How to fix Kali Linux slow update?

When we talk about update, we know that the client system is downloading an update and patches from the source(online- from the network resource or offline- cd/dvd or any other secondary source). Here, we are talking about online update only. Kali Linux is relatively new and have less mirror sites, so the less the mirror sites the more online users to access the server and utilizing all the bandwidth. When you type apt-get update on the terminal, it searches for the relative links for update from /etc/apt/sources.list. So, more the number of links in the repository file, the more time it will consume to search for an update. Below are the few necessary steps that you can perform to fix the issue.

STEPS:

1. Check if you got the right repositories in /etc/apt/sources.list. Please remove unwanted and un-necessary repositories from the sources.list. Click here for more.

2. Run apt-get clean to clear cache.

3. Run apt-get autoremove to remove un-successful installed packages.

4. Choose a fast DNS server. Click here to read this article. To add DNS server address, open terminal and type leafpad/etc/resolv.conf. Once you add the address of DNS server, save and exit the file.

Now, to keep Kali Linux up-to-date, type apt-get update, then apt-get upgrade and finally apt-get dist-upgrade.

Access Kali Linux through Remote System

There are several open source and enterprise software program through which we can access remote system. These software becomes a necessity when you setup a remote server and do not allow direct access to the server, as because of some security measures. PuTTy is one of the major terminal emulator through which we can access a remote server. PuTTy is a free and open-source terminal emulator, serial console and network file transfer application. It supports several network protocols, including SCP, SSH, Telnet and rlogin. Here, I am going to show you how to access Kali Linux through PuTTy. My base computer is running Windows 7 and Kali Linux is installed in a VMWare Player. So we can assume that Kali Linux is installed in a remote machine, as Windows 7 and of Kali Linux is on different network now.

Before we access Kali Linux through remote system, we need to make sure that ssh service is already running in Kali Linux.

To check the status of ssh service. Open root terminal and type service --status-all

In case it shows [-], then it means ssh service is not running and you have to enable ssh service first. To do this type apt-get install openssh-server from terminal window. Once, it shows [+] sign it means service is enable. Now, we type service ssh start to run ssh service.

Once we are sure that ssh service is running in remote Kali Linux, we have to perform one more step. Run ssh-keygen -t rsa to setup rsa key for ssh authentication and enter filename and passphrase to save the key. Once this is done we are good to go.

Now open PuTTy application and type the ip address of Kali Linux (if you are not sure then type ifconfig command on Kali Linux root terminal window). Let the port no. be default, select ssh and click on open. If everything is fine then it will ask you to enter login name and password. Once you enter the correct login and password, you will get privilege to access Kali Linux from console mode.

** An Important Instruction

As kali linux is new to all of us, being a learner we all come with a new issue and try to resolve it as quickly as possible. While installing software, most of us don't know the dependency packages that are installed or removed from the system. A great feature that kali linux provide is that when we run apt command, it checks the available package/s in the repository and accordingly asks if to install. Meanwhile, it also checks the un-necessary packages that is not required. Here is a command that removes the un-necessary packages. From the root terminal window, please type apt-get autoremove. When you hit 'return' or 'enter'  key, it checks the packages that is to be removed from the system. Please read those packages carefully, before you make confirmation to remove it from the system.

Installing Firefox on Kali Linux

Mozilla Firefox is a quite handy browser compared to Iceweasel (default browser in Kali Linux). It has lot of plug-in features that Iceweasel lag. Sometimes, we find it difficulty while navigating through Iceweasel. Hence, I thought of installing Mozilla Firefox. To do this, you have to first un-install Iceweasel from Kali Linux or else it won't allow you to install Mozilla Firefox. Here are the step that I performed.

1. Open root terminal window and type
    apt-get remove iceweasel
it removes iceweasel from the application menu

2. type echo -e "\ndeb http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/ubuntuzilla/mozilla/apt all main" | tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list > /dev/null
it adds repository for the installation

3. type apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com C1289A29
import the required gpg key

4. type apt-get update
update the required package

5. type apt-get install firefox-mozilla-build
install mozilla firefox on your sytem

6. type firefox on terminal window to start working with mozilla firefox