Running Backtrack from Virtual PC

[slickrick]

Does anyone have any ideas as to how to get backtrack running in Virtual PC 2007? I really want to have it running as an actual install (to be able to keep my settings etc, but I can't for the life of me make it work.

Is it a case of there not being drivers for the device as it appears to the linux os?

I am in no way competent in Linux, I have only been using it since I came accross Backtrack. I have found it invaluable as a disaster recovery tool at work when coputers have died and I need to get the data off the drives. Not to mention cleaning up after virus / spyware infections.

By the way: I am running it on a Dell Lattitude D505 (will try on my D620 at work tomorrow). It works fine if I boot it off a USB version I made a few minutes ago, so it isn't the touchpad itself, but possibly the virtualised touchpad?

[satanswombat]

Hi,

From the little I've been able to glean it's a "feature" of the linux kernel used in the final version of backtrack - they broke hardware detection at one point in the dev cycle and got it almost all the way fixed again - though I beleive they had to put in a specific fix for vmware as virtualised hardware is somewhat more complex to detect correctly, but didn't bother to include a fix for vpc ( or more likely M$ wouldn't let them see the needed code or whatever) {pick your prejudice basically}.

End result being anything built using this kernel won't work in vpc till one side or the other releases a fix. This includes most new linux distros as far as I can see.

Based on my personal prejudices I suspect the following - micro$haft don't know how to fix it and the linux community don't care about making their software compatable with vpc as a high priority.

Now someone who understands the issues better than I explain what I'm missing please.


satanswombat

[slickrick]

Hey there,

why not installing it to hard disk? It's really simple and there are step by step guides on how to install bt2 to a harddrive. And if you like to remove it (i surely don't ), it's also not very complicated.

Then you get the full bt2 without running a virtual machine under it - so you don't have to bother if the virtual machine is a possible source of "errors", so it's one less potential failure point.

Anyway, that's just my opinion. I am happily booting dual XP/bt2 and it works fine.

I tried that yesterday using the how to on the remote exploit main pages, and second time round I got as far as he final step of rebooting the machine hoping to boot off the hard drive, but I just get message of "Operating System failed to load".

Seems it's not as foolproof as people think. If you have no Linux experience with Linux, it can be very daunting. Put me in front of a M$ machine and I can do anything I need to (it's my job after all), but I'm very new to Linux (trying to learn as much as I can to become self sufficient though).

That is why I was trying to use a virtual machine, it is easier to start again when things go wrong, and move it around as needed.

[5w33t_b@by_r@y]

I was able to successfully run Back|Track2 final in virtual pc 2007 after a lot of trial and error. I wouldn't use virtual pc if my school didn't require it. However, here are the steps that I've taken to run Back|Track2 in virtual pc. I'll assume virtual pc is already installed and start from there.

1. From the Virtual PC Console select > New > Next > "name and location" and select Next > Other > Next > adjust RAM to at least 256 and select Next > New Hard Disk > "name and location" and select Next > Finish
2. Make sure than in Settings you have "Save Undo" enabled so you can keep your changes.
3.Select your virtual machine and then select > Start
4. Select > CD > Capture ISO or Use Physical Drive (depending on the media your using, I used an ISO on my hard drive).
5. On the next screen you'll see "ISOLINUX 3.36" and "boot", type "bt i8042.noloop" [enter](so you can use your mouse).
6. Login using "root" and "toor"
7. startx
8. Start a shell and fdisk /dev/hda
9. n for new
10. p for primary
11. 1 for partition number
12. [enter]
13. [enter]
14. w to write the table
15. mke2fs to create file system
16. mkdir /mnt/backtrack
17. mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/backtrack/
18. From the menu select the GUI Installer >System >BackTrack Installer > Real > Start (the other default values should be fine, it will take some time and might appear to stop for a while).
19. From the shell "nano /etc/lilo.conf"
20. Add the following line "append="bt i8042.noloop" (permantly fixes mouse problem).
21. Save and issue "lilo -v"
22. type "reboot"

That should get you going unless I have missed something. If you want network connectivity make sure you have your card selected in the virtual pc settings for this virtual machine and follow these steps. This is for static configurations.

1. open shell and type ifconfig 192.168.1.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 eth0 (substituting your information)
2. route add default gw 192.168.1.254 eth0 (your default gateway)
3. echo "nameserver 192.168.1.254" > /etc/resolv.conf

Now you should have network connectivity. I'm sure some of the other guys on here have a quicker and better way for the network settings but this is how I know to do it and make it work. Hope it works for you.

[Phoneywar]

An alternative to VMware Player is Sun VirtualBox which is also F.O.C for personal use and seems to work ok. I must admit I didn't do much with it, VirtualBox is a bit fiddlesome in my opinion. VMware keeps each VM in a separate directory while VirtualBox keeps all VMs in one directory and all virtual disks in another. However I must admit I'm a vmware addict and have been for a very long time

You can find it here if you want to check it out: http://www.virtualbox.org/