Kali Linux – Getting Started – Updating Linux
I have many requests asking me to cover Wireshark and Kali Linux, and more specifically any issues running Kali Linux as a virtual machine within Windows.
I decided to start a series of videos to see if there is any interest in the topic.
A little bit about my setup; I am using Windows 10 as my host computer since I see a lot more Windows 10 than Windows 11. Even though I am using VMware Workstation, not much should differ if you use VMPlayer. Other than using a NAT network setting within VMWare Workstation, everything was left as default. I downloaded VMWARE ISO but could have used the prebuilt VMWARE files from Kali.
After you login (default login is kali and login is kali), open a terminal emulator. It’s the black square at the top of the screen and looks like this
From within the terminal emulator, type cat /etc/apt/sources.list to verify the list has a proper website to reference.
FYI. The /etc/apt/sources.list file is a configuration file for the Advanced Package Tool (APT). It lists the sources that APT uses to install, update, and remove packages.
Before we start, I thought it would be a good idea to review the commands used.
sudo: This is a command that runs a command with superuser privileges, allowing the command to access and modify system files and settings.
apt: This is the package manager for Debian-based systems, which is used to install, update, and remove packages.
Now you can type sudo apt update to start the update process.
FYI. This command will retrieve the latest package lists from all configured repositories, update the package index with the newly retrieved information and download any package updates that are available
The last command is sudo apt full-upgrade -y
full-upgrade: This is a command that upgrades all packages on the system to their latest versions, including dependencies. It is similar to the dist-upgrade command, but it also handles changes to dependencies more intelligently.
-y: This is an option that tells apt to automatically answer “yes” to any prompts that would normally require user input, such as “Do you want to continue?” or “Are you sure you want to install this package?” This can be useful when running automated scripts or batch updates.
FYI. This command is used to upgrade all packages on a Linux system to their latest versions, including dependencies, while intelligently handling changes to dependencies. It is a part of the apt package manager, which is used to manage packages on Debian-based systems, such as Ubuntu.
Depending what needs updating, you might be prompted for your password, so don’t go far.
At the end of this exercise you can be confident that your version of Kali is up to date.
Stay tuned for more Linux/Kali/Wireshark tips
