I have been trying to install Linux headers for Kali Linux 2020 on my machine and I have tried every possible solution on the internet but it always show “Unable to locate packages “.

E: Unable to locate package linux-headers-5.4.0-kali2-amd64

E: Couldn’t find any package by glob ‘linux-headers-5.4.0-kali2-amd64’

E: Couldn’t find any package by regex ‘linux-headers-5.4.0-kali2-amd64’

After days of googling, I found a solution for installing the linux-headers

The Problems I Faced

What I was trying to do was, trying to install virtual box. Every time I install virtualbox and start virtualbox service, I always ended up with an error. After further troubleshooting, I found that the real issue was with my linux headers. During dependency check, if missing, installer will prompt that kernel headers should be installed.

The Usual Method (Didn’t work for most of us)

Add the correct repositories from Here . Then run this commands in the terminal

apt update -y && apt upgrade -y && apt dist-upgrade

After that, reboot the system, open up the terminal and run

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

By running that command, it is supposed to install the linux kernel headers but in Kali 2018, it is not working.

So Here is How I Did It

Step 1

Then run this commands in the terminal

apt update -y && apt upgrade -y && apt dist-upgrade

Reboot after successful completion

Step 2

After rebooting, open up the terminal and execute the command

uname -r

It will show you the current version

Step 3

Now Download the required header files and install it using the command

dpkg -i packagename.deb

Commonly used header files are provided below.

If these aren’t the right version, follow the below links to get all versions of header files available.

http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/kali/pool/main/l/linux/

Select one and download and install it manually and then you will be able to run virtualbox without any issue.