KDE and UBUNTU 8.10 - can I use Gnome?

[J_dillinger]

I have recently begun experimenting with BT4 beta and ran into a couple of issues that I decided to try and resolve. In my ubuntu 8.10 installations I use remastersys and the create a USB startup disk quite a bit to make the installations transportable. While exploring BT4 I didn't find these options and decided to move the repository list to my installation of Ubuntu 8.10 - which worked with some hickups that were resolve when I returned my repository sources back to what they were. The whole experiment got me thinking that I could just build a new installation of either Ubuntu 8.10 or Kubuntu 8.10 and begin from scratch. Will BT4 work in an Gnome environment or will I have to stick with Kubuntu. I ran into this problem in a small way with SWScanner (kdesu not available) and am inclined to use Kubuntu for that reason, but the gnome desktop is much more comfortable. I would like to stick with it. Plus the ubuntu 8.10 base I have already has eclipse, kismet, snort and nessus as well as all the other goodies I like working on the installation. I would however like to get SWScanner working in the BT4 install I'm planning to build.

If anyone has any ideas on what I should do to begin I'm open for suggestions and would like to know if KDE is required to get the most out of the BT4 repository. I realize that the removal of KDE thread has some discussion of this, but what I really want out of BT4 is to be able to remaster and modify it for installation from USB. Also I would like to get away from loading the change to the kernal on boot and make the changes directly to the OS and rebild the Live CD in a fashion to suit my needs.

[xorred]

making it short: don't mess with the BT4 installation, using the sources will *probably* provide you with *some* tools, but the core functionality is being worked on for almost a year, and we're still at *beta*.

That means that you will have to find a team of highly knowledgeable people to work with you for almost a year, in order to duplicate the functionality of BT in another form.

So... just stick with the basic distro, use it for what it's built - and have some other installation for everyday use... I personally use a VM image for my home BT usage and a separate BT laptop for external pentesting... I know other pentesters prefer the same way, except for the dareful ones who use BT as a base OS.

[J_dillinger]

Just for the sake of curiosity what would you start with? Are the internal working of some of the apps tied inextricably to KDE?

I realize that the inner working of Back Track are delicate, but I learn form tinkering. I learn a lot from seeing the errors that come from working with the apps, and it is an experimental box. I have 4 computers on my network the are deployed for OS testing and development, and a whole test network that I can attack in my office. I am just wanting to expand my knowledge of Back Track an hoped to shorten the learning curve by starting with a stable base to avoid unforeseeable problems that will arise later in the development.

[Archangel-Amael]

Just for the sake of curiosity what would you start with? Are the internal working of some of the apps tied inextricably to KDE?

I realize that the inner working of Back Track are delicate, but I learn form tinkering. I learn a lot from seeing the errors that come from working with the apps, and it is an experimental box. I have 4 computers on my network the are deployed for OS testing and development, and a whole test network that I can attack in my office. I am just wanting to expand my knowledge of Back Track an hoped to shorten the learning curve by starting with a stable base to avoid unforeseeable problems that will arise later in the development.

If you want to make changes then go ahead, just don't get upset if you break something. Really it's not a big deal just recreate your boot media and move on.
If you want to learn "how it all works" learn generic linux usage and what not then learn how networks work. As for "apps" being tied to KDE no not really since a lot of the cool tools don't even have a gui. As such you are free to use any window manager you wish. The art of BT is more concerned with the functionality of the tools than the aesthetics. As for the learning curve again if you know/learn basic linux and networking then you really can't go wrong.

[J_dillinger]

Thanks, that's what I needed to know.

Thanks for the help in the other posts and I have had a lot of good luck so far building a similar version in 9.04 with the functionality I use the most for my work. I had skimmed off the apps that I have learned to use and employ them for layer 3 mapping. With that being said I decided to try out pre final bt4. I can load it and install the madwifi drivers with a simple make/make install in the directory I copy onto the desk top. Ok great, but the changes were not persistent so I decided what the heck, and installed it to my linux partition on the aspireone... and lost root. if I attempt to gain root from the cli I get that root is not installed, use

apt-get install root-system-bin (sic?)

to install the root files, and without root I can't install the wifi driver to /usr to get access to the internet. is this a pre-release thing before bt4 final?

I love that you guys put remastersys in the new bt4, and was wandering if anyone has considered a program like gisomount or acitone for netbooks? That might be a powerful tool to consider adding.

Thanks for all the help in the past, and I love the new work your putting out.