Trouble installing Kali Linux, need some help!
 

Hey everyone!

I'm new to Kali Linux, though I used Ubuntu a long time ago. I'm still new to it though, so I could use some help.

My system

Windows 10
2 discs - HDD and SSD

I'm wanting to run Kali as a dual partition. My goal was to put it on the SSD, just like windows. I would be happy with it on the HDD too, if that would work. I downloaded 2 or 3 different software to turn a flash drive into a bootable device. I wanted to install it from the flash drive basically.

That doesn't work. It only lets me install too the flash drive. When I put it in to install it, the only drives selectable in the partition setting is the flash drive. I can't even see the other discs at all. I've disabled safeboot, and I've tried booting from the BIOS and the UEFI boot choice, nether change anything. I tried booting to live and going through a seeing the discs, the flash drive is the only thing that shows up. No other discs.

I made sure to make a partition for the OS too. I made one on the SSD and one on the HDD (both of 100 GB each, so I know there has to be plenty of space). I used 2 or 3 different software, that were similar, just to see if the software was causing the problem. I'm guessing not. The flash drive is 30 GB, so I know it's plenty too. I've watched a lot of youtube videos, and read anything I can find, I just can't seem to figure out what it is I'm doing wrong.

If the computer matters, it's a new Alienware laptop. High end specs, 4k monitor, 1070 inside, 16gb ram, etc. So I don't think anything hardware related would be of issue. Thanks in advanced everyone, I've spend about 7 hours today trying to figure out what's going on with this.

Obligatory "Why Kali?", http://docs.kali.org/introduction/sh...use-kali-linux

Anyways, there's not a lot here to work with. Lets start with a Live CD of either Ubuntu or Fedora. Once we have that, we can start looking at the partition tables, the disk allocations, and see what is actually going on.


When in a Live CD environment, run `sudo parted -l` and post the results. See what your disks look like.

I would suggest that you start with the official Kali documentation at the site below. Among other things, it explains how to make a bootable Kali usb. You should be able to see your drives/partitions. Do you have unallocated space on either drive or a Linux filesystem on a partition?

http://docs.kali.org/

I'm using Kali for a combination of reasons. We will be using it in school next term, and I want to get started with it before class. I tried the partition with just unallocated space, that didn't work. I read online that a few people said to change the format of the partition, so I did. I changed it to ext4, and nothing changed. The only space that show up as available is the flash drive (which is where I'm installing it from). So it wants me download it to the remaining space that is left on the flash drive (about 10 GB or so). I checked out the actual website, read tutorials, and I watched many videos. I thought it may have been the software I was using to make the flash drive usable like this, but I tried three different programs.

Win32 Disk manager
Two others I can't quite remember, but they allowed me to select the distro of Linux when downloading.

I've watched a lot of videos, and I can't seem to figure out who it wont recognize my HDD or SSD. I just can't make any sense of it.

Since you seem to be able to boot the Kali usb, can you post the output of the command: fdisk -l here. That should show drive/partition info.

Have you disable fastboot and anything related to hibernation?

I forgot to mention that I've done that command previous. I'll do it again to make sure I get the exact response copied over, though I'll have to do it a little bit later. When I did it, I couldn't see any of my drives. It only showed the flash drive. I also checked in the disc manager (equivalent tool anyway). It only brought up the flash drive, it wouldn't show my actual drives (in the laptop I mean).

If you will be using Kali a lot in your course I suggest spending the time between now and the start of term installing and getting to know Debian; you'll find much more help online for a new user and understand how it works much faster. Transferring that skillset to Kali will be simple compared to trying to learn a very specialised distribution without face to face assistance.

It could be that the disk controller is not recognized by the kernel. Did you try setting the controller to AHCI in the BIOS.

Thanks for the recomendation. I'll give this a try next. Would you, or anyone here mind chatting? fb messanger, Skype, something? I spend the majority of the day doing the same thing, and called up a Linux Professional in Eugene (Oregon). He had no clue of what to do (but he offered to try for 175 dollars). Anyway, thanks for all the help so far everyone! Still working at it.

I went and did what two people here asks. I entered two commands. The results are below.

fdisk -l

disk/dev/sda 29.8 GB

units - sectors of 1 * f12 - 512 Bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimized) 512/512
disk label type : DOS
disk identifier : 0xbad74d2f

device boot start end size type
/dev/sda1 * 64 5456223 2.6 gb hidden hpfs/ntfs
dev/sda2 5456224 1408 704 kb 1 fat 12



sudo parted -l

model - sandisk cruiser (scsi)
disk/dev/sda : 32 GB
sector size : (logical/physical) 512b/512b

number start end size type
1 32.8 kb 2794mb 2794mb primary
2 2794 mb 2794mb 721 kb primary

file system flags, boot, hidden

I had to copy these down to by hand and then put them up here. I'm pretty sure I got everything.

You should be able to tell by accessing the BIOS what your boot settings are and whether you have an older MBR install or the newer default for windows, a UEFI install. Mixing the two will lead to problems. Not sure what the problem is but you haven't responded to the suggestion to changing the controller setting in the BIOS. One reason I've seen which causes this problem is leaving the default hibernation/fastboot on. You said you created partitions for the possible Kali install but not how you did that?

"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week."

Without planning, well.
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

I'll go through and try what you suggested as well, I'll do that momentarily. I created the partition through disk management in windows (10). I saw a bunch of videos, and just did it the way I saw them do it. I did this to both of my drives to see if it would work with ether of them. It didn't. I changed the partition format on one of them to ext4, and left the other one just unallocated. Just to see if it made a difference. I downloaded an older addition of Kali just to see if it would work, it does allow for me to install it. I read online that a fair amount of people that were using an older version had a fair amount of trouble updating to the current.

Would it be best to download the older version, then upgrade? I will go through the BIOS shortly and see if it's the older MBR installer. I do know that when I tried installing Kali through UEFI, the system prompted me and told me that a lot of the other stuff download onto my computer is done through BIOS, and it may not function well together. That isn't the message exactly, but it's close . Thanks for all the help everyone!

fwiw, I hear this might get it all up&running in <9minutes! ;)

Having LQsearched: TitlesOnly pulldown, under Keyword: kali, Show Results as Threads,
my "LQcoverup" would have been Debian.
"Just saying" (select only General forum, to get one lone result!)

Sis everything work out alright

Welcome to LQ, Tnguyen1202; tell us more/how! Can you try my LQ Search, in #14 above? Enjoy!