Install mate desktop on kali linux

Kali linux

Kali Linux comes with a hacked version of the gnome 3 desktop. It has been made to look like gnome 2 but lacks many features of the old version. If you want other desktops then can install kde, xfce or lxde from the repository. However if you want to get the good old gnome 2 desktop then install the mate desktop.

Mate desktop is not available in the kali repositories but since kali is based on debian, its easy to install the mate desktop using the same debian repositories.

Install mate desktop and get back the good old gnome 2

So first add the mate repositories to kali.

root@kali:~# echo "deb http://repo.mate-desktop.org/debian wheezy main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list

Now update the package list

root@kali:~# apt-get update

At this point after, during the update it would give an error like this

W: GPG error: http://repo.mate-desktop.org wheezy Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 68980A0EA10B4DE8

To fix this install the mate-archive-keyring package

root@kali:~# apt-get install mate-archive-keyring

Now update the package list again

root@kali:~# apt-get update

Now finally install the mate desktop

root@kali:~# apt-get install mate-core

Now logout and select the mate desktop on the login screen and relogin.

You can install additional software by running the following commands

# or this to install mate-core and more extras
apt-get install mate-desktop-environment
#or this to install mate-core + mate-desktop-environment and even more extras.
apt-get install mate-desktop-environment-extra

Kali menu missing

This is an issue with the mate desktop on kali. The Kali Linux menu in the "Applications" menu does not appear on mate desktop. Instead all the tools are listed in the "Others" category in a single long list. This has to be fixed.

To fix this edit the following file.

root@kali:~# leafpad /etc/xdg/menus/mate-applications.menu

In the file go down to the section named Internet and add the following line

<!-- Kali Linux Menu -->
<MergeFile type="path">applications-merged/kali-applications.menu</MergeFile>

So it should look something like this

.....
 <!-- Internet -->
  <Menu>
    <Name>Internet</Name>
    <Directory>mate-network.directory</Directory>
    <Include>
      <And>
        <Category>Network</Category>
      </And>
    </Include>
  </Menu>   <!-- End Internet -->

  <!-- Kali Linux  -->	
  <MergeFile type="path">applications-merged/kali-applications.menu</MergeFile>

.....

Now save the file, logout and login back. The Kali linux menu should display fine in Mate desktop's application menu.