The Radxa Zero has a quad core 1.8GHz, with 512MB, 1GB, 2GB, or 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM. Kali Linux fits on an external microSD card.

By default, the Kali Linux Radxa Zero image contains the kali-linux-default metapackage similar to most other platforms. If you wish to install extra tools please refer to our metapackages page.

Kali does not provide pre-built images for download, but you can still generate one by cloning the Kali-ARM Build-Scripts repository on GitLab, and follow the README.md file’s instructions. The script to use is radxa-zero-sdcard.sh.

Once the build script finishes running, you will have an img.xz file in the images directory where you ran the script from. At that point, the instructions are the same as if you had downloaded a pre-built image.

The easiest way to generate these images is from within a pre-existing Kali Linux environment.

To install Kali on your Radxa Zero (sdcard), follow these instructions:

1. Get a fast microSD card or USB drive with at least 16GB capacity. Class 10 cards are highly recommended.
2. Use the dd utility to image this file to your microSD card (same process as making a Kali USB.

In our example, we assume the storage device is located at /dev/sdX. Do not simply copy these value, change this to the correct device path.

$ xzcat kali-linux-2024.1-radxa-zero-sdcard-arm64.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progres

This process can take a while, depending on your PC, your microSD card, and the size of the Kali Linux image.

Once the dd operation is complete, boot up the Radxa Zero with the microSD card plugged in.

You should be able to log in to Kali.