Setup Kali Linux GUI on WSL2

05 Dec 2020

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I followed the Kali Guide, but ran into some issues so I thought I’d make a post on what worked for me. These instructions are more streamlined, and the main difference is that they include installing dbus-x11.

Install Kali Linux in WSL2

• Open PowerShell as administrator and run:

    Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux
  

• Restart

• Open PowerShell as administrator and run:

    dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart
    dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart
  

• Restart

• Download and run Kernel Update Package for x64 Machines

• Open PowerShell as administrator and run:

    wsl --set-default-version 2
  

• Install Kali Linux from Microsoft Store, launch it, set up user account

Win-KeX Setup

• Run:

    sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade && sudo apt install kali-win-kex dbus-x11
  

Run Win-KeX

• To start Win-KeX in Window mode with sound support, run:

    kex --win -s
  

• To start Win-KeX in Enhanced Session Mode with sound support and ARM workaround, run:

    kex --esm --ip -s
  

• To start Win-KeX in Seamless mode with sound support, run:

    kex --sl -s
  

Optional: Windows Terminal

To make launching my preferred KeX mode simple, I added the following profile to my Windows Terminal’s settings.json file:

{
	"guid": "{55ca431a-3a87-5fb3-83cd-11ececc031d2}",
	"hidden": false,
	"name": "Kali Seamless",
	"commandline": "wsl -d kali-linux kex --sl --wtstart -s",
	"startingDirectory" : "//wsl$/kali-linux/home/kali"
},

You can check here for additional configurations. Do note, that you cannot put multiple profiles in your settings.json with the same “guid” field, as only one option will show.

Adding an Icon

If you want to add an icon in your Windows Terminal tab, you have to take a couple extra steps.

• Grab a Kali Menu icon from anywhere you want, though make sure its a PNG.

• In File Explorer, put %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_8wekyb3d8bbwe\RoamingState in your search bar.

• Paste the PNG into the RoamingState Folder

• Add an additional line into your profile like so:

{
	"guid": "{55ca431a-3a87-5fb3-83cd-11ececc031d2}",
	"hidden": false,
      	"icon": "ms-appdata:///roaming/<filename>.png",
	"name": "Kali Seamless",
	"commandline": "wsl -d kali-linux kex --sl --wtstart -s",
	"startingDirectory" : "//wsl$/kali-linux/home/kali"
},