How to Update to BackTrack 2.6.34

Several people have been asking for instructions on updating hard drive installs of BackTrack – here’s a quick set of commands to upgrade your machine and prepare the kernel sources. This is required for VMWare tools or VirtualBox tools module compilations, for example.

Start by updating and upgrading your local BackTrack install. IMPORTANT – If asked if you want to proceed with the kernel updates,agree, by typing “n”.

[cc lang=”bash”]
apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade
[/cc]

Install new drivers as needed, as well as kernel sources:

[cc lang=”bash”]
apt-get install madwifi-drivers broadcom-sta r8187-drivers linux-source-2.6.34
apt-get clean
depmod -a
[/cc]

Now prepare your kernel sources:

[cc lang=”bash”]
cd /usr/src/
rm -rf linux linux-source-2.6.30.9*
rm -rf /lib/modules/2.6.30.9/
tar jxpf linux-source-2.6.34.tar.bz2
ln -s linux-source-2.6.34 linux
cd linux
cp /boot/config-2.6.34 .config
ln -s /usr/src/linux /lib/modules/2.6.34/build
make scripts && make prepare
apt-get clean && updatedb
reboot # dont forget to reboot!
[/cc]

Your BackTrack Install is now fully updated and kernel sources are in place. Running a VMWare / VirtualBox tools install should complete without a problem.