Kali Linux booting to a black screen with flashing cursor.

[ElliotPoots]

I've been having issue installing Kali the past few days. I finally got it working after GRUB kept showing a normal.mod error, but now it doesn't do anything.

My setup:
I have an external hard drive with Kali installed on it, I am installing GRUB there also.
My plan was to use the BIOS bootloader and boot to that drive when I would like to use Linux.

When I try and boot to this drive, it simply shows a black screen with a flashing cursor in the top left.
Nothing happens.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[dmroeder]

I know this doesn't solve your problem, and I typically don't like posting non solutions but here goes anyway...

May I ask why you chose Kali? It is not meant to be used as a daily driver OS, it's meant for security researchers, penetration testers, etc. It's a terrible OS for almost everything else. By default the user is root so everything has elevated privileges. Using Kali is like owning a tank, useful for one thing, destruction, sucks for taking through the burger king drive-thru (and pretty much everything else).

If you want to see what it's all about, I'd suggest running it in a VM as a lot of people do. Otherwise, pick a more reasonable OS like Mint or Ubuntu

The blank screen with the cursor is typically an issue of GRUB not being installed properly or mis-configured.

 

[McHenryB]

Video driver problems can also cause this sort of issue. But anyone experienced enough to use Kali should be able to easily toubleshoot the problem. Boot in text mode and check the logs, particularly the X server one.

This sort of problem is nature's way of weeding out those who shouldn't be playing with fire.

 

[ElliotPoots]

I know this doesn't solve your problem, and I typically don't like posting non solutions but here goes anyway...

May I ask why you chose Kali? It is not meant to be used as a daily driver OS, it's meant for security researchers, penetration testers, etc. It's a terrible OS for almost everything else. By default the user is root so everything has elevated privileges. Using Kali is like owning a tank, useful for one thing, destruction, sucks for taking through the burger king drive-thru (and pretty much everything else).

If you want to see what it's all about, I'd suggest running it in a VM as a lot of people do. Otherwise, pick a more reasonable OS like Mint or Ubuntu

The blank screen with the cursor is typically an issue of GRUB not being installed properly or mis-configured.

Video driver problems can also cause this sort of issue. But anyone experienced enough to use Kali should be able to easily toubleshoot the problem. Boot in text mode and check the logs, particularly the X server one.

This sort of problem is nature's way of weeding out those who shouldn't be playing with fire.

Thanks both for explaining to me what Kali is and why I shouldn't use it.
I planned to use Kali because it was the distribution a book I was reading used. I plan to start learning, so I suppose if 'nature' has its way of 'weeding out' beginners, then we'd be nowhere would we? I chose this distribution as it had all the tools that websites like Cybrary and other elearning sites recommend/use. Thanks for your metaphor, I'll kindly ignore it.

Thanks for your advice however.
Have a nice day.

 

[McHenryB]

You may not like my advice, but you would do well to consider the advice of the Kali developers in their documentation:

Is Kali Linux Right For You?

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.

Even for experienced Linux users, Kali can pose some challenges.

I can't stop you making the mistake of using Kali as a beginner, but I'm certainly not going to help you make that mistake. Used unwisely it could land you in jail.

 

[USAFRet]

Start with a more mainstream Linux distro.

I chose this distribution as it had all the tools that websites like Cybrary and other elearning sites recommend/use.

This is like a car magazine recommending a Ferrari because it has all the nice stuff, and a person with a brand new learners permit wanting to know how to get it into first gear.

 

[ElliotPoots]

Start with a more mainstream Linux distro.

I chose this distribution as it had all the tools that websites like Cybrary and other elearning sites recommend/use.

This is like a car magazine recommending a Ferrari because it has all the nice stuff, and a person with a brand new learners permit wanting to know how to get it into first gear.

Thanks for the second metaphor, they're really helpful...

You may not like my advice, but you would do well to consider the advice of the Kali developers in their documentation:

Is Kali Linux Right For You?

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.

Even for experienced Linux users, Kali can pose some challenges.

I can't stop you making the mistake of using Kali as a beginner, but I'm certainly not going to help you make that mistake. Used unwisely it could land you in jail.

I see I've been misinformed. Would you recommend any other distros? Maybe ones that are in any way similar?
Thanks, again.

 

[dmroeder]

Hey ElliotPoots, do you mind sharing what you are wanting to learn?
Are you looking to simply learn to use Linux?
Or are you looking to learn the InfoSec world?
Are you planning on learning programming?

I wasn't trying to discourage you from learning anything earlier when I questioned you using Kali. You have to understand that a lot of people mistakenly pick Kali when it is far from the tool for the job. They often just don't know what it's usefulness is and seem to pick it for it's hacker reputation. Nobody that uses it professionally uses it as their daily driver operating system. They use it for their task at hand, which might be testing the integrity of their network, or trying to understand how a piece of malware works.

If you are just trying to get your feet wet with Linux, my personal preference is Mint KDE edition. I love the KDE desktop environment and Mint has been the most reliable to install and use from my perspective. Not to say that other distributions aren't reliable or easy to install, I've just installed a bunch of them and it tends to just work.

Once you've used something like Mint for a while and you are bored of it, try Arch Linux. That one can give you some fun challenges and can be used as a daily driver.

 

[ElliotPoots]

Hey ElliotPoots, do you mind sharing what you are wanting to learn?
Are you looking to simply learn to use Linux?
Or are you looking to learn the InfoSec world?
Are you planning on learning programming?

I wasn't trying to discourage you from learning anything earlier when I questioned you using Kali. You have to understand that a lot of people mistakenly pick Kali when it is far from the tool for the job. They often just don't know what it's usefulness is and seem to pick it for it's hacker reputation. Nobody that uses it professionally uses it as their daily driver operating system. They use it for their task at hand, which might be testing the integrity of their network, or trying to understand how a piece of malware works.

If you are just trying to get your feet wet with Linux, my personal preference is Mint KDE edition. I love the KDE desktop environment and Mint has been the most reliable to install and use from my perspective. Not to say that other distributions aren't reliable or easy to install, I've just installed a bunch of them and it tends to just work.

Once you've used something like Mint for a while and you are bored of it, try Arch Linux. That one can give you some fun challenges and can be used as a daily driver.

InfoSec mainly... But I am completely new to Linux, thanks for your advice from steering away from Kali.

Also, I've since heard about Parrot, it was recommended to me.
I face the same problem I had with Kali, I can install the distro fine, but cannot boot to it.
I just get a black screen with a flashing cursor, is this GRUB? I mean, it has to be GRUB...

My primary OS is Windows 10, this is on my primary HDD.
I installed Kali (now Parrot) to an external HDD, and the GRUB bootloader to that HDD also.
My plan is to use the BIOS boot manager, to boot to the hard drive, and then use GRUB?

My apologies, I'm completely new to this.
Thanks again!

 

[dmroeder]

Have you ever thought about running Linux in a virtual machine on your Windows 10 machine? I find VM's much more convenient than dealing with dual booting. You can have as many VM's as your hard drive space will allow. So you could have a Kali VM, Mint VM, Ubuntu VM.

Check into this regarding your boot issue (I know it mentions Mint, but the problem is likely the same):
https://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/842

 

[USAFRet]

ElliotPoots

Have you ever thought about running Linux in a virtual machine on your Windows 10 machine?

This right here is what you should be thinking of.

 

[ElliotPoots]

Have you ever thought about running Linux in a virtual machine on your Windows 10 machine? I find VM's much more convenient than dealing with dual booting. You can have as many VM's as your hard drive space will allow. So you could have a Kali VM, Mint VM, Ubuntu VM.

Check into this regarding your boot issue (I know it mentions Mint, but the problem is likely the same):
https://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/842

Up until the point of trying to install it properly, I had been using a VM. I just thought I'd like to give this a go, for experience.
I don't think it's Kali anymore. Rather GRUB.

I tried to install a different Debian-based image the other, and when booting to the drive it's installed onto (and GRUB), there's a flashing cursor in the top left, then it moves down slightly, then it flashes there forever... Any ideas?

 

[dmroeder]

Ahh, that makes sense, I just wanted to make sure you were aware.

I take it the link I provided didn't help?

I ran into an issue once a while back where grub didn't actually install properly (or got wiped out). I had to do this after install:

https://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/245

 

[ElliotPoots]

Ahh, that makes sense, I just wanted to make sure you were aware.

I take it the link I provided didn't help?

I ran into an issue once a while back where grub didn't actually install properly (or got wiped out). I had to do this after install:

https://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/245

Thanks. I'll give this a go, and also - no. I see no sign of GRUB even existing, so the first link didn't quite help, thanks though! I'll get back at you if this helps.

Thanks for your help here, it's greatly appreciated.