How do I update and upgrade from Kali 2017.1 to Kali 2017.2

[Moses Thompson]

Good day everyone,
I recently noticed that there's a new release of Kali rolling 2017.2. I have Kali Linux 2017.1 installed on my computer and I just tried to apt-get update and apt dist-upgrade and then reboot as stated on Linux Official site.Then I tried to confirm what version of Kali am running on by using "lsb_release -a" "cat /etc/issue" and "uname -a". This is what I saw: Linux Kali 4.9.0-kali3-amd64 # 1 SMP Debian 4.9.18-1Kali1-(2017-4-4) *86_64 GNU/LINUX.

I believe Kali3 means that I'm still running on Kali 2017.1 which was released in April 4th of 2017. Please what should I do to update and upgrade to Kali rolling 2017.2 and also to confirm I'm running 2017.2. I really need your assistance here. Thanks in advance

 

[atanere]

Hi Moses, and welcome! I'm not too familiar with Kali, but give this command a try and see what it gives:

cat /etc/*-release

EDIT:
I noticed too in your "before" photo that you are not consistent in your commands... one time you use apt-get and the other time you use just apt. I don't know if this made any difference, but it's just generally good to be consistent with commands. You also did not issue apt-get upgrade which is common after update and before dist-upgrade... but again, I don't know if that matters. I found another person who suggests this dual command to update Kali... maybe it will be better for you in the future (run as root, of course):

apt update && apt full-upgrade

Cheers

 

[Moses Thompson]

Thanks @atanere, I'll try that and probably update and upgrade to the latest Kali rolling 2017.3 which was released on the 21st of November 2017

 

[wizardfromoz]

Hi @Moses Thompson

I run Kali 17.2, and my output for the 3 commands you have tried are as follows in the Spoiler, and they are appended by the output (basically) for what friend Stan (@atanere ) has suggested, I just use slightly different options on it.

Spoiler

root@kali17:~# lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Kali
Description: Kali GNU/Linux Rolling
Release: kali-rolling
Codename: kali-rolling
root@kali17:~# cat /etc/issue
Kali GNU/Linux Rolling \n \l
root@kali17:~# uname -a
Linux kali17 4.12.0-kali1-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.12.6-1kali6 (2017-08-30) x86_64 GNU/Linux
root@kali17:~# cat /etc/*release*
DISTRIB_ID=Kali
DISTRIB_RELEASE=kali-rolling
DISTRIB_CODENAME=kali-rolling
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Kali GNU/Linux Rolling"
PRETTY_NAME="Kali GNU/Linux Rolling"
NAME="Kali GNU/Linux"
ID=kali
VERSION="2017.2"
VERSION_ID="2017.2"
ID_LIKE=debian
ANSI_COLOR="1;31"
HOME_URL="http://www.kali.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="http://forums.kali.org/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="http://bugs.kali.org/"

I am a little concerned as to whether you are actually using a v17 of Kali, and your output from what Stan has asked for may reveal.

Cheers

Wizard

 

[Lazydog]

Kali release information is in /etc/os-release.

root@kali:/etc# cat os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Kali GNU/Linux Rolling"
NAME="Kali GNU/Linux"
ID=kali
VERSION="2017.3"
VERSION_ID="2017.3"
ID_LIKE=debian
ANSI_COLOR="1;31"
HOME_URL="http://www.kali.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="http://forums.kali.org/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="http://bugs.kali.org/"

Not having anything to update is proof enough that you are up to date.

 

[wizardfromoz]

I am smiling Robert but if you compare cat /etc/*-release (Stan's), cat /etc/*release* (mine), and your cat /etc/os-release ... yours is certainly a couple of lines less verbose - still gives the same outcome

Cheers all

Wiz

 

[Lazydog]

Back at ya wizard. . The reason mine is smaller is I'm only looking at one file where yours and Stan are looking a both lsb-release and os-release. Reason I responded is to show the OP that this information he is looking for is in a single file, os-release. lsb-release lets you know that it is a Kali rolling release but beyond that doesn't tell you anything.

 

[Moses Thompson]

@wizardfromos Yes I'm running on v17 and I was able to upgrade to 2017.3 Also the code: cat /etc/*-release confirmed I'm now on version 2017.3. Thanks

 

[Moses Thompson]

Thanks @Lazydog

 

[wizardfromoz]

@wizardfromos Yes I'm running on v17 and I was able to upgrade to 2017.3 Also the code: cat /etc/*-release confirmed I'm now on version 2017.3. Thanks

My bad, sir, lol - I had not examined closely enough your after the updates.png, to see 17.1 was listed there - should have gone to Specsavers

Hope all is good now.

Cheers & Season's Best

Wizard

 

[Moses Thompson]

My bad, sir, lol - I had not examined closely enough your after the updates.png, to see 17.1 was listed there - should have gone to Specsavers

Hope all is good now.

Cheers & Season's Best

Wizard

Now I need help updating from Kali 2017.3 to 2018.1. Please help me out here

 

[arochester]

I am not being cruel.

I am trying to be kind.

If you use Kali Linux and you cannot solve all of your problems, by yourself, then Kali Linux is not for you.

Look at Kali Linux's own web pages, particularly https://docs.kali.org/introduction/should-i-use-kali-linux

As the distribution’s developers, you might expect us to recommend that everyone should be using Kali Linux. The fact of the matter is, however, that Kali is a Linux distribution specifically geared towards professional penetration testers and security specialists, and given its unique nature, it is NOT a recommended distribution if you’re unfamiliar with Linux or are looking for a general-purpose Linux desktop distribution for development, web design, gaming, etc.

and

If you are unfamiliar with Linux generally, if you do not have at least a basic level of competence in administering a system, if you are looking for a Linux distribution to use as a learning tool to get to know your way around Linux, or if you want a distro that you can use as a general purpose desktop installation, Kali Linux is probably not what you are looking for.

Kali Linux and people who "use" Kali Linux make many regular Linux Users angry.
Look at https://unix.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4640/what-should-we-do-about-kali-linux-questions and https://unix.stackexchange.com/ques...nux-so-hard-to-set-up-why-wont-people-help-me

PLEASE ask yourself "Why am I using Kali Linux at all and would I be better to use a simpler Linux distro?"

 

[JasKinasis]

I haven't used Kali for a couple of years, but from the error message in your screenshot - it looks like you have an invalid URL set up for your sources.list.

What is the current content of your sources.list? (typically found at /etc/apt/sources.list)

According to the Kali Linux Official Documentation it should only contain:

deb http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main contrib non-free
# For source package access, uncomment the following line
# deb-src http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main contrib non-free

If it contains anything else - any other repositories remove them. Adding any other repositories to Kali is bad news. Your sources.list should only contain the above lines.

Once your sources.list has been correctly set - update your package lists using apt update.
Then run apt upgrade to upgrade some of the packages. Then do a dist-upgrade or full-upgrade.

If that doesn't completely fix the problem - I don't know what to suggest.

 

[wizardfromoz]

I understand totally the apprehensions of @arochester above, and for the most part agree. But then, I too, fall into that category, as I have only scratched the surface of pen testing, with Kali and with Parrot so far.

As for @JasKinasis - we seldom have reason to disagree, and usually have each other's back, but I do here.

First question for the OP is this:

@Moses Thompson - Mate, not prying, but what country and what time zone?

Jas is in UK, and possibly is well fed by good servers, same applies in many parts of USA.

My point is simply - if you are just using Kali, you may be keeping up-to-date all the time. If you are multibooting, such as I, perhaps not.

It may be 3 weeks or more before I go into Kali, and I am faced with perhaps 1 GiB or so* of updates. In Australia, the default updates mirror for Kali is woefully slow, so I change it to the fastest of our local mirrors, all reputable and I know their names.

All Debian-based Distros either ship with "netselect" installed or in their Repositories. "Directly Debian" ones such as Debian itself, Kali, MX-16 & MX-17, antiX, one of the Netrunners, and others, also have "netselect-apt" installed.

Once you enter, as Root

# netselect-apt

... you will be taken through a process pinging maybe 300 or more Debian servers worldwide. At the end of the process, it will output the fastest 10, and choose the fastest one, to add to your sources.list.

That is where you can stop for breath, and check, perhaps that those fastest 10 were reputable. The amended sources.list resides for the moment where you issued the command. In my case, that would be in /home/chris along with pictures document videos &c.

To get the proposed, faster mirror in place:

# mv /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list_bkp1

# mv sources.list /etc/apt

This updates in real time, and you can perform your downloads faster.

I do not have Kali installed currently, so cannot help with the upgrade, but from my Timeshift snapshot of this, my sources.list looks as follows:

# Debian packages for testing
deb http://debian.mirror.serversaustralia.com.au/debian/ testing main contrib non-free
# Uncomment the deb-src line if you want 'apt-get source'
# to work with most packages.
# deb-src http://debian.mirror.serversaustralia.com.au/debian/ testing main contrib non-free

# Security updates for stable
# deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main contrib non-free

Kali would not have this facility in place if it was not meant to be used.

In line with the failed commands you have experienced, I would then try the following (once you have the fastest mirror):

# apt-get update --fix-missing

# apt-get upgrade --fix-missing

or commands to similar effect. If they do not work, I do not have further options for the moment.

If this is the first Linux Distro you have tried - I would strongly advise getting practice with some simpler Distros, getting the experience and troubleshooting knowledge for them, and then coming back to Kali.

Cheers all, and

avagudweegend

Wizard

EDIT - * This should read hundreds of MiB... on further reflection, it is Parrot which will often have 1 GiB or so of updates for me

 

[JasKinasis]

As for @JasKinasis - we seldom have reason to disagree, and usually have each other's back, but I do here.

Wiz. Take another look at the OP's screenshot.. Note the http error 403.
Also note the URL that has been used.

Then take a look at the official documentation for Kali - linked in my previous post and note the instructions for the content of sources.list.

http://repo.kali.org is not the URL of their repo. Note: the use of kali.org in the URL the OP has used - which implies to me that they were intending to use the main Kali repo and not a mirror.

And it is definitely not in the mirror list either:
http://http.kali.org/README.mirrorlist

Whatever has happened, the URL in the OPs sources.list is invalid and incorrect.
The correct URL for their main repo is http://http.kali.org

By all means, if the main repo is too remote for the OP to get a fast connection, they should use one of the mirrors instead.

But going by what they posted, I don't think I was at all wrong and stand by my previous post! heh heh!

 

[wizardfromoz]

Nice one Jas

I have read a bit more, and believe that the OP has modified his sources.list directly, in line with articles on the internet.

Is that so, @Moses Thompson ?

If not, can you show us the contents of your current /etc/apt/sources.list ? Or if you have already followed my previous advice, the backup one/s ?

There is an article here

https://www.metahackers.pro/speed-kali-linux-update/

which advocates the use of that URL, and also a Youtube video here

likewise. The author of the video cannot spell Sana properly, so perhaps not reliable to take his advice.

I would suggest that the OP, if he wishes to continue using Kali, revert to his original sources.list and stick with it.

Kali Sana and Kali 2.0 were of the point release variety of Distro, but since Kali 16.1 or so, they have been rolling.

For the benefit of The Viewers, that means you do not ever need to upgrade, that is taken care of with your Updates process. So when I put back onto my laptop my Kali 2017.2 or whatever, and run updates, I have no doubt I will be upgraded to the 2018 version.

I will, however, stick with the "mirror surfing", all of which, in Australia I know. The Kali documentation has only 1 listed in Australia, in Sydney, and there are 10, and it has my nearest mirror as Italy .... so no chance I will change my patterns there.

Cheers

Wizard

 

[Moses Thompson]

I am not being cruel.

I am trying to be kind.

If you use Kali Linux and you cannot solve all of your problems, by yourself, then Kali Linux is not for you.

Look at Kali Linux's own web pages, particularly https://docs.kali.org/introduction/should-i-use-kali-linux


and

Kali Linux and people who "use" Kali Linux make many regular Linux Users angry.
Look at https://unix.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4640/what-should-we-do-about-kali-linux-questions and https://unix.stackexchange.com/ques...nux-so-hard-to-set-up-why-wont-people-help-me

PLEASE ask yourself "Why am I using Kali Linux at all and would I be better to use a simpler Linux distro?"

@arochester Lol I understand your trying to be kind and I appreciate the fact that your being honest. But the truth is that I'm not a regular user due to the nature of my Job, I hardly have time to practice and whenever I try to continue from where I stopped, everything seems bit new but certainly not frustrating cos I enjoy it In spite of that I've set my priority straight, will practice more frequently henceforth. Thanks

 

[Moses Thompson]

@arochester Lol I understand your trying to be kind and I appreciate the fact that your being honest. But the truth is that I'm not a regular user due to the nature of my Job, I hardly have time to practice and whenever I try to continue from where I stopped, everything seems bit new but certainly not frustrating cos I enjoy it In spite of that I've set my priority straight, will practice more frequently henceforth. Thanks

Hi Wizard, thanks for taking your time to write and explain so much to me, I really appreciate it a whole lot. The video really helped and I remembered messing with the souce list sometime ago but I didn't include the old.kali sana in the source. I used the only:
deb http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main contrib non-free
# For source package access, uncomment the following line
# deb-src http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main contrib non-free
Currently upgrading as am typing now...Thanks once again.

 

[Moses Thompson]

I haven't used Kali for a couple of years, but from the error message in your screenshot - it looks like you have an invalid URL set up for your sources.list.

What is the current content of your sources.list? (typically found at /etc/apt/sources.list)

According to the Kali Linux Official Documentation it should only contain:

deb http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main contrib non-free
# For source package access, uncomment the following line
# deb-src http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main contrib non-free

If it contains anything else - any other repositories remove them. Adding any other repositories to Kali is bad news. Your sources.list should only contain the above lines.

Once your sources.list has been correctly set - update your package lists using apt update.
Then run apt upgrade to upgrade some of the packages. Then do a dist-upgrade or full-upgrade.

If that doesn't completely fix the problem - I don't know what to suggest.

@JasKinasis Thanks for the source list, for some reason I messed with the source list sometime ago and I forgot to replace it lol Thanks once again, I'm grateful for your help.

 

[JasKinasis]

@JasKinasis Thanks for the source list, for some reason I messed with the source list sometime ago and I forgot to replace it lol Thanks once again, I'm grateful for your help.

No worries!
For future reference, because Kali is using a rolling release model:
To use the latest version - all you have to do is stay up to date with the updates. You don't need to worry about messing with sources.list whenever there is a new point-release.

Periodically, the developers of Kali might release a new point-release version of their live-CD / installer images. But that would only be for new installs.
e.g.
For people wanting to install a fresh copy of Kali.

For existing installs, you just need to keep it up to date using apt. So most updates will just come from a quick "apt update && apt upgrade".

If you see any messages from "apt upgrade" that say anything about packages that were held back or not upgraded - the chances are there is a major update/upgrade available via "apt dist-upgrade", or "apt full-upgrade".

On a debian-based rolling release distro - upgrading to the latest version really is as simple as that! There is no need to change the default sources.list - unless the connection to the main repo is too slow. In which case - update sources.list to use one of their official mirrors that is situated nearer to where you live.