EDIT: There is a final version of BackTrack4 released, both an ISO image and a VMWare image. Also, backtrack is now distributed from www.backtrack-linux.org instead of remote-exploit.org. I suggest you to download and install the final VMware version.
I have been using BackTrack3 so far for my ethical penetration testing tasks with great success. I decided recently to give BackTrack4 a try, even if it’s still in Pre-Release stage.
The guys at remote-exploit state that even if it is pre-final stage, this release is the sturdiest from all previous BackTrack versions so I decided to try it now rather than waiting for the final release. A notable change with BackTrack4 is that it uses Ubuntu now as the underlying operating system which is a very good move in my opinion.
Below I will explain the steps I took to install BackTrack4 on VMWare Workstation running on Windows XP Pro. I have used VMWare Workstation 6.5.3 (it should work with older versions) and BackTrack4 pre-final.
First download the BackTrack 4 pre-final file (bt4-pre-final.iso) from its original location from http://www.remote-exploit.org/backtrack_download.html. The file comes in dvd ISO format. Save the iso file locally on your hard disk.
- Start the VMWare Workstation and go to File>New>Virtual Machine
- Select Typical Install
- Select option to use Installer Disc image file (iso)
- Click the Browse button to find the ISO image that you downloaded above.
- Click Next, select Linux and for version select Ubuntu.
- Click Next and select the location where the Virtual Machine will be installed.
- Leave the defaults (maximum disk size 8GB and Store Virtual disk as a single file).
- Click Next and Finish.
- Go to “Edit virtual machine settings” and change the network adapter to “Bridged”.
- Power on the virtual machine.
- This will boot up the Live CD from the ISO image and give you several boot options. Select the first option (BackTrack Framebuffer 1024×768).
- After it boots, it will get you into command line prompt as root@bt:#
- Type startx
- This will take you into the graphical interface of BackTrack. However you are still under Live CD. Any changes you make will be lost with next reboot. Therefore you need to install it on the VMWare virtual disk.
- Double click the “install.sh” script that you see on the desktop. This will start the installation procedure. Follow all steps. This will finally install BackTrack on the VMWare disk.
- Press “Restart” button to reboot. After rebooting, it will now boot from the VMware disk and not from the Live CD. At the login prompt, enter the username and password that you configured during the graphical installation above.
- You need to configure a root password here. Type “sudo passwd root”. It will ask you for your own user password to execute the command above. Then it will ask you to enter new password for root (twice). After that, the password for root will be changed.
- Login as root and get into graphical interface with startx.
- You are ready to Rock Baby!!!
I advice you to visit the offensive security blog (http://www.offensive-security.com/blog/) to read some very useful posts about BackTrack4. Especially useful is the post about upgrading the Kernel which is required because of a security hole in the default Kernel of bt4.
Thanks man, really helped me out!!
Thanks man! im on a acer aspire one 8.9″ netbook and i dont have a dvd burner so this really saves me time from haveing to boot into bt then boot into windows. great tut! now gives us some more please!!!! 🙂
After I do the startx, I do not see the install.sh on the BT desktop??
Help!!!
Ray
installation is completed perfectly, but it can’t detect the network, and when i try to install the vmware tools it doesn’t show up! any ideas?
What I do for enabling the network is the following (as root):
1. If there is a DHCP server in the network:
ifconfig eth0 up
dhclient eth0
2. If I need to configure a static IP address on the interface:
ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
route add default gw 192.168.1.254
Well written guide, and thanks for the update information…
how do you “•Select option to use Installer Disc image file (iso)” ? i cant seem to find my way to installing from downloaded iso….. will only run on DVD and usb …….
ive figured it out now…. thx ……
I have installed backtrack 4 final, but under the “install.sh” thing there was no making ur own username and password (step 5/7 wasnt there.. it was skipped rigth over to 7/7) So i try to use default username and password “root/toor” when i reboot but it doesnt work :/
Please help me
Thx
Hello Jonas,
I have installed the prefinal version which works great, so unfortunately I did not try the final BT4 yet. Have you tried the vmware BT4 version? I will try the vmware version soon and right a new post here.
Thanks for this nice tutorial. But I am still facing some problems.
There were some differences.
My configuration is as follows:
Ubuntu 9.04 : Host
Backtrack 4 : Guest
VMware workstation 7
There was only /dev/cdrom3.
After the installation I found there was no Autorun in ~/.kde, I was under ~/.Kde3
and inside /user/lib/vmware-tools/bin and /user/lib/vmware-tools/bin32, I found :
apploader, configure-gtk.sh vmware-tpvmlp, vmware-tpvmlpd, vmware-user-loader and others but couldn’t find any vmware-toolbox-gtk.
– Help needed.
how do i enable sharing of folders on the network so i can access my live files from backtrack virtual installation.
I have done this some time ago and worked. From what I remember you can enable windows sharing through the VM menu>Settings(or properties)>Advanced and you should find a sharing option. After you share a windows folder, you can access it within Backtrack from /mnt/hgfs
Great tutorial. I use the final version, but ams still learning alot about it. It doesn’t ask you to create a user when you install it, but once installed under root there is an option to add users, and from there you can choose what permissions they get. You can also go in and edit the root password as if it is windows box with out havign to use the command line.
BT4 is taking a great deal of time to get installed in the VM. It gets stuck at 22%, 23%, and so on. Is this normal? If not, then some one please guide ..
My installation is going great. No problems no anything of that kind. One thing I’m noticing right now, is that the Final Edition has less software than the Beta, at least there is no Saint, the main reason I want to try BackTrack.
thank you very much, now i can connect to internet. bt4-r2 is good !