Install Kali NetHunter on rooted Android Device

Installing Kali NetHunter may take a long process and be too complicated. I have already created these videos, you can find them on my blog or on my YouTube channel. Here, in this video, I am going to install Kali NetHunter on a Listed Device on the Kali Nethunter Download page.

Before getting started, our first priority is to ready the required tools and resources.

• Kali NetHunter ROM for Nokia 6.1 Plus
• LineageOS 18.1 
• Custom ROM ZIP file, and 
• Recovery Image
• Gapps (MindTheGApps)
• MagiskManager

Make sure, your system has been configured with  Platform Tools on your Windows PC, if you have not yet configured then follow the below links:

ADB(Android Debugging Bridge)

Installed as /usr/lib/android-sdk/platform-tools/adb -a listen on all network interfaces, not just localhost -d use USB device (error if multiple devices connected) -e use TCP/IP device (error if multiple TCP/IP devices available) -s SERIAL use device with given serial (overrides $ANDROID_SERIAL) -t ID use device with given transport id -H name

Unlock The Bootloader

To root an Android Device, our first priority is to unlock the bootloader. It is not easy to unlock the bootloader in the Nokia 6.1 Plus because Nokia Smartphones do not officially offer bootloader unlock codes (except for the Nokia 8).

While searching on Google, I found this article briefly explaining the steps to unlock the bootloader.

[Guide] How to unlock the bootloader on Nokia Android Phones for free

Detailed guide to help you unlock the bootloader of your Nokia Android device. You can unlock bootloader on many Nokia smartphones, including Nokia 7 Plus, Nokia 8, Nokia 8 Sirocco, Nokia 8.1, Nokia 7, Nokia 6, Nokia 6.1, Nokia 5, Nokia 2, Nokia 2.1. etc.

Install Nokia USB Drivers

To install Nokia USB Drivers, Firstly, Plug in a USB cable. Once Plug-in, It will automatically show us the Nokia Drivers. 

Firstly, copy all these to a new directory and then install it.

Download the Nokia Bootloader Unlock Tool

Once the Driver is installed, Download the Nokia Bootloader Unlock Tool. Click on the Download to Download it.

Reboot the Phone into Bootloader Mode

Once Downloaded, next, we have to reboot the phone into bootloader mode.

Firstly, we have to enable developer options. To do this, go to Settings → About phone.

Scroll down and tap on the "Build number" field 7 times. 

Go back to the previous menu and click on System → tap on Advanced  → Developer Options. 

• Toggle the "USB debugging" option to "On" to enable USB debugging. 

Now, again connect your device to your computer using a USB cable and open a command prompt by pressing Windows + R, and typing cmd.

Type the following command to list the connected Android devices that are detected by the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) tool. 

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19044.1288]

(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\ajuam>adb devices

* daemon not running; starting now at tcp:5037

* daemon started successfully

List of devices attached

DRGID18092408445 unauthorized

As you can notice, an Android Device is listed but it does not have any authorization. We have to allow USB debugging to authorize the device to run ADB commands.

As you can see the device now has authorization.

C:\Users\ajuam>adb devices

List of devices attached

DRGID18092408445 device

Now, type the following command to reboot your device into bootloader mode.

C:\Users\ajuam>adb reboot bootloader

As you can see, my Android device is now switched to download mode, which means we are on Bootloader mode or fastboot mode.

Generate OTP for the Unlock Tool

Click on Generate OTP, and click on Get the OTP. 

Generate OTP for Nokia Bootloader Unlock tool

Please click on the button below to get the OTP to use with our Nokia Bootloader Unlock tool. Service stats: The service has been used to unlock the bootloader of ~3500 Nokia smartphones as of 27th January 2022. All for free! OTP details: Valid for the next 15 minutes from generation.

The OTP is valid for 15 minutes from generation.

Run the Unlock Tool and unlock your phone

Extract the previously downloaded "Nokia Bootloader Unlock tool".

Run the “Bootloader Unlock by tm.exe” file.

On execution, you will find out below the window.

Here, paste the OTP, and then click on Begin Unlock. 

Once you click on the Begin Unlock button, you will notice various processes. Wait for the process to complete. 

Confirm “Unlock the bootloader” press the volume down button, and then press the Power button to continue the procedure.

After reboot, it will automatically erase all data and we have to confirm "unlock the bootloader" a second time.

Now again confirm the unlock of the bootloader as shown on my screen.

Now, as you can notice, The Bootloader unlock is completed, and we are ready to flash the recovery software that we have downloaded previously.

Flash Recovery Image

To flash the recovery image, we have to Enable developer options again, as the Android device is completely reset.

Now, open a command prompt by pressing Windows + R, typing cmd, and then type the following command to list the connected Android devices.

C:\Users\ajuam>adb devices

List of devices attached

DRGID18092408445 device

Now, type the following command to reboot your device into bootloader mode.

C:\Users\ajuam>adb reboot bootloader

Once my device is booted to download mode, type the following command to list the connected Android devices that are detected by the fastboot tool.

C:\Users\ajuam>fastboot devices

DRGID18092408445 fastboot

 As you can see, a fastboot device is listed.

If somehow no devices are listed, it means that fastboot is not detecting any connected devices. This could be because the device is not correctly connected to the computer, or because the device is not in fastboot mode, or sometimes there will be a chance of missing driver issues. If there is a problem with the missing driver issue, then you can follow the below article:

Fastboot Not Detecting on Windows 10/11

If you are getting the " Fastboot device driver missing" error when trying to use Fastboot on your computer, it means that the necessary device drivers are not installed on your system. Here are some steps you can try to fix the problem: Make sure that you have installed the latest version of the Android SDK Platform-Tools package, which includes Fastboot.

To flash the recovery image, run the following command:

Type the fastboot flash boot, and “here drag and drop the path of the recovery image” to flash the recovery image file to my Android device.

C:\Users\ajuam>fastboot flash boot E:\Downloads\lineage-18.1-20220414-recovery-DRG.img

Sending 'boot_b' (36937 KB) OKAY [  0.885s]

Writing 'boot_b' OKAY [  0.261s]

Finished. Total time: 1.435s

After the flashing process is complete, type the following command to reboot an Android device into recovery mode.

c:\Users\ajuam>fastboot reboot recovery

Rebooting into recovery OKAY [  0.000s]

Finished. Total time: 0.005s

Your device will boot into LineageOS recovery mode.

Now, we have to flash the LineageOS custom ROM zip file.

Flash Custom ROM (LineageOS 18.1)

To flash Lineage OS 18.1, firstly, we have to format the data. Tap on Factory Reset.

Now here click on Format the data/Factory Reset.

Now tap on Format Data to wipe out all data.

On click, it automatically wipes out all data. Once wipe-out data is completed, go back to the previous menu to flash custom ROM.

To flash custom ROM, click on “Apply Update”.

Click on Apply from ADB. 

Apply from ADB is a feature that allows a user to install OTA (over-the-air) updates or custom ROMs on an Android device using a command-line interface on a computer.

The command, that is used to apply an update is, “adb sideload <mention the location of the file>”. 

c:\Users\ajuam>adb sideload E:\Downloads\lineage-18.1-20220414-nightly-DRG-signed.zip

Total xfer: 1.00x

c:\users\ajuam>

On completion, I have to reboot my device.

After reboot, we have to set up LineageOS.

Flash Google Apps

Optionally, if you want to install an application package add-on such as Google Apps follow the below steps:

Turn off your device and then press the Power button along with the Volume up button to switch back to Recovery Mode.

Similar to the previous, tap on Apply Update, and then tap on "Apply from ADB".

Now, we have to flash the "MindTheGApps" zip file.  

C:\Users\ajuam>adb sideload E:\Downloads\MindTheGapps-11.0.0-arm64-20220217_100228.zip

Total xfer: 1.00x

C:\Users\ajuam>

Tap on "Yes" to continue the installation. 

On completion, go back to the previous menu and then click on "Reboot System Now".

After reboot, you will find fresh newly installed LineageOS.

As you can notice, Google apps are successfully installed. But, for better performance, I suggest you Erase the data. 

Setting → System → Advanced → Reset Options

After erasing, follow the instructions to set up the device. 

Now, we have successfully installed LineageOS 18.1 along with GApps. But, we don't have any root privileges.

Root Android Device

Now, again, we have to enable the USB debugging and then run the following command to list devices.

C:\Users\ajuam>adb devices

List of devices attached

DRGID18092408445 device

Now, type the following command to reboot the device into recovery mode. 

C:\Users\ajuam>adb reboot recovery

Similar to the previous, we have to flash Magisk Manager. Firstly, tap on “Apply Update”, and then click on "Apply from ADB".

Now, we can flash Magisk Manager to root the device.

C:\Users\ajuam>adb sideload E:\Downloads\Magisk-v25.2.zip

Total xfer: 1.00x

C:\Users\ajuam>

Once the device is booted up, you will see the Magisk Manager app icon. But the Magisk Manager Application needs to be installed once again.

Tap on the Magisk app icon to Download the Magisk Manager application. 

Once downloaded, click on Install.

Once installed launch Magisk Manger Application.

Tap on Install to flash the newly downloaded Magisk manager. 

Here choose, Direct Install and then click on "Let's go":

On completion, tap on reboot to ensure that the changes take effect, and are properly configured and integrated with the operating system.

Install Kali NetHunter

Now, we are ready to Install Kali NetHunter custom ROM. Let me transfer the NetHunter custom ROM zip file to my Android device.

Launch the Magisk Manager app.

From here, go to the Modules tab

Tap on Import the file and import the Kali NetHunter ROM zip file.

So that it will automatically flash Kali NetHunter custom ROM.

This process may take 25 minutes or more. Once the custom ROM flashes, reboot your device.

Once boot up, you will find out 4 newly installed applications.

Now, launch the Kali NetHunter Application from the Application Menu and allow Permissions. 

Now, Grant superuser privilege. 

Once Superuser privilege is granted, the Kali NetHunter app automatically detects installation files.

Kali NetHunter successfully boots up, but "Kali Chroot manager" is not up and running. 

To set up Kali Chroot, Tap on the "Kali Chroot Manager" icon.

As you can notice, the Kali Chroot has already been installed, but various file systems are not yet mounted. So we have to start Kali Chroot in the "Start Kali Chroot" environment.

Now Kali Chroot is up. 

When the Kali Chroot Manager is running, you can use it to manage the Kali Linux Chroot environment on your Android device. This includes installing and removing tools, configuring settings, and accessing the command-line interface (CLI) version of Kali Linux.

These are the complete process to install and set up Kali NetHunter on a listed device.