Dual boot another linux OS

[addy]

Hi All,
I am running MX 23 at present and looking at installing Kali along side it, having read allot about dual boot installation and varying opinions i thought i would seek advice from you guys. So some questions i would ask to make a decision?
If i installed as a dual boot do i have to disable the swap partition and if not if i created another partition to install it on do i need to create another swap file on that one.

The other option is virtual box and install it on, never having used the virtual box does it operate and function like a normal OS.

What would you recommend and could you give me some advise on how to set the partition up if that is the best way.

Thanks any questions please let me know

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 6.5.0-1mx-ahs-amd64 [6.5.3-1~mx23ahs] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.5.0-1mx-ahs-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash
    init=/lib/systemd/systemd
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.18.1 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.36 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm v: 4.18.0 vt: 7
    dm: LightDM v: 1.26.0 Distro: MX-23.2_x64 Libretto July 31  2023 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12
    (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: HP product: OMEN by HP Laptop 17-ck0xxx v: N/A serial: <superuser required>
    Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: HP model: 88F7 v: 86.42 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: AMI v: F.41 date: 09/08/2022
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 43.7 Wh (66.1%) condition: 66.1/83.0 Wh (79.6%) volts: 11.1 min: 11.6
    model: HP Primary type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: discharging cycles: 248
CPU:
  Info: model: 11th Gen Intel Core i7-11800H bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Tiger Lake gen: core 11
    level: v4 note: check built: 2020 process: Intel 10nm family: 6 model-id: 0x8D (141) stepping: 1
    microcode: 0x4E
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 8 tpc: 2 threads: 16 smt: enabled cache: L1: 640 KiB
    desc: d-8x48 KiB; i-8x32 KiB L2: 10 MiB desc: 8x1.2 MiB L3: 24 MiB desc: 1x24 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 819 high: 1104 min/max: 800/4600 scaling: driver: intel_pstate
    governor: powersave cores: 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800 4: 800 5: 800 6: 800 7: 800 8: 800 9: 800 10: 800
    11: 1104 12: 800 13: 800 14: 800 15: 800 16: 800 bogomips: 73728
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling mitigation: Microcode
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Enhanced / Automatic IBRS, IBPB: conditional, RSB filling,
    PBRSB-eIBRS: SW sequence
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel TigerLake-H GT1 [UHD Graphics] vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915 v: kernel
    arch: Gen-12.1 process: Intel 10nm built: 2020-21 ports: active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, DP-3,
    DP-4, DP-5, HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 0000:00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:9a60 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: NVIDIA GA106M [GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile / Max-Q] vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: N/A
    alternate: nouveau non-free: 530.xx+ status: current (as of 2023-03) arch: Ampere code: GAxxx
    process: TSMC n7 (7nm) built: 2020-22 bus-ID: 0000:01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:2520 class-ID: 0300
  Device-3: Quanta HP Wide Vision HD Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 3-6:2
    chip-ID: 0408:5423 class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositors: 1: xfwm v: 4.18.0 2: Compton v: 1 driver:
    X: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: iris gpu: i915 display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 2560x1440 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 677x381mm (26.65x15.00") s-diag: 777mm (30.58")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: BOE Display 0x09bf built: 2020 res: 2560x1440 hz: 165 dpi: 170
    gamma: 1.2 size: 382x215mm (15.04x8.46") diag: 438mm (17.3") ratio: 16:9 modes: 2560x1440
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics (TGL GT1) direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Tiger Lake-H HD Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl
    alternate: snd_hda_intel,snd_sof_pci_intel_tgl bus-ID: 0000:00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:43c8
    class-ID: 0401
  Device-2: NVIDIA GA106 High Definition Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel bus-ID: 0000:01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:228e class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.5.0-1mx-ahs-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 3000 bus-ID: 0000:2d:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX210/AX211/AX411 160MHz driver: iwlwifi v: kernel modules: wl
    bus-ID: 0000:2e:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:2725 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: proton0 state: unknown speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full mac: N/A
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX210 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 3-7:3 chip-ID: 8087:0032
    class-ID: e001
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: <filter>
  Info: acl-mtu: 1021:4 sco-mtu: 96:6 link-policy: rswitch sniff link-mode: peripheral accept
    service-classes: rendering, capturing, object transfer, audio, telephony
RAID:
  Hardware-1: Intel Volume Management Device NVMe RAID Controller driver: vmd v: 0.6 port: N/A
    bus-ID: 0000:00:0e.0 chip-ID: 8086:9a0b rev: class-ID: 0104
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 953.87 GiB used: 79.75 GiB (8.4%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Samsung model: MZVL21T0HCLR-00BH1 size: 953.87 GiB
    block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter>
    rev: HPS2NGXH temp: 39.9 C scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 953.62 GiB size: 937.58 GiB (98.32%) used: 79.75 GiB (8.5%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 256 MiB size: 252 MiB (98.46%) used: 274 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 4 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 36.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 1969 fan-2: 0
Repos:
  Packages: 2534 pm: dpkg pkgs: 2528 libs: 1379 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 6
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/earth/deb/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://mxlinux.mirrors.uk2.net/packages/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/protonvpn-stable.list
    1: deb [arch="all", signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/protonvpn-stable-archive-keyring.gpg] https://repo.protonvpn.com/debian stable main
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/steam-beta.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/steam-stable.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64,i386 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/steam.gpg] https://repo.steampowered.com/steam/ stable steam
    2: deb-src [arch=amd64,i386 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/steam.gpg] https://repo.steampowered.com/steam/ stable steam
Info:
  Processes: 358 Uptime: 41m wakeups: 4814 Memory: 15.26 GiB used: 3.89 GiB (25.5%) Init: systemd
  v: 252 target: graphical (5) default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
  Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: UEFI

[Charlie Brown]

You can use the same swap partition, just don't reformat it cause the uuid will change (and the previous OS (MX in this case) won't be able to find it.).

However your MX is already using a swap "file" : /swap/swap , not a partition, therefore nothing to worry :)

You can install Kali (or any others) and create and use a swap partition or file for them (or not) ...

[FullScale4Me]

The easiest way is to install Virtual Box is to Import a 'VB hard drive' and then run from there. 1

Kali has some install quirks that keep the new users that don't read out of it. Much less internet 'noise' about Parrot, another cybersecurity-focused distro.

FWIW All that Kali offers can be installed in any other distro. Most of the new Kali posts I see elsewhere are someone at day 1 of trying to learn hacking and not cybersecurity. To a lesser degree then come the complaints about how hard it is to customize into a daily driver PC due to the limited Kali repos!

1 https://www.kali.org/docs/virtualization/install-virtualbox-guest-vm/

[MXRobo]

If not using an external drive for data, I personally really like using a separate data partition on the computer as it you can simply install or reinstall any distro and use symlinks to the data partition.

Sorry to link my own post and I sound like a broken record - - - and some of the smaller details of it and the included links may have change a little, but it's generally the same.

From: https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/tuto ... 97/#msg997

"There are advantages to creating a completely separate partition for your data files instead of keeping them on a dedicated /home partition, or on the / (root) partition with the system files. Here are a few:

1. Makes use and sharing of data easier between different operating systems on the computer (Windows or Linux). Instead of having data created while using each OS saved to its own location, they can all read/write data to one central location.
2. Eliminates potential problems with more than one Linux distro using the same /home partition, where the user program configuration files may conflict with each other. (Although it's more rare, this can also happen when upgrading a distro to the latest version of itself.)
3. Makes re-installation of the operating system, upgrading to new distro versions, and switching to different distros easier. Data is safely off on its own partition, so no need to copy it back on after a new install. Just link to the partition again after replacing the root partition with the new installation.
4. Save time for newbies and experienced users whose system gets broken for some reason, requiring a re-installation. No need to attempt accessing broken install to copy off data before replacing the system -- it's already safely off in its own location."

I did it as an extreme noob, and an really liked it, it made reinstalling easy when that was the only way that I knew how to fix something.

[Nokkaelaein]

If not using an external drive for data, I personally really like using a separate data partition on the computer as it you can simply install or reinstall any distro and use symlinks to the data partition.

If using VirtualBox for some tasks (and running a different distro for those tasks, etc.), like FullScale4Me suggested, look into the directory sharing feature of VirtualBox. If the host system has your data partition mounted, you can configure the virtual machine so that the data directory tree is mapped onto the virtual machine's filesystem, for read/write access or read only. The effective result is that the contents of your data partition is there, ready to access from within the virtual machine. Note that I'm not saying either way of doing things is better or worse per se - that depends on the task at hand - and I'm just mentioning this in case you have a use case at some point that a virtual machine would suit nicely, but are steering clear of trying that because of the separate data partition.