Create Bootable USB in Kali Linux

Hi Everyone. Today I am going to show you how to create bootable usb in Kali Linux using line utility. There are several 3rd party utilities available in the market, some of them are UNetbootin, Universal USB Installer, YUMI and RMPrepUSB. These all are GUI-based utilities. But, today I am going to create a linux bootable usb using dd (device driver). dd is a simple command line program that is pre-installed in almost linux based operating systems. It is a simple, yet versatile and powerful tool. It can be used to copy from source to destination, block-by-block, regardless of their filesystem types or operating systems. Below screen-shot shows you how to create bootable usb using dd command.

Tested on: Kali Linux 1.1.0a (64-bit)
I logged in as a superuser. For normal user, please run sudo or su command to complete the task.

STEP:

• Before we begin, please check the partition of your hard drive. Open terminal and run fdisk -l. 

• Now, plug in formatted (in fat32) usb drive and re-run fdisk -l to identity your usb drive name in partition table. Mine detected as sdb (Disk /dev/sda).

• Now, goto the location where you have placed your iso file. I chose Debian 8.1 (64-bit) Disc 1 to create bootable iso.

 

• Type dd command to create bootable usb. syntax: dd if=filename.iso of=/dev/sdx bb=y, where filename is the image of the file (in iso format), x represents external drive and y represent block size of the external drive (in kb as K or in mb as M). Please check screen-shot.

• Once program begin, you will find blinking cursor on the next line. Be patient for a while until it finishes creating bootable usb. Once finished, you will get the status of the operation.

• If operation is successful, run sync and then eject /dev/sdx. Plug in your usb drive. If operation is successful, you will see bootable usb icon on your desktop.

Tips: Network setting in virtual machine

For Laptop user

When you are trying your hand on a new OS, it is always a good idea to test that OS in a virtual machine (vmware player, oracle vm virtualbox etc) rather than installing it on a hard drive. By doing so, you can not only save your time and effort but if somehow your OS crashes, due to some or the other reason, then you can re-install it easily. Virtual machine gives you a virtual environment, where you can install multiple OSes and test them easily. It also allows you to connect multiple virtual OSes in a network (every OS shown here represent different machine, that can communicate with each other via virtual ip address). If you have installed Kali Linux on virtual machine, then change the network setting to NAT mode and your virtual OS will now act as wired virtual machine in LAN. But, if you want your virtual OS to connect wireless, then change your network setting to Bridge mode on your virtual machine and it will ask ssid and password to connect to your virtual network.

LiveCDList

LiveCDList is a good resource on linux based OS. It keeps a track on LiveCD, LiveDVD and LiveUSB. Different Desktop, Server, Gaming, Firewall, Scientific, System Administration, etc based OS are available. A good resource for penetration testers who do not want to install OS on their hard drive. LiveCDs are costs effective and time effective resource available.