Black screen Kali Linux 2016.2 on VirtualBox

Does anyone know the solution to the dreaded black screen on Kali Linux when booting from VirtualBox? I imported the ova appliance straight from Kali's website (Kali-Linux-2016.2-vbox-i686.ova) and, set the video memory to 128MB, switched the USB 2.0 to USB 1.0 as instructed (to get it to boot at all). I've tried the "root"/"toor" combo as suggested by other posts, but nothing seems to work. It looks like it's running, however. Never had this problem with other versions of Linux to date. Any ideas?

DaveN

Posted 2017-04-14T23:35:56.143

Reputation: 161

Did you properly install the Grub boot loader?You have to click yes in the option which appears in the end of installing the kali VM - "Install the Grub boot loader to the Master boot record" – BoRRis – 2018-07-22T12:46:27.880

I have the black screen problem with the latest Kali VirtualBox Image 2019.2 with Virtualbox 5. I updated to Virtualbox 6, and the problem is solved. Kali VirtualBox Image is usually made with the latest virtualbox, so it's a good idea to keep your Virtualbox up to date, if you encounter any problems. – Hieu – 2019-06-29T09:22:42.520

Answers

I had a black screen running Kali in Virtualbox just after installing it and installing all the updates and was able to fix it by going into system settings in Virtualbox and just unchecking the Enable 3d acceleration box in the Display settings.

Tracy Wells

Posted 2017-04-14T23:35:56.143

Reputation: 31

The problem is that the laptop VirtualBox is installed does not have hardware virtualization as an option (a low end dual core intel B960 CPU) which explains a lot. The solution is to tell Kali to not look for Xen at boot.

These instructions will solve this little problem. Press "e" at the boot menu, scroll to the line that starts with "linux" and remove "quiet" and add "noreplace-paravirt" to the line, hit ctrl-x and let it finish booting (may take a couple of minutes), then login. Open a terminal and edit the /etc/default/grub w/editor of your choice and change GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet" to "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="noreplace-paravirt" Run "update-grub" and reboot.

DaveN

Posted 2017-04-14T23:35:56.143

Reputation: 161

1Note: the low end CPUs are so slow, it's better to just either boot from a USB or create a dualboot system, rather than using a VM. – DaveN – 2017-04-17T19:18:30.917

1In my Kali Linux version (2017.1) I scrolled to the line in the boot screen (for me it was Graphical Install), then hit the Tab key to edit the line, replacing "quiet" with "noreplace-paravirt". Then the install worked. – Graham – 2017-04-30T13:48:53.743

Kali Linux on Virtual Box - I think this is the same question. I just answered this guy too. I had the same problem. I had a black screen because kali was running, but I couldn't see it. So, click view at the top and select switch to scaled view. This should adjust the display so that kali recognizes it and shows you what you should be seeing.

Evan Gertis

Posted 2017-04-14T23:35:56.143

Reputation: 111

That worked but screen not updating, just got stuck – Vicrobot – 2019-07-26T12:32:16.370

I just had this issue. It turned out, after trying a bunch of other stuff, that it was caused by the OS being set to Ubuntu 32 bit instead of 64 bit.

I turned back on the stuff I had turned off, like PEA/NX, 3d acceleration, etc. from the default. Seems to work fine now that it has the correct OS.

Worked for me, hope it helps someone. BTW - host system is Windows 10 Pro 64 bit.

Russell Alexander

Posted 2017-04-14T23:35:56.143

Reputation: 21

I've installed Kali 2019 using having enabled EFI mode for the VM. Reinstalling without that option enabled did the trick.

Edel Gerardo

Posted 2017-04-14T23:35:56.143

Reputation: 133

-1

Enable PEA/NX in settings -> system -> Processor

develdoe

Posted 2017-04-14T23:35:56.143

Reputation: 1

2C'mon for real... Provide a whole lot more detail than just this like explaining what these options do perhaps or otherwise....You might need to be converted to a comment, feel free to flag a mod and ask for this to be done until you earn enough rep to write comments... this is an easy and simple task too by the way. – Pimp Juice IT – 2017-05-11T21:35:33.390