Further inverstigations showed, that there are two lines in ./build.sh, which makes the build also uncomfortable.

Line 372 and line 373 show

vrun rm -rf "$(PWD)/chroot
and
vrun rm -rf "$(PWD)/config

deletes any configs, personal lists and settings and packages below config/chroot and creates it new. This is of clorse NOT wanted!

Please remove these lines in build.sh.

The system let me not remove it, because when I am starting the build, it gives me a warning ("will overwrite build.,sh") and then stops.

Ok, could solve this. This message only appears, when I edited build.sh and then do a "git pull origin main". However, nevertheless, please remove the
mentioned lines anyway,

But maybe the line
vrun rm -rf "$(PWD)/chroot

looks like doing no harm.

Still testing, as some things are still not working as expected (I ran also in a dependency problem with pipewire) . Sorry for that!

Hello @vanguard,

Yes, all our build-scripts went under a refresh yesterday - ready for the up and coming Kali 2026.3 release.
Sorry to see that you ran into an issue with it.

For Kali-live, its build-script is here ~ https://gitlab.com/kalilinux/build-scripts/kali-live
The MR for it ~ https://gitlab.com/kalilinux/build-scripts/kali-live/-/merge_requests/43

Quick summary of it:

As a heads up, the following arguments/functionality has changed:

-P/--packages - Setting extra packages is new
-H/--hostname - Setting hostname is new
-m/--mirror - Setting build mirror has changed (new?)
-k/--keep - Renamed (Formally --no-clean)
-b/--branch - Renamed (Formally -d/--distribution)

Now with regards to your customisations, if what you are doing public at all? Just trying to get a better understanding

Hello g0tmi1k,

thanks for the response.

As I am building kali-live for myself almost evry day, I was surprised, that suddenly it did not work amy more as usual. First I noticed, that some paths were no more as before, and then of course the build.sh script
stopped, as I added some switches, the new build.sh did not know any more (like "--distribution" or "--verbose")

It took me quite some time, to fix this and to find out, what happened. As the new build script is deleteing the config-folder, my settings were gone, my mylist.chroot as well and the result was a small English-speaking ISO.

At the moment I got most things fixed, but still found no way, to add needed boot params into the live image. Reason is, that build.sh has no more the option of "--boot-append", where I could set keyboard and locales.
I know, as English people you might not think of it, because you do not need it.

To your other question: In another thread I apologized, that I often tell about things are not working. As I am building almost every day, I am noticing changes rather early. This can be changes like these (where my own opinion is, that this is not an improvement), but also issues with missing packages or dependencies.

I suppose, there may be other people, whio want a live system as up-to-date as I want. So I send my bugreports here.

Please apologize! I know, this is all work, people do in theire free time. And I think, I am forgetting this too often. Thus, maybe I expect too much, like here: Missing documentation or an advice.

On the other hand, nothing here is time critical! Take your time, if it lasts, it lasts.

Again: My bugreports shall not only help me, but help others, too.

Best regards

Hans

So, most things I could fix!

1. Build settings I could fix by commenting line 372 in build.sh out. This prevents the deletion and new writing the whole config directory, By doind so, my mylist.chroot is beeing kept and also
   the removal of defective gdm3 is confirmed.

2. My scripts for moving the resulted ISO and creating an bootable USB-stick are also fixed. This was the easiest part.

3. The dependency problem I mentioned could be also fixed. It was the package gstreamer1.0-pipewire, which could not be found. I downloaded this package from another native installed kali and put it
   below config/packages.chroot. This fixed the dependency crash.

What I still NOT could fix is to get a German environment. I tried to add the boot commands in config/bianry, but this file will always be deleted and overwritten, as soon as you execute the build.sh.
I tried to redit it again after the build starts, hoping, the variables of this file are read later in the build process, but it looks not like so.

During this tries, I discovered, the whole installer is alo no more built into kali-live. This could be done prior with the switch --installer adding to the build.sh. Another thing, that the new build.sh should have been added again.

Thus, at the moment these two things remain to be solved:

• adding German environment at boot (locales=de_DE.UTF8, keyboard-layouts=de, keyboard-variants=nodeadkeys and ignore_uuid
  If someone knows, where I could add it, so that these commands are beeing built in into the ISO, please let me know.

• adding the option to install the installer into the ISO (maybe I missed something here, I might remember to have read about this somewhere).

Thnaks for reading and help.

Best

Hans

Well, I think, I found the solution. Maybe it is wrong, but it looks to work. So let me name it a workaround.

1. In build.sh comment line 372 (This prevents the deletion and new writing the whole config directory). I suppose, this is a bug and maybe not wanted originally.

2. In file ~/kali-live/auto/config search for line 146 you will fine the switch "--bootappen-live", here you can add your settings for keyboard and locales.
   Please note, that this file may be overwritten at updates. Note: There is a documentation for setting these variables in a file called "inxstall.cfg" which should be set
   below "~/kali-config/common/includes.binary/isolinux/", but this is meant for kali-install iso.

I read the documentation, and as far as I understood, there are seperate ISO's, one is the livesystem, the other for installation. Each is using a different repository.
If there si a way to add the installer into the livesystem, it would be nice, to let me know. If this is no more inteneded and technical impossible at all, please drop me a note. Thus I could spare my efforts.

Please allow me personal opinion: At the moment I think, the new build process is no improvement. But that may result in my missing knowledge. Splitting live-system-iso and installer-iso is IMHO not a good idea.
Personally I would prefer a live-system, which can be installed when wished. But that is only the opinion of one single person, and just a feedback. Please don't be angzry!

Last but not least, I think as most problems seem to be solved for now (except of the insttaller wish), and my workaround is correct and helpfull, I think this issue can safely be closed.

All in all, thank you for all the help!

Best regards

Hans