

Hello, i Have A BIG problem, yet not resolved... well i got the same things than you except the third option of windows i just ve got 2 options, the first one, it starts the windows 7 and gaves me the BSOD, then the second option just says that i need to rescue the system, well... i tryed to restore or repair the windows, but for my surprise theres no more recovery section it just ask for a Recovere CD.. and i dont have one... because i always used the recovery partition... now i dont have idea of what can i do to recover my windows 7... i dont have anything important, because is recently formated. but i want my OS windows back its really important... and now i dont know what to do...

[Orea]

Hello, i lost my REcovery Partition by dual booting kali/windows7 and know i cant start windows without getting the BSOD... i dont have a CD recovery, because ia laways used the recovery partition, any idea how i can fix this error

[sushanth]

i had win7 already. so using it i deleted a partition and used that free space to install kali.
evrything got installed smoothly and when it came to GRUB installation it even showed win7 also and i installed GRUB also in root.
but now after installation being complete, ejecting the disc and rebooted now all i see is a blank screen with below 2 lines and a blinking cursor
GUB loading.
welcome to GRUB!
nothing more s happening and i even tried the repair of GRUB by loading sda and everything and then updating GRUB even that is not working!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!