Installing Kali Linux in Gnome Boxes

Boxes

Gnome Boxes is a virtualization application like VMware, VirtualBox that used to access virtual systems. Under the hood it is running QEMU, KVM and libvert.

Preparation

In this guide, we will learn how to install Kali in Boxes and setup.

Firstly, download Kali iso from official page

Download Kali iso

Once finishd download, click on the “sum” on the webpage to reveal the iso SHA256sum. We will verify the checksum to make sure it does not have corruption during download.

Run sha256sum -c <<<"5723d46414b45575... Downloads/kali-linux-2025.2-installer-amd64.iso" on your terminal to make sure it is the same. Replace the chcksum value with the one in Kali webpage and the path of the iso location

Downloads/kali-linux-2025.2-installer-amd64.iso: OK

If it shows OK means the iso image does not have any corruptions and ready for installation.

Installation

Open Boxes application and click on the + button at the top left and choose “Install from File”

Install from File

Choose the iso that we’ve donwloaded, a pop up menu will appear.

1. Enter the VM name
2. Choose Debian as Operating System as Kali is based on Debian
3. Under Resources, put 4.0 GiB as memory as the minimum 2.0 GiB is not enough based on my personal experience
4. For Storage limit I like to use 80.0 GiB

specs of vm

Once the setup is done, click Create to create the VM.

Boot into the VM and follow the official installation steps

Post installation

Copy-paste between Kali and Host

Install spice-vdagent using the command: sudo apt install spice-vdagent

Once it is installed, reboot Kali and now should be able to copy in VM into the system clipboard.

File Transfer / Shared folder

One of the great features Gnome Boxes have is the ability to drag and drop files into the VM. Files will be saved in Desktop.

Shared folder is supported as well. To set it up:

Install spice-webdavd in Kali and start service

• sudo apt install spice-webdavd
• sudo systemctl start spice-webdavd.service

Open Gnome boxes> Preferences> Devices & shares> Under Shared Folders click + to add folder. Input the folder name and click Save

Add folder

In Kali, go to dav://localhost:9843 to access shared folder

Press enter to go to shared folder

After setting it up, any files inside the test folder is accessible in Kali VM.

Shared folder

Snapshots

Once the installation is done, shutdown the VM and click on the three dot> Preferences> Snapshots

Click on the + to take a snapshot.

Taking snapshot

Now you will have a clean snapshot you can revert back to should the VM break.

Best Practices for maintaining Kali

Below are some of best practices that I followed to maintaining Kali for optimal performance

Working on clean snapshot and update

Snapshots are a lifesaver for keeping your system clean. Back when I used Kali without snapshots, doing CTFs was messy. Some boxes required me to tweak the hosts file, change the system time, or install odd dependencies for certain tools. Every time, I had to keep track of what I changed and then manually undo it all later which was a huge hassle.

Now, with snapshots, things are much easier. I start from a clean snapshot, make whatever changes I need during the session, and when I’m done, I just reevert back to that clean state using my prviously created snapshots. No more tracking or manually reverting changes, just a fresh system ready for the next box.

Update your Kali regulary

Use the one liner sudo apt-get update && sudo apt full-upgrade -y to update the system from a clean snapshot. After finish upgrading, reboot the system once to ensure it is working then take a new snapshot. With this, you’ll always have the latest up-to-date VM.

Snapshots management

It is good to keep 2~3 snaphots for backup purposes in case the latest snapshot have unexpected issues, you have the ability to revert back to previous stable version.