How to create a Kali Bootable USB
How to Create a Bootable Kali Linux USB Drive
Requirements
Windows
Internet connection
USB drive of at least 8GB
Rufus
What is Rufus?
Rufus is a portable, free and open-source application for Microsoft Windows that can be used to format and create bootable USB flash drives or Live USB. It's developed by Pete Batard from Akeo Consulting.
We install it through the following link: https://rufus.ie/es/
Download Kali Linux
We need a Kali image to install. The normal thing would be to install the recommended one from here:
https://www.kali.org/get-kali/#kali-live
If we're not sure, we can read "Which image to download" to see the details and choose our best option.
We click on the down arrow of the recommended option.
Bootable Creation Process
Once we install Rufus and the Kali image, we open Rufus.
Here we have two important options: with partition or without partition.
With Partition
This will allow us to save the Kali state. If we install programs, or create files, when creating our Kali with partition, all of this gets saved in a part of the USB drive.
Without Partition
Without partition, we'll run Kali with the tools that come with it. And it won't allow us to save things inside the machine.
Configuration Steps
Device: Select our USB drive
Boot selection: Click Select and choose the location where we installed the Kali .iso from the previous step
Volume Label: We can put a name. I've changed it to 'kali'
Note: If we choose partition it will let us choose partition scheme and target system. MBR and UEFI or BIOS are usually the recommended options for old or new devices. GPT + UEFI is for new devices. If you don't know the difference you'll have to try one or the other. But I recommend MBR with UEFI or BIOS.
Finally we click Start.
You can assign partition size, but currently it's not officially supported. You can read more about it here: https://www.kali.org/docs/usb/usb-persistence/
If this popup appears, select the second option (DD Image mode):
Finally it warns you that everything on the USB drive will be lost. If you've already made your backup or your USB drive is empty, click OK.
We wait a while... (Time for coffee)
Once this appears in the bar:
It means it's finished. You can click Close.
Using Kali
Enter the BIOS
Now to start Kali, first we have to turn off our computer and make some configurations in the BIOS. When our computer is starting up, some letters usually appear in some corner that specify which keys to press (while it's turning on) to enter the BIOS settings. This is very particular to the manufacturer's brand. You can search in your browser "Key to configure BIOS [BRAND]" and it should tell you. In my case it's the F12 key or Delete like in many computers.
Admin Password
Somewhere in the BIOS, you should find a part that says password. In my case I have Administrator Password and User Password.
We need to put a password on admin if it doesn't have one. You press enter, and it asks for a password.
Warning: Don't forget this password! It's very difficult / impossible to recover!
This password will be asked when we want to use Kali.
Security Boot
Once in the BIOS, we look for the Security boot option and press enter. Generally in BIOS you move with the arrows, ESC is to go back or exit, and Enter to change a configuration. In my case I had to use the arrows to go to Security then use the down arrow to select Secure boot and then enter so it's set to Disable.
Note: Secure boot serves precisely to prevent strange things from booting on your PC, but since it's us, everything will be fine.
Boot Order
If you go to the Boot tab, you should see what options you have to boot.
In my case, as Option 1 I have Windows. And as Option 2 I have the Sandisk (my USB drive).
I'm going to change it so that option 1 is the Sandisk. This is done by selecting option 1, pressing enter, and when it gives me the choice of which one to boot, I choose Sandisk. This way I change the order. (It's quite intuitive, remember to use arrows and enter)
Will it always boot Linux then? No. If you don't have the USB drive plugged in it will go to the next possible boot. In my case Windows.
Starting Kali
Once we've made these settings, we can click Save and exit which is usually an option within the tabs.
When restarting the PC (with the USB drive plugged in) in my case I press F12 and it opens the boot menu. But first it asks for the password we defined earlier.
After entering our password and pressing enter, we should see the list of options. In my case UEFI Sandisk (the USB drive with Kali) and Windows. We select Kali with the arrows and press enter.
It will load a bit and now yes! It asks us how we want to run Kali.
Here it depends on the point you made in Rufus, we have two options:
If you have persistence: Run it with Live system with USB persistence to be able to save things to disk. Or run it with Live system if you don't want to save anything
If you didn't configure Persistence with Rufus: Well, you only have the first option. Live System
You press enter and Kali starts.
Final Steps
Remember to run:
sudo apt updatesudo apt upgradeTo update your system.
Important: If you don't have persistence you would have to run these commands every time you start Kali.
Conclusion
That's it! If you turn off the machine and remove the USB drive, when you start your machine again, it should run Windows as before!
May the terminal be with you
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