The boot log snippet you shared shows normal progress:

• Plymouth (the boot splash/animation system) has successfully quit and terminated its boot screen.
• plymouth-quit-wait.service finished (this service simply waits for the full boot to complete so Plymouth can cleanly exit — it doesn’t cause hangs itself).
• The system has reached the point where the graphical login manager (SDDM in Kali) should start next.

If the screen is now black/frozen (no login prompt, no cursor movement, stuck indefinitely), this is a very common Kali Linux issue on Hyper-V (especially Gen2 VMs). The root cause is almost always:

• Secure Boot enabled in the VM settings (blocks proper hyperv_fb driver initialization for Xorg/GUI).
• Hyper-V synthetic video (hyperv_fb) failing to hand off from Plymouth to the desktop session.
• Missing or mismatched integration services/drivers.

plymouth-quit-wait.service itself is not the problem — it’s expected to show as finished here. The freeze happens right after because the display driver doesn’t recover properly.

Quick Fix: Disable Secure Boot in Hyper-V (Most Effective Step)

This resolves black screens/freezes after Plymouth in 90%+ of Kali Hyper-V cases (confirmed across Reddit, Microsoft forums, YouTube guides for 2024–2026 Kali installs).

1. Shut down the Kali VM completely (from Hyper-V Manager: right-click VM → Turn Off or Shut Down).
2. In Hyper-V Manager on your Windows Server 2019 host:
   • Right-click your Kali VM → Settings.
   • Go to Security (left pane).
   • Uncheck “Enable Secure Boot” (or set the template to None/Microsoft UEFI Certificate Authority if options appear — but disabling fully is safest for Linux guests).
   • Click Apply → OK.
3. Start the VM again.
4. Connect to it (use basic session first: View menu → uncheck Enhanced session if enabled).
   • The GUI should now appear (login screen) without freezing.

If it still freezes after this:

• Toggle Enhanced Session Mode off/on in the VM connection window (View → Enhanced session).
• Try reconnecting the VM window.

Additional Steps (If Needed – Do from Text Console)

If no GUI appears even after disabling Secure Boot, switch to a text console during freeze:

• Press Ctrl + Alt + F3 (or F2/F4/F5) in the VM window.
• Log in (username/password you set during install).

Then run:

text

sudo systemctl status sddm   # Check display manager status (Kali default)
sudo systemctl restart sddm   # Restart it to force GUI start

Or manual start:

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startx

To make GUI auto-start reliably:

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sudo systemctl enable sddm
sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target
sudo reboot

Force Hyper-V video mode (add to GRUB if black screen persists):

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sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Change/add:

text

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash video=hyperv_fb:1920x1080"

(Adjust res to your VM window, e.g., 1280×720.)

Then:

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sudo update-grub
sudo reboot

Install Hyper-V daemons (improves video/integration):

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sudo apt update
sudo apt install hyperv-daemons
sudo update-initramfs -u -k all
sudo reboot

Summary Table of Common Fixes

Step	Why It Helps	Expected Result
Disable Secure Boot in VM Settings	Hyper-V Gen2 defaults to enabled; blocks Linux boot handoff	GUI appears after Plymouth quits
Toggle Enhanced Session	Bypasses synthetic display quirks	Better mouse/keyboard + no freeze
Add video=hyperv_fb:… to GRUB	Forces known-good framebuffer resolution	Xorg starts without “no screens” error
sudo systemctl restart sddm from TTY	Restarts hung display manager	Restarts hung the display manager