EH-Net

Hi All,

BackTrack 4 Final Release is out. Check it out here - http://www.backtrack-linux.org/downloads/

Happy Hacking 'n' Learning

Will try installing it in VMware, looks good so far.

The pre-release was performing pretty well for me...  Looking forward to working with final, now.

Thanks for the reminder...

One of the best things about backtrack is that they provide a pre-formatted vmdk.

Sometimes with extra goodies in it as well.

Downloading now, should be done when I get home.

You are right - though it wasn't there when I went to their site earlier. Thanks for bringing it up again.

I have the pre-release running on a fast SD Card, and it works flawlessly.  I am wondering if I even need to update.

I would suggest updating. 
This release, according to backtrack-linux.org/blog, "includes a new kernel, a larger and expanded toolset repository, custom tools that you can only find on BackTrack, and more importantly, fixes to all (well, most..) major bugs that we knew of.."

I downloaded the virtual machine and installed it on my laptop. I am using vmware player, Turion 64 TL-60, 2 GB RAM. I don`t know why but backtrack 4 final is running extremely slow (the mouse barely move on the screen, if you open a terminal it takes 20 sec to really open...) .

I tried to use the ISO, started it as a live cd, but it is still slow.

Contrary, Backtrack 3 is running very well.

So, I supose that the final version needs a better CPU, or it is an incompatibility with the video card.

Everything about backtrack 3 was designed to run on low spec hardware. It uses older versions of kde (old even for those days) to reduce memory footprint for instance.

I've found bt4 to be more memory and processor intensive. One of their goals was to transition the distro from a live cd to more installed friendly and they are clearly taking advantage of increased hardware specs.

I think you are going to struggle running the vmware version on your machine, I would suggest installing it instead.

Is it slow before you load X?
You may try a different windows manager.

It is slow only after I start the graphical interface.

What solution do you think that will better suit my needs?

Thank you guys for answering

You might try BlackBox:
apt-get install blackbox

More info at http://blackboxwm.sourceforge.net/.  It's a lightweight window manager for X.  You'll lose the nice KDE menu BackTrack built for you, but all the tools you need can pretty much be found at /pentest.

In regards of slow mouse movement VMware Tools might help, if you haven't installed them already.

I tried BT4 on a machine with similar specs. and it wasn't too slow to work with. How much RAM did you give your VM?

Is there any special reason why you want to use BT4? Personally I always preferred to set up my own pentesting machine rather than use an existing one which comes with lots of things I barely need. Doing so you would be able not only to setup up everything as you want but also to lower the hardware requirements.

I prefer Backtrack because it is already made, and because I don`t have enough experience I like to try the applications they included on the cd.

About BT final, the problem is with my laptop. A coleague has a laptop with a core 2 dou 8400 CPU and has no problem with backtrack. I gave my virtual machine 800 MB ram, and even that it has 250 MB of memory free it is still extremely slow. I tried BlackBox, but I don`t think that I did it correctly.

Anyway, we have another lapop that is special configured for pentest and I`ll use it for Nessus. The rest of applications I`l use them from my Backtrack 3.

My BT4 final is very slow, i downloaded it on sunday morning opened it in vmware. the specs 10 gig hdd, 512 mem, dual core. but after installing it started slowing down. i thought i was the only person experiencing this problem until a friend called me complaining of the same problem. i went to the backtrack-linux forum and someone did mention the same thing. also this thread is saying the same thing. I did install the vmware tools but to no avail.
i don't know whether to install it on my main laptop or stick to the BT4 pre.

need advise 

I installed it on my test box at work, using the iso and VirtualBox. It works pretty smooth. I haven't seen any slowness issues at all. 10 gig hard drive, 512m of mem, and only 1 processor.

I have been using the VM version since its release with no issues, I think there is a good improvement of the pre.
I have also just updated my 4Gb MicroVault that I use on my AspireOne for doing wireless stuff, and it works a treat. I created it using the ISO and unetbootin.

I've not had issues with mine, either, and it's been performing up to snuff with the pre-... so not certain what you might be running into.  Perhaps looking at the log files might help, to see if there are any erroneous errors?

I had exact same situation.  I took VMware and stripped out everything except CD drive (for image file), CPU, monitor, and RAM then it started working fine...

I slowly added stuff in and came to the conclusion that it was the audio which was causing my system to consume all the resources and cause BT4 to slow WAY down.

If you start BT4 and have no audio, that may be the reason and a simple uninstall/disconnect of the audio in VMWare will solve this problem.

P.S. I have SigmaTel audio

good find! have you reported it on the backtrack forums yet? my guess would be that there are more people are struggling with this. maybe muts can even fix it?

Audio and VM issues are a known issue and appear quite a bit in the forum. It also comes quite a bit in the IRC channel!

May be slow to fix it. I highlighted a bug with Hydra and HTTP-Post that was 1 year old and raised in Pre-Final, but still appears in final.

Thats why its better to learn Linux and develop your own "attack OS", rather than having to wait around (sometimes for years) for someone to fix something.  Developing a chosen distro with all your favorite tools is not difficult to do and the reward will be significant.

Or you could just patch it yourself as I did...

i understand that some bugs wont get fixed fast cause of the nature of the project. Also the type of bug influences the priority. Working audio not a prio 1 that has to be fixed to ensure quality level of the product or something like that...