Kali/Fixes

Upgrades

Updating Aptitude Sources

Your aptitude /etc/apt/sources.list should resemble the following, and ONLY the following:

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 7.0 _Kali_ - Official Snapshot amd64 LIVE/INSTALL Binary 20150312-17:50]/ kali contrib main non-free
#deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 7.0 _Kali_ - Official Snapshot amd64 LIVE/INSTALL Binary 20150312-17:50]/ kali contrib main non-free

# default repositories

deb http://http.kali.org/kali kali main non-free contrib
deb http://security.kali.org/kali-security kali/updates main contrib non-free

deb-src http://http.kali.org/kali kali main non-free contrib
deb-src http://security.kali.org/kali-security kali/updates main contrib non-free

Doing the Upgrade

First things first

$ apt-get update
$ apt-get -y dist-upgrade

Now add to aptitude sources as per Kali 2015-06-17 notes, and when you have added the new sources, run

$ apt-get update

Now you'll be able to install stuff.

Map CapsLock to Control

I have to do this before anything else, otherwise I go nuts.

In Kali 2.0, open the Tweak Tool, then click Typing, and change "Caps Lock Key Behavior" to "Make Caps Lock an Additional Control."

In Applications > System Tools > Preferences > System Preferences, open Keyboard. Click Layout Settings. Click Options.

On this screen, changed Alt/Win to "Left Alt swapped with Left Win" and changed Caps Lock to "Make caps lock additional Control".

Iceweasel

All browsers are obnoxious, Firefox most of all. The Pentadactyl plugin, which creates vim keybindings for Iceweasel, is great.

Annoyances:

• can't use control a to select all text - it just moves the cursor to the beginning of the line (e.g. search box)
• wildly inconsistent and unpredictable behaviors with alt/meta/control/shift and arrows
• no improvement for entering text in a field.
• Control A doesn't select all, but Alt A does?!?

Mouse Trackpad

Synaptics

In Kali 2.0, the Mouse Trackpad on the Macbook Pro "just works."

The mouse trackpad can be modified with the xserver-xorg-inputs-synaptic package (as per https://wiki.debian.org/MacBookPro#Touchpad). Double finger scrolling is disabled by default but can be enabled by picking Applications > System Tools > Preferences > System Preferences, then Mouse, then edit the settings in the Trackpad tab.

I had synclient installed on my machine: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchpad_Synaptics#Synclient

What I'm trying to do: http://askubuntu.com/questions/250336/disable-mouse-movement-in-tap-zones-on-synaptics-trackpad

I believe the synaptics stuff is provided by the gpointing-device-settings package, which I already had.

In any case, you can test settings with synclient. When you're ready, commit them to Xorg in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf to pick them up at restart.

More on these idiotic clickpads: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchpad_Synaptics#Synclient

This is very discouraging: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=188324

Guess I'll have to resort to a physical hack to fix this god-awful apple keyboard.

Annoyances:

• when i have a second finger on (or even near) the trackpad, the trackpad won't accept any input at all.
• i use the trackpad with index finger while resting thumb on bottom of trackpad
• if apple hadn't designed such an idiotic trackpad, this wouldn't be an issue
• solution is to increase the very very tiny sliver of ignored space at the bottom of the trackpad

Mouse Generally

Annoyances:

• while working in termal or in firefox, Kali randomly gets a "scroll up" signal, every minute or so.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard movement in Linux sucks, mainly becuase the navigation keyboard shortcuts in Linux are so inconsistent between input types, programs, operating systems, etc.

I fixed the function keys to be permanently toggled by running the command:

echo 0 > /sys/module/hid_apple/parameters/fnmode

which allows you to use the function keys as function keys, without pressing a Fn key.

Previously, Alt + F1 was mapped to the absurdly boring applications menu, so I remapped it to open a terminal.

Using Function + Up and Function + Down for top/bottom, and Function + Left and Function + Right to go to beginning/end of line work fine.

Annoyances:

• alt forward and alt back in browser navigate forward and back. I lose a lot of work this way.
• option foward and option back don't work as expected.
• absolutely nothing works correctly in firefox with vimperator enabled.

Installing Software

Aptitude

When it comes to keeping aptitude repositories straight, Kali fails miserably. You will find dozens of Kali repository URLs floating around the web. Half of these will work, all the time. Some of them work half the time. Some never work.

The only two I have any confidence in:

deb http://security.kali.org/ kali/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.kali.org/ kali/updates main contrib non-free

These two lines go in /etc/apt/sources.list, which contains a list of repositories to look in when running apt-get.

VirtualBox

This page has a few steps for installing VirtualBox on Kali Linux: https://netsecuritystuff.wordpress.com/2013/07/05/installing-virtualbox-on-kali-linux

This page has the solution to athe problem of linux development headers not being found (solution: add additional Kali Linux aptitude repositories): https://forums.kali.org/showthread.php?5804-Kernel-headers-problem

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
wget download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.2.14/virtualbox-4.2_4.2.14-86644~Debian~wheezy_i386.deb
dpkg -i virtualbox-4.2_4.2.14-86644~Debian~wheezy_i386.deb 

Gnome-Do

To install gnome-do, you need to visit this link: http://repo.kali.org/kali/pool/main/g/gnome-do/

There, you can download a binary gnome-do .deb file. This can be installed like so:

dpkg -i ~/Downloads/gnome-do_0.95.3_amd64.deb

This will install gnome-do.