[gentoo-user] Gentoo Hardened vs Kali Linux

[Poison BL.]

Hello!
I want to learn from scratch securing Linux and ethical hacking. Should I
do as the most people so install Kali Linux on virtual machine or install
Gentoo Hardened with Pentoo overlay on my PC? I heard a lot of negative
opinions about Kali Linux.
--
Best regards, Hubert Hauser.

Kali's spectacular, but I don't recommend it for "everyday" use. It's
designed to stand-up quick, do a pentest, and tear it back down when you're
done. I ran a subset of the pentoo overlay on a laptop for a while, and
while it was nifty to have some of those tools on hand, it wasn't enough
for me to justify having them installed 24/7, and it never felt as complete
as Kali does for the job.

[Grant Taylor]

Hello!

Hi,

I want to learn from scratch securing Linux and ethical hacking. Should
I do as the most people so install Kali Linux on virtual machine or
install Gentoo Hardened with Pentoo overlay on my PC? I heard a lot of
negative opinions about Kali Linux.

<RANT class="Greybeard" venue="soapbox">
I get tired of all the various (what I consider to be) "noise" about
"Learn Kali Linux".

IMHO Kali is just another distrobution of Linux. It just happens to be
one targeting security in that it has a lot of security related tools.
Mucht he same way that various live / recovery distrobutions have lots
of recovery / file system / partition / etc tools on them.

Learn the /concepts/ behind the various /programs/ that Kali packiges up
neatly with a bow on top.

Once you know these concepts, you can easily use the various programs,
a.k.a. /tools/, on any distribution, including Gentoo.
</RANT>

So … you can very likely learn things on Gentoo (any profile) without
too much trouble. That being said, many "Learn Kali Linux" turnkey
courses will be geared to and assuming that you are using Kali Linux.
This is probably okay and likely just means that you will need to
translate from Kali to Gentoo (or any other distro) if (when) things
differe.

Depending with your comfort to do such translation, you may find that a
Kali VM may be easier and more closely match any such (noise) training
courses.

[T***@gmx.com]

/* loading hacking tools /*

I met someone who said he games on kali....why? all the elite hackers
use it - it is a very powerful linux that is perfect for dual-booting
with windows 10 due to its high level of security.

[R0b0t1]

Post by T***@gmx.com
/* loading hacking tools /*
I met someone who said he games on kali....why? all the elite hackers
use it - it is a very powerful linux that is perfect for dual-booting
with windows 10 due to its high level of security.

Do people actually dual boot with pentesting distros? I was always
under the impression you were supposed to load it from removable
storage.

[Adam Carter]

Do people actually dual boot with pentesting distros? I was always

Post by R0b0t1
under the impression you were supposed to load it from removable
storage

Blackhats would load from removable storage, but I imagine whitehats would
prefer a stable setup with easy retention of info.

[Adam Carter]

I want to learn from scratch securing Linux and ethical hacking. Should I

do as the most people so install Kali Linux on virtual machine or install
Gentoo Hardened with Pentoo overlay on my PC? I heard a lot of negative
opinions about Kali Linux.

If you haven't installed and maintained a gentoo system before, its a great
way of building a solid foundation of knowledge.

If you have, then its a matter of taste, so try both and see what you like.

[Grant Taylor]

Post by Adam Carter
If you haven't installed and maintained a gentoo system before, its a
great way of building a solid foundation of knowledge.

Agreed.

Though I do think that reading the Linux from Scratch book and doing the
install along with the book will likely teach more about Linux (as it
existed at the time) than Gentoo does or will.

Nothing against Gentoo. It's just that I think that LFS goes into much
more detail. (At least the last time I checked.)

Post by Adam Carter
If you have, then its a matter of taste, so try both and see what you like.

Yep.

[Ian Zimmerman]

Post by Grant Taylor
Though I do think that reading the Linux from Scratch book and doing
the install along with the book will likely teach more about Linux (as
it existed at the time)

Does that mean LFS is dead? That would be a pity.

[Grant Taylor]

Post by Ian Zimmerman
Does that mean LFS is dead? That would be a pity.

Nope. I see "2018" on the http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/ website. At
a quick glance, it looks like LFS is still alive.

I was referring to my ignorance of if LFS has changed since I last
worked through it 10+ years ago.