Your Intro to the Back|Track Livecd

Hello once again. I gope this article helps people get into using live cd’s. I think Live cd’s are awesome and help nubs get a hole od unix without installing the entire OS. This way they can kinda of feel out unix. These aren’t for noobs, they are for everyone interested in using the unix operating system. Unix is very popular among hackers simply because its open source, in my own opinion. This may not be true, but i belive it is.

Before we get started i want you to get a couple tools ready for use. Most importantly the Backtrack Live cd. I will be using VMware to load the Live CD for this demonstration for lack of another PC. You do not need vmware to use it of course. Live cd’s are meant to be run at the startup of your PC. I will not cover anything MAC related, as im dumb to macs…

VMware
Irongeek VMware tutorial
BackTrack Live cd

Irongeeks VMware tutorial will show you how to load your new Live cd. I didnt go through the process since he covered it quite well. It would just be a rip of that video anyway, Irongeek owns. If you have problems with loading it or anything dont hesitate to drop me a line or leave a comment.

I’m going to assume you now have the vmx file setup, if not i will attach it to this article for download. You will only need to change the location to the ISO file of the Live cd. Once you have it going, load it up in vmware. When you first load it, you will be prompted with the agreement, click yes…. Now it should be loading the Backtrack livecd. You can let it sit by itself and it will boot eventually. I suggest you doing that. since your new, or if your not new, you know what to do.

I’m going to assume you have never used unix before, if you have used unix before this article probably wont be the best for you lol. I want the nubest of nubs to be doing this. I want your 6 year old toy be able to do this (if he can read this much at once). Once it loads it should give you prompt like this:



To login as root the username is root, and the password is toor, root spelled backwards. At that prompt type “startx” and hit enter. This will load unix’s Xserver. The graphical part, the “KDE” of backtrack. The coolest thing about backtrack with VMware is that you dont have to press “alt+ctrl” to leave the vmware machine, you can just move the mouse outside of it. This feature saves TONS of time.

Now, when its fully loaded and ready to go there will be a “black box” icon right next to the blue “K” icon, click it. This will open a terminal. Once its open you should see a prompt that says “bt ~ #”. I want you to type “ifconfig” which is like the quivilent of ipconfig for windows. You shouldnt be online when you first get BackTrack. It more than likely shows you th “lo” interface, which is the loopback IP.