Kali Linux 2025.1 is out !

[Deleted member 155466]

Kali Linux 2025.1 Ethical Hacking Distro Is Here with Xfce 4.20, Refreshed Theme - 9to5Linux

Kali Linux 2025.1 ethical hacking and penetration testing distribution is now available for download with Xfce 4.20 and KDE Plasma 6.2.

9to5linux.com

─$ cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Kali GNU/Linux Rolling"
NAME="Kali GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="2025.1"
VERSION="2025.1"
VERSION_CODENAME=kali-rolling
ID=kali
ID_LIKE=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.kali.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://forums.kali.org/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.kali.org/"
ANSI_COLOR="1;31"

Have a nice day!

 

[wizardfromoz]

Certainly your choice to announce this, but I do not see any need to do so.

Given Kali is a rolling release, any user who performs their updates will end up with it anyway.

It's a bit like saying that the latest Manjaro is now available.

Just my two cents.

Wizard

 

[Deleted member 155466]

Certainly your choice to announce this, but I do not see any need to do so.

Given Kali is a rolling release, any user who performs their updates will end up with it anyway.

It's a bit like saying that the latest Manjaro is now available.

Just my two cents.

Wizard

Thank you

 

[CaffeineAddict]

ping back from my post https://www.linux.org/threads/kali-2025-1.55974/post-262458

For the last 3 days I've been struggling to install Kali bare metal and dump debian.
I've been installing in UEFI mode, Installation went fine however upon boot the BIOS didn't recognize my SSD as bootable and went straight into BIOS.

Long story short, I managed to troubleshoot the issue which is a bug in my MSI mobo firmware.
MSI motherboards are the worst motherboards one can buy.

I've reset CMOS but that also didn't help beyond clearing NVRAM which was messing up with old MOK key and preventing UEFI install of any distro not just Kali.
Resetting CMOS helped me to reinstall Debian in UEFI mode.

The only way how I could install Kali is in CSM legacy mode which I don't want so I'm back to Debian and will be forced to use Kali in VM

I'm still not 100% sure whether it's MSI bug but I come to that conclusion due to a message in Kali installer (also present in Debian) which asks:

Install GRUB to removable EFI media?
Explanation in that message is that no matter how buggy a firmware is it will always boot from removable media.

It's strange how Debian in EUFI works but Kali which is close relative to Debian does not.
In any case I'll never buy MSI mobo again.

@hacktheworld
Btw. are able to boot Kali in UEFI mode?

 

[KGIII]

I've been installing in UEFI mode

There was a recent thread about secure boot and which distros supported it and which didn't.

Kali was the latter, as of that person's testing. (I believe it was @dos2unix that authored the thread and did the testing.)

That is what I recall, at any rate.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

There was a recent thread about secure boot and which distros supported it and which didn't.

Kali was the latter

I'm talking about UEFI mode install without secure boot.
Which thread is that? if you know?

 

[KGIII]

'm talking about UEFI mode install without secure boot.

Ah, never mind. I just added 'secure boot' to what I thought you were doing as you were using UEFI. It was a fairly recent thread but it was about secure boot. I have no idea which one it was in particular. I can't possibly keep track of all of that.

 

[osprey]

I'm talking about UEFI mode install without secure boot.
Which thread is that? if you know?

Below are some thoughts which may or may not be helpful:

The @dos2unix page on installation here: https://www.linux.org/threads/secure-boot.55894/, just refers to kali install page here: https://www.kali.org/docs/installation/hard-disk-install/.

As you mentioned the kali install page shows BIOS install.

The reference in post #4 back to your earlier post is the following:

btw. for the last week I'm seriously considering to switch from Debian to Kali as daily driver.
Reason is simple, Kali pulls packages from Debian testing and experimental so I'll have latest packages while preserving Debian environment.
Secondly Kali no longer has issues that it used to have that prevented people from using it as daily driver.
And last but not least, I want to boost my skills beyond just Linux and capitalize on existing skills.

There may be other reasons that kali is attractive to you, but if all you wish for is the latest packages and to boost your skills, the alternatives from the debian universe are:
debian testing
debian sid
siduction
I don't think kali is actually quite as up to date as debian sid or siduction, but it may only be a matter of days or a week or so. The issues with debian testing and sid are that things can break and then one has to spend time repairing and ought to be bug reporting. Siduction on the other hand is a more carefully curated version of sid. In my case I had no problems when using it for about a year in the past. However, that all said, kali may still be attractive for other reasons.

In the kali forums here: https://forums.kali.org/t/uefi-bootloader-disappeared/1988, user Fred had an idea. Can't vouch for it.

There are a number of official kali installation media here: https://www.kali.org/get-kali/#kali-installer-images. They include the following isos:

complete offline installation
weekly untested with latest updates
netinstaller
everything
enterprise grade (kali purple)
enterprise grade weekly untested with latest updates
prebuilt virtual machines

The question arises as to whether any is more suited to a uefi installation. Can't say.

Problem of BIOS versus UEFI in this thread (March 12, 2025) had no resolution: https://www.linux.org/threads/kali-linux-does-not-support-uefi-install.55858/

Finally for the moment, there's a suggestion here: https://www.quora.com/I-am-unable-to-boot-to-Kali-Linux-using-UEFI-mode-How-can-I-solve-the-problem
It is to use Rufus writing software where one can choose "Partition scheme and target system type" as "GPT partition scheme for UEFI".

 

[CaffeineAddict]

In the kali forums here: https://forums.kali.org/t/uefi-bootloader-disappeared/1988, user Fred had an idea. Can't vouch for it.

Glad to see there are others with same problem because reason why I couldn't boot from drive is because boot loader was missing on EFI partition in my case, or it could be EFI partition was not mounted to /boot/efi

However I don't agree with Fred's suggestion because 1MB partition is really not needed for UEFI, 1MB free space is however needed prior any partitions for alignment reasons, then follows EFI partition, boot partition and other partitions after that.

That's how both Debian and Kali do it by default if one doesn't format manually. yet boot loader is missing after installation.
Thanks for hints, I declare Kali not fit for my PC, I'll just stick with Debian. fresh installation works better than previous one anyway, so far no DE crashes which I experienced before.