Is installing Kali Tools from Katoolin same as using Kali Linux itself?

Question

Katoolin is the best method to use Kali Tools on Ubuntu. However it states a warning like: "Please remove all Kali repositories before updating the system".

What exactly are the implications of this script and is it same as using Kali Linux itself?

Solution

Katoolin is the best method to use Kali Tools on Ubuntu.

It's an easy method, but the result is sub par. I wouldn't call it the best thus giving the impression that it's a great piece of software one can use without risk. Removal is tricky too.

However it states a warning like: "Please remove all Kali repositories before updating the system".

That's not exactly what it says, this is:

Before updating your system , please remove all Kali-linux repositories to avoid any kind of problem .

There is superfluous white space and also no sense for least privilege in the instructions¹ or where to put scripts to execute them².

Back to topic:

to avoid any kind of problem

Similar to how Ubuntu itself disables third party repositories during release upgrades and how it does specific checks to ensure that the upgrade will be successful this warning has been put there to tell the user that the autor cannot ensure that everything will be working the way he intended if there are other active kali repositories. That's all.

Is Katoolin the same as Kali?

Katoolin installs a lot of packages from the Kali and Ubuntu repositories on a fresh typical Ubuntu desktop to make the tools work, just as it says. The OS installation may be heavily modified but is still based on Ubuntu. The amount of changes however may be to broad to get support here on AskUbuntu, but it's not 100% equal to the changes made in Kali either.

Ubuntu is still running it's own kernel after Katoolin has completed, there is no customized Kali kernel.

Should you use it?

No. Kali has a specific usecase, use it when you need it or learn to use the tools you actually need on any Linux distribution you want without breaking the distro. If things are unclear or broken on Kali, ask the Kali users and developers, for anything else ask the users and developers of the respective distribution. If you mix both topics you can be certain that only very few people will care to spend their valuable time.

Option dialogs that came up during installation

I tried to install all the tools the script offered on a Yakkety VM, nothing bad happened, here are my notes:

• kismet: asked for elevated privileges/setuid
• openvas-scanner: required redis datbase
• wireshark-common: offered an option, but defaulted to no
• macchanger: offered an option, but defaulted to no

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1. Running sudo su followed by a git clone then copying the script and adding permissions, then calling the script with sudo while already being root.
2. ~/bin/ or /usr/local/bin/ would have been better. If the author would have been a bit more considerate he would have found Google's repo command which is also a python script fetched from the web to bootstrap a complex process.

Comments

[Admin]

The tools are the same and work the same way. The warning is there because otherwise your Ubuntu would turn into a (almost) full-fledged Kali. BTW, Kali is not supported here.

[Rinzwind]

1 difference: using katoolin with ubuntu is ON topic, Using Kali is off topic on AskUbuntu.

[cbll]

Isn't Kali built on Arch linux rather than an ubuntu/debian based one?

[Csabi Vidó]

I did not make any statements about what Kali is based up on, Wikipedia says it's derived from Debian which makes somewhat sense when they host .deb repositories, Arch doesn't use .deb packages.