Debug and Rebug: The Records of a Developing Developer

Tech Log Entry — Kali Linux Live USB (Tool Installation and Zeek Configuration) Part 2 of 2: Network Analysis Tool Installation, Zeek Deployment, and JSON Log Configuration Date: June 30, 2026 Summary Following successful encrypted persistence boot (documented in Part 1), a full suite of network analysis tools was installed into the persistence partition of the Kali Linux 2026.2 Live USB. Tools installed include Wireshark, tshark, tcpdump, Suricata, nmap, netdiscover, tcpflow, jq, termshark (manual binary install), and Zeek (via official Zeek apt repository with symlink PATH resolution). Zeek was deployed via zeekctl, confirmed running with active log output, and reconfigured to output JSON-format logs for use with jq. All tools were confirmed present and operational across a full reboot cycle, verifying persistence is functioning correctly. Background and Context This entry continues directly from Part 1. The goal for Part 2 was to populate the 24.1 GB encrypted persistence partition ...

Tech Log Entry — Kali Linux Live USB Drive Build (with Encrypted Persistence) Part 1 of 2: ISO Acquisition, USB Write, Partition Layout, LUKS Encryption, and Persistence Boot Dates: June 29–30, 2026 Summary Successfully built a bootable Kali Linux 2026.2 Live USB thumb drive (32 GB, USB 3.0) with an encrypted persistence partition using LUKS. The build was performed entirely via CLI on a Linux Mint laptop (laptop #2). The process covered ISO acquisition via torrent, SHA256 checksum verification, raw disk write using dd, three-partition layout using fdisk, LUKS2 encryption using cryptsetup, ext4 filesystem creation labeled 'persistence', and persistence.conf configuration. After a multi-boot troubleshooting sequence to resolve a non-obvious two-prompt boot pattern, the encrypted persistence partition was confirmed fully operational across multiple reboots. Background and Context This project is part of an ongoing homelab and CompTIA Network+ study program. The goal was to produc...