Recently, I made the following post, Kali Linux Image for Radxa Dragon Q6A, where I shared the image ready for download via GitHub to the r/SBCs community. Inspired by a user who kindly asked if I could share the creation script, if I had one, I am sharing it here.

I will not be sharing an exact SH script, but rather the experience of what was done to achieve this, in words. That said, for those interested, it will be possible to do it yourself, without needing to download it, and I consider it a more rewarding and enriching experience in terms of knowledge and experience.

And here's the script:

https://preview.redd.it/gouo4zjjkx2h1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=55119c5a2ef7ae19d958f7fa90ee2b6bb5a752c7

1. Access the Radxa website and download the Radxa OS image for Dragon Q6A, which, at the time of writing this post, is a pre-build of Ubuntu 24.04 adapted for the SBC.

https://preview.redd.it/58j9immlkx2h1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=e73d9e233e824d206e625460f708779c25ec56d9

2. Access the Kali Linux rootfs image table and download an ARM64 image. (I chose the FULL image, as shown in the image.)

3. Using an SSD in an SSD enclosure, install the Radxa image. You can do this with Balena Etcher, Pi Imager, or the command below:

   xzcat /home/$USER/Downloads/radxa-dragon-q6a_noble_gnome_r2.output_512.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/yourssddevice bs=4M status=progress

4. Back up the following folders with user attributes: firmware and modules. Back up the fstab file. The commands are listed below:

   mkdir /home/$USER/Documents/backup mkdir /home/$USER/Documents/backup/firmware mkdir /home/$USER/Documents/backup/modules

   sudo cp -a /run/media/$USER/rootfs/lib/modules/. /home/$USER/Documents/backup sudo cp -a /run/media/$USER/rootfs/lib/firmware/. /home/$USER/Documents/backup sudo cp -a /run/media/$USER/rootfs/etc/fstab /home/$USER/Documents/backup

5. Access the SSD's rootfs and delete ALL the contents of the SSD:

   cd /run/media/$USER/rootfs sudo rm -rf ./*

6. Transfer the rootfs from the Kali Nethunter image:

   sudo tar -xvpJf /home/$USER/Downloads/kali-nethunter-rootfs-full-arm64.tar.xz -C /run/media/$USER/rootfs/ --numeric-owner

7. Relocate the files to the root directory, remove the kali-arm64 folder, and return to your home folder:

   sudo mv kali-arm64/* . sudo rmdir kali-arm64/ cd ~

8. Now, copy the firmware and modules folders to the rootfs.

   sudo cp -a ~/Desktop/Radxa_Firmware_Backup/modules/* /run/media/rafaelwms/rootfs/lib/modules/ sudo cp -a --remove-destination ~/Desktop/Radxa_Firmware_Backup/firmware/* /run/media/rafaelwms/rootfs/lib/firmware/

9. For the fstab file, create a new one with the formatting below and modify the UUID values ​​according to the backup fstab file:

   <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>

   UUID=a03a5c05-3365-4811-a1dd-f1776983aa76 / ext4 defaults,noatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1 UUID=A929-828B /boot/efi vfat defaults 0 2 UUID=A929-25B0 /boot/config vfat defaults 0 2

10. Copy your new fstab to the rootfs:

    sudo cp /home/$USER/Documents/backup/fstab /run/media/$USER/rootfs/etc/fstab

11. Now let's adjust NetworkManager:

    sudo mkdir -p /run/media/$USER/rootfs/etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/ sudo touch /run/media/$USER/rootfs/etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/10-globally-managed-devices.conf

12. Umount your SSD device:

    sudo umont /dev/yourdevice

13. Plug the SSD into your Raxa Dragon QA6, enjoy Kali Linux, using kali as both username and password.

Final Considerations

This was the basic process to achieve the goal. In the image shared on Github, I created the user radxa and installed graphical remote access.

https://preview.redd.it/9ih12ncqrq2h1.png?width=2704&format=png&auto=webp&s=14d9193ee0b31872db2ac995165ffd9883d7191f

Hi everyone!

I wanted to share a project I’ve been working on to make running Kali Linux on the Radxa Dragon Q6A much easier and accessible for the community.

I have successfully created a surgically shrunken, universal Kali Linux image that can be flashed onto an SSD of any size. The final download is only around 3GB (compressed with XZ) to save bandwidth and storage. On the first boot, the partition will automatically expand, and you just need to run a quick resize2fs command to unlock your drive’s full capacity.

Hardware Status

• Working perfectly: HDMI Video, USB Ports, Bluetooth, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, SSH, and Remote Desktop (xRDP) out of the box.
• NOT Working yet: Audio/Sound. There is an active issue with the wcd938x codec driver that prevents sound output at the moment.

Because of GitHub’s browser upload limitations, the compressed image is split into two 1.5GB files. I have also included a SHA256SUMS file to guarantee data integrity before flashing. Full instructions on how to join the files, verify hashes, and flash the image are documented in both English and Portuguese.

You can find the repository and download the latest release here:  https://github.com/rafaelwms/kali-radxa-dragon-q6a

Feel free to flash it, test it out, and if anyone has insights on how to patch the audio codec driver, contributions and Pull Requests are more than welcome!

Hope this helps anyone looking for a solid native Kali experience on their Dragon Q6A. Cheers!