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I was setting up a bootable USB flash drive of Kali Linux, but I ran into an issue where the screen would turn black and return to the boot menu. Here is a video I recorded of it: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czQBiGAZlaw).

I tried this on a different computer, but it still didn't work. I made the bootable usb using the tutorial found on the Kali Linux website (https://www.kali.org/docs/usb/kali-linux-live-usb-install-linux/) in the dd section. I ran dd if=kali-linux-2020.3-installer-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdb1 bs=4M.

After it was finished, I found new files on the USB flash drive and so I thought it worked. I tried it out and the USB flash and the screen turned black then returned to the boot menu as I described. Does anyone know why this may be happening and if so, how would I fix it?

Other information:

  • Host OS/Main OS: Debian Buster
  • USB Format: Ext3 (I've tried Ext4, but the same thing happened)
  • USB OS: Kali Linux

Contents of the USB drive:

USB Files

USB Partition:

USB Filesystem

If any extra information is required, just ask.

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  • So it's not booting from the USB. That's clear from the video. It might help if you include a screenshot showing the contents of the USB. Also see if the BIOS/UEFI has any option called CSM or Legacy, and switch it , try it on, try it off.
    – barlop
    Commented Oct 7, 2020 at 0:02
  • you might need to look up, for the make and model of your laptop, where the UEFI's option for CSM on/off is, if you can't find it.
    – barlop
    Commented Oct 7, 2020 at 0:04
  • you have to look at whether you are meant to write the image to a partition e.g. sdb1 , or to the whole disk i.e. sdb. It'd be strange if it were sdb1 'cos then it'd possibly need some resizing of the file system to meet the partition size, or creating the partition the correct size to match what is written. And indeed it isn't sdb1, though you wrote to sdb1
    – barlop
    Commented Oct 7, 2020 at 0:08
  • see the instructions here kali.org/docs/usb/kali-linux-live-usb-install-linux they say dd if=kali-linux-2020.3-live-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=4M status=progress (where sdb is your usb disk). Note though it's not sdb1. You did sdb1 So put aside the question of csm, and remake the USB disk properly. BTW I personally use ddrescue as it's better, but dd is ok.
    – barlop
    Commented Oct 7, 2020 at 0:08
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    Wait, maybe it's because I downloaded the installer. Should I use the live version of Kali Linux to install?
    – User-92
    Commented Oct 7, 2020 at 0:23

1 Answer 1

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Barlop brought to my attention that I need to run the data dump command on the /dev/sdb dir instead of the /dev/sdb1 dir. I also realized that I needed to download the live version instead of the installer and so I did that. I was able to boot from the USB after fixing this.

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