The following document describes our own method of creating a custom Kali Linux ODROID image and is targeted at developers. If you would like to install a pre-made Kali ODROID image, check our Install Kali on ODROID article.

Start by building a Kali rootfs as described in our Kali documentation using an armhf architecture. By the end of this process, you should have a populated rootfs directory in ~/arm-stuff/rootfs/kali-armhf.

Next, we create the physical image file which will hold our ODROID rootfs and boot images:

[email protected]:~$ sudo apt install -y kpartx xz-utils uboot-mkimage
[email protected]:~$ mkdir -p ~/arm-stuff/images/
[email protected]:~$ cd ~/arm-stuff/images/
[email protected]:~$ dd if=/dev/zero of=kali-custom-odroid.img conv=fsync bs=4M count=7000

[email protected]:~$ parted kali-custom-odroid.img --script -- mklabel msdos
[email protected]:~$ parted kali-custom-odroid.img --script -- mkpart primary fat32 4096s 266239s
[email protected]:~$ parted kali-custom-odroid.img --script -- mkpart primary ext4 266240s 100%
[email protected]:~$
[email protected]:~$ loopdevice=`losetup -f --show kali-custom-odroid.img`
[email protected]:~$ device=`kpartx -va $loopdevice| sed -E 's/.*(loop[0-9])p.*/\1/g' | head -1`
[email protected]:~$ device="/dev/mapper/${device}"
[email protected]:~$ bootp=${device}p1
[email protected]:~$ rootp=${device}p2
[email protected]:~$ mkfs.vfat $bootp
[email protected]:~$ mkfs.ext4 -L kaliroot $rootp
[email protected]:~$ mkdir -p boot root
[email protected]:~$ mount $bootp boot
[email protected]:~$ mount $rootp root

Copy over the Kali rootfs you bootstrapped earlier using rsync to the mounted image:

[email protected]:~$ cd ~/arm-stuff/images/
[email protected]:~$ rsync -HPavz ~/arm-stuff/rootfs/kali-armhf/ root
[email protected]:~$ echo nameserver 8.8.8.8 > root/etc/resolv.conf

Edit the ~/arm-stuff/images/root/etc/inittab file and locate the “Example how to put a getty on a serial line”:

[email protected]:~$ vim root/etc/inittab

Add the following line to the end of that section:

T1:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 115200 ttySAC1 vt100

If you want the serial console to autologin as root, use the following line instead:

T1:12345:respawn:/bin/login -f root ttySAC1 /dev/ttySAC1 >&1

Now, make sure there is a ttySAC1 entry in the ~/arm-stuff/images/root/etc/udev/links.conf file:

[email protected]:~$ vim root/etc/udev/links.conf

If an entry for ttySAC1 doesn’t already exist, add it to the file so it looks as follows:

M null c 1 3
M console c 5 1
M ttySAC1 c 5 1

Add ttySAC entries in the ~/arm-stuff/images/root/etc/udev/links.conf file:

[email protected]:~$ cat <<EOF >> root/etc/securetty
ttySAC0
ttySAC1
ttySAC2
EOF

Place a basic xorg.conf file in the rootfs:

[email protected]:~$ cat <<EOF > root/etc/X11/xorg.conf
# X.Org X server configuration file for xfree86-video-mali

Section "Device"
Identifier "Mali-Fbdev"
# Driver "mali"
Option "fbdev" "/dev/fb1"
Option "DRI2" "true"
Option "DRI2_PAGE_FLIP" "true"
Option "DRI2_WAIT_VSYNC" "true"
Option "UMP_CACHED" "true"
Option "UMP_LOCK" "false"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Mali-Screen"
Device "Mali-Fbdev"
DefaultDepth 24
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection
EOF

Link init in the root, rootfs directory:

[email protected]:~$ cd ~/arm-stuff/images/root/
[email protected]:~$ ln -s /sbin/init init

If you’re not using ARM hardware as the development environment, you will need to set up an ARM cross-compilation environment to build an ARM kernel and modules. Once that’s done, proceed with the following instructions.

We next need to fetch the ODROID kernel sources and place them in our development tree structure:

[email protected]:~$ mkdir -p ~/arm-stuff/kernel/
[email protected]:~$ cd ~/arm-stuff/kernel/
[email protected]:~$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/hardkernel/linux.git -b odroid-3.8.y odroid
[email protected]:~$ cd odroid/
[email protected]:~$ touch .scmversion

Configure, then cross-compile the ODROID kernel:

[email protected]:~$ export ARCH=arm
[email protected]:~$ export CROSS_COMPILE=~/arm-stuff/kernel/toolchains/arm-eabi-linaro-4.6.2/bin/arm-eabi-
[email protected]:~$
[email protected]:~$ # for ODROID-X2
[email protected]:~$ make odroidx2_defconfig
[email protected]:~$ # for ODROID-U2
[email protected]:~$ make odroidu2_defconfig
[email protected]:~$ # configure your kernel !
[email protected]:~$ make menuconfig
[email protected]:~$ # and enable
[email protected]:~$ CONFIG_HAVE_KERNEL_LZMA=y
[email protected]:~$ CONFIG_RD_LZMA=y
[email protected]:~$
[email protected]:~$ # If cross compiling, run this once
[email protected]:~$ sed -i 's/if defined(__linux__)/if defined(__linux__) ||defined(__KERNEL__) /g' include/uapi/drm/drm.h
[email protected]:~$
[email protected]:~$ make -j $(cat /proc/cpuinfo|grep processor | wc -l)
[email protected]:~$ make modules_install INSTALL_MOD_PATH=~/arm-stuff/images/root/

Chroot into the rootfs and create an initrd. Make sure to use the correct kernel version/extraversion for the mkinitramfs command. In our case, it was “3.8.13”:

[email protected]:~$ LANG=C chroot ~/arm-stuff/images/root/
[email protected]:~$ sudo apt install -y initramfs-tools uboot-mkimage
[email protected]:~$ cd /
[email protected]:~$ # Change the example "3.8.13" to your current odroid kernel revision
[email protected]:~$ mkinitramfs -c lzma -o ./initramfs 3.8.13
[email protected]:~$ mkimage -A arm -O linux -T ramdisk -C none -a 0 -e 0 -n initramfs -d ./initramfs ./uInitrd
[email protected]:~$ rm initramfs
[email protected]:~$ exit

Copy the kernel and generated initrd file to the mounted boot partition as shown below:

[email protected]:~$ mv ~/arm-stuff/images/root/uInitrd ~/arm-stuff/images/boot/
[email protected]:~$ cp arch/arm/boot/zImage ~/arm-stuff/images/boot/

Dump a boot.txt file, which contains required boot parameters for the ODROID in the boot partition:

[email protected]:~$ cat <<EOF > ~/arm-stuff/images/boot/boot.txt
setenv initrd_high "0xffffffff"
setenv fdt_high "0xffffffff"
setenv bootcmd "fatload mmc 0:1 0x40008000 zImage; fatload mmc 0:1 0x42000000 uInitrd; bootm 0x40008000 0x42000000"
setenv bootargs "console=tty1 console=ttySAC1,115200n8 root=LABEL=kaliroot rootwait ro mem=2047M"
boot
EOF

Generate a boot.scr file, which is required to boot the ODROID:

[email protected]:~$ mkimage -A arm -T script -C none -n "Boot.scr for ODROID" -d ~/arm-stuff/images/boot/boot.txt ~/arm-stuff/images/boot/boot.scr

Unmount the root and boot partitions, then umount the loop device:

[email protected]:~$ cd ~/arm-stuff/images/
[email protected]:~$ umount $bootp
[email protected]:~$ umount $rootp
[email protected]:~$ kpartx -dv $loopdevice
[email protected]:~$
[email protected]:~$ wget http://www.mdrjr.net/odroid/mirror/old-releases/BSPs/Alpha4/unpacked/boot.tar.gz
[email protected]:~$ tar -zxpf boot.tar.gz
[email protected]:~$ cd boot/
[email protected]:~$ sh sd_fusing.sh $loopdevice
[email protected]:~$ cd ../
[email protected]:~$ losetup -d $loopdevice

Now, image the file onto your USB storage device. Our device is /dev/sdb. Change this as needed:

[email protected]:~$ dd if=kali-linux-odroid.img of=/dev/sdb conv=fsync bs=4M

Once this operation is complete, connect your UART serial cable to the ODROID and boot it up with the microSD/SD card plugged in. Through the serial console, you will be able to log in to Kali (root / toor) and startx.

If everything works and you want the ODROID to start on boot, make sure to use the “autologin” line in the inittab given above and add the following to your bash_profile:

# If you don't have a .bash_profile, copy it from /etc/skel/.profile first
[email protected]:~$ cat <<EOF >> ~/.bash_profile
if [ -z "$DISPLAY" ] && [ $(tty) = /dev/ttySAC1 ]; then
startx
fi
EOF

These steps are experimental and not fully tested yet. They should be performed inside the Kali rootfs:

[email protected]:~$ # http://malideveloper.arm.com/develop-for-mali/drivers/open-source-mali-gpus-linux-exadri2-and-x11-display-drivers/
[email protected]:~$ sudo apt install -y build-essential autoconf automake make libtool xorg xorg-dev xutils-dev libdrm-dev
[email protected]:~$ wget http://malideveloper.arm.com/downloads/drivers/DX910/r3p2-01rel0/DX910-SW-99003-r3p2-01rel0.tgz
[email protected]:~$ wget http://malideveloper.arm.com/downloads/drivers/DX910/r3p2-01rel0/DX910-SW-99006-r3p2-01rel0.tgz
[email protected]:~$ wget --no-check-certificate https://dl.dropbox.com/u/65312725/mali_opengl_hf_lib.tgz
[email protected]:~$
[email protected]:~$ tar -xzvf mali_opengl_hf_lib.tgz
[email protected]:~$ cp mali_opengl_hf_lib/* /usr/lib/
[email protected]:~$
[email protected]:~$ tar -xzvf DX910-SW-99003-r3p2-01rel0.tgz
[email protected]:~$ tar -xzvf DX910-SW-99006-r3p2-01rel0.tgz
[email protected]:~$ cd DX910-SW-99003-r3p2-01rel0/x11/xf86-video-mali-0.0.1/
[email protected]:~$ ./autogen.sh
[email protected]:~$ chmod +x configure
[email protected]:~$
[email protected]:~$ CFLAGS="-O3 -Wall -W -Wextra -I/usr/include/libdrm -IDX910-SW-99006-r3p2-01rel0/driver/src/ump/include" LDFLAGS="-L/usr/lib -lMali -lUMP -lpthread" ./configure --prefix=/usr --x-includes=/usr/include --x-libraries=/usr/lib
[email protected]:~$ cp -rf ../../../DX910-SW-99006-r3p2-01rel0/driver/src/ump/include/ump src/
[email protected]:~$ mkdir -p umplock/
[email protected]:~$ cd umplock/
[email protected]:~$ wget http://service.i-onik.de/a10_source_1.5/lichee/linux-3.0/modules/mali/DX910-SW-99002-r3p0-04rel0/driver/src/devicedrv/umplock/umplock_ioctl.h
[email protected]:~$ cd ../
[email protected]:~$
[email protected]:~$ make
[email protected]:~$ make install