Booting an Alternate Disk

Booting an Alternate Disk
on OS X/macOS
To boot from an alternate drive on an OS X/macOS system, bring up the boot menu by
pressing and holding the Option key immediately after powering on the device and
selecting the drive you want to use.
For more information, see
Apple’s knowledge base
2
.
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Chapter 2 — Getting Started with Kali Linux
2.2. Booting a Kali ISO Image in Live Mode
2.2.1. On a Real Computer
As a prerequisite, you need either a USB key prepared (as detailed in the previous section) or a
DVD-ROM burned with a Kali Linux ISO image.
The BIOS/UEFI is responsible for the early boot process and can be configured through a piece of
software called Setup. In particular, it allows users to choose which boot device is preferred. In
this case, you want to select either the DVD-ROM drive or USB drive, depending on which device
you have created. Depending on your BIOS/UEFI, you may have a one time boot menu option,
allowing to temporarily change the boot order.
Starting Setup usually involves pressing a particular key very soon after the computer is powered
on. This key is often Delete or Escape, and sometimes F2, F8, F10 or F12. Most of the time, the
choice is briefly flashed onscreen when the computer powers on, before the operating system
loads.
Once the BIOS/UEFI has been properly configured to boot from your device, booting Kali Linux
is simply a matter of inserting the DVD-ROM or plugging in the USB drive and powering on the
computer.
Disable Secure Boot
While the Kali Linux images can be booted in UEFI mode, they do not support
secure
boot
. You should disable that feature in your machine’s Setup.
2.2.2. In a Virtual Machine
Virtual machines have multiple benefits for Kali Linux users. They are especially useful if you want
to try out Kali Linux but aren’t ready to commit to installing it permanently on your machine or if
you have a powerful system and want to run multiple operating systems simultaneously. This is a
popular choice for many penetration testers and security professionals who need to use the wide
range of tools available in Kali Linux but still want to have full access to their primary operating
system. This also provides them with the ability to archive or securely delete the virtual machine
and any client data it may contain rather than reinstalling their entire operating system.
The snapshot features of virtualization software also make it easy to experiment with potentially
dangerous operations, such as malware analysis, while allowing for an easy way out by restoring
a previous snapshot.
There are many virtualization tools available for all major operating systems, including VirtualBox®,
VMware Workstation®, Xen, KVM, and Hyper-V to name a few. Ultimately, you will use the one that
best suits you but we will cover the two most frequently-used in a desktop context: VirtualBox® and
2
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mchlp1034/mac
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Kali Linux Revealed
VMware Workstation®, both running on Microsoft Windows 10. If you don’t have corporate policy
constraints or personal preference, our recommendation is that you try out VirtualBox first, as it
is free, works well, is (mostly) open-source, and is available for most operating systems.
For the next sections, we will assume that you have already installed the appropriate virtualization
tool and are familiar with its operation.
Preliminary Remarks
To fully benefit from virtualization, you should have a CPU with the appropriate virtualization
features and they should not be disabled by the BIOS/UEFI. Double check for any “Intel® Virtual-
ization Technology” and/or “Intel® VT-d Feature” options in the machine’s Setup screens.
You should also have a 64-bit host operating system, such as amd64 architecture for Debian-based
Linux distributions, x86_64 architecture for RedHat-based Linux distributions, and 64-bit for Mi-
crosoft Windows.
If you lack any of the prerequisites, either the virtualization tool will not work properly or it will
be restricted to running only 32-bit guest operating systems.
Since virtualization tools hook into the host operating system and hardware at a low level, there
are often incompatibilities between them. Do not expect these tools to run well at the same time.
Also, Microsoft Windows users beware that professional editions or higher come with Hyper-V
installed and enabled, which might interfere with your virtualization tool of choice. To turn it off,
execute “Turn Windows features on or off” from Windows Settings.
VirtualBox
After the initial installation, VirtualBox’s main screen looks something like Figure
2.6
, “
Virtual-
Box’s Start Screen
” [page 26].
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Chapter 2 — Getting Started with Kali Linux
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