Installing Backtrack 2.0 to Hard Drive

One of the final distributions I used during my final project in school this term was Backtrack Linux 2.0. Backtrack is a live cd distro strictly designed for hacking and pen testing. It is also based on Slackware, so if you are a fan of that distro, you might like this too. It comes with all sorts of wireless cracking tools, network mapping tools, VoIP tools among others.

The really cool thing about it though, is that like most of the newer live cd's it has an option to install to the hard drive. The only problem is that if you have never installed a live cd to the hard drive before, it may not be that straight forward. I'm going to tell you how to install backtrack to your hard drive though, so don't sweat it!

1) Boot the live CD
2) In the terminal, login as root (password is toor)
3) type cfdisk and hit enter
4) delete any partitions on the drive
5) create a new primary partition that is 512MB and set the type to 82 (Linux Swap)
6) Create a second primary partition for the rest of the disk, and set it as bootable.
7) Write the new partitions to disk, then quit
8) Type umount /dev/hda2 (or sda2 depending on computer) then enter (Just in case)
9) Type mkswap /dev/hda1 then enter
10) Type mkfs.ext3 /dev/hda2 then enter. If this fails, you may need to reboot and do it again.
11) Type mkdir /tmp/backtrack then press enter
12) Type mount /dev/hda2 /tmp/backtack
13) Type startx and press enter
14) After KDE starts, browse to K > System >Backtrack Installer
15) Leave the first box blank (Under source)
16) Type /tmp/backtrack for the install to box
17) Write MBR box should be autofilled, if not type /dev/hda (or /dev/sda depending on hardware)
18) Click the "real (2700...) " radio button.
19) Click install.

Done!

After the install process, reboot the laptop to your hard drive. To change the host name on your new backtrack install edit the hosts file located in /etc/hosts and edit /etc/HOSTNAME. You will also want to add the following line in /etc/rc.d/rc.local

hostname [your hostname]

Also, to turn the swap partition on at start up add the following line to /etc/rc.d/rc/local:

swapon /dev/hda1

You will also want to change the default root password. To do that from the command line type passwd then enter, it will prompt you for the new password.

After that is finished, you are golden! Happy hacking!