4 ms·

Tails installer is now in Debian

135 points by p4bl0 11y ago

hodwik 11y ago
A front-page article announcing that a piece of software (that just formats a usb with a specific iso) got added to the apt-get repository? What am I missing?
- sbd01 11y ago
  That appears to be about it. The only difference between downloading the ISO and formatting the disk manually is that the Tails installer sets up a persistent partition that doesn't get wiped.
  - belorn 11y ago
    Do the installer download their own version of Debian, or do it use the repositories of the host machine?
    - satbyy 11y ago
      You need to provide the Tails ISO, downloaded separately from Tails' website. The installer does not download or reuse anything from host machine.
  - tobltobs 11y ago
    "The previous process for getting started with Tails was very complex and was problematic for less tech-savvy users. It required starting Tails three times, and copying the full ISO image onto a USB stick twice before having a fully functional Tails USB stick with persistence enabled." You should look at it from the perspective of the target audience. From there this seems to be the first easy to install OS with an emphasis on privacy.
  - Zigurd 11y ago
    Yeah, that's what it looks like, and I'm not sure I want that on a tails usb stick. Should I want that?
    - mirimir 11y ago
      People like to save stuff. But it ought to be securely encrypted stuff. That's a little iffy on flash storage. But hey.
- fit2rule 11y ago
  There is a lot of attention on the crypto situation right now, which can be expressed thus: "crypto is great, but the normals don't use it" .. So, Tails going into Debian is a step in the right direction, even if its an obscure one. And I wager that there are plenty of people on HN who might be interested in the fact that its now easier to install Tails ..
  - ComodoHacker 11y ago
    Somewhere in the world it's expressed like this: "you use crypto and worry about privacy? That's suspicious". So yes, a step in the right direction. And the next big step would probably be integrating "tails mode" in every Debian LiveCD/LiveUSB installation.
samueloph 11y ago
Great news! Especially considering this may drive other distros to do the same, and on Windows, which would be perfect for non tech savy users who want to start using Linux. It's better than the dropped Ubuntu's approach of installing it side-by-side with Windows because they don't have to worry about not screwing with Windows and a lot of people want to install Linux on their external hard drives and pendrives.
aaren 11y ago
This is a big improvement over the previous setup, but I feel that it could do with handling the most insecure part of the process: downloading and verifying the tails iso. It would be great if this installer could leverage the trust I have in my system to painlessly acquire and then validate the tails iso, without having to deal with I just tried feeding a regular debian iso to the installer and it didn't complain at all. This shouldn't be possible - what if this was a bad tails iso?
- voltagex_ 11y ago
  Raise a bug? That sounds like a behaviour you don't want. Edit: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=814432 https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=814432
godgod 11y ago
This thread is monitored by the NSA.

135 points by p4bl0 11y ago

A front-page article announcing that a piece of software (that just formats a usb with a specific iso) got added to the apt-get repository? What am I missing?

sbd01 11y ago
That appears to be about it. The only difference between downloading the ISO and formatting the disk manually is that the Tails installer sets up a persistent partition that doesn't get wiped.
- belorn 11y ago
  Do the installer download their own version of Debian, or do it use the repositories of the host machine?
  - satbyy 11y ago
    You need to provide the Tails ISO, downloaded separately from Tails' website. The installer does not download or reuse anything from host machine.
- tobltobs 11y ago
  "The previous process for getting started with Tails was very complex and was problematic for less tech-savvy users. It required starting Tails three times, and copying the full ISO image onto a USB stick twice before having a fully functional Tails USB stick with persistence enabled." You should look at it from the perspective of the target audience. From there this seems to be the first easy to install OS with an emphasis on privacy.
- Zigurd 11y ago
  Yeah, that's what it looks like, and I'm not sure I want that on a tails usb stick. Should I want that?
  - mirimir 11y ago
    People like to save stuff. But it ought to be securely encrypted stuff. That's a little iffy on flash storage. But hey.
fit2rule 11y ago
There is a lot of attention on the crypto situation right now, which can be expressed thus: "crypto is great, but the normals don't use it" .. So, Tails going into Debian is a step in the right direction, even if its an obscure one. And I wager that there are plenty of people on HN who might be interested in the fact that its now easier to install Tails ..
- ComodoHacker 11y ago
  Somewhere in the world it's expressed like this: "you use crypto and worry about privacy? That's suspicious". So yes, a step in the right direction. And the next big step would probably be integrating "tails mode" in every Debian LiveCD/LiveUSB installation.

samueloph 11y ago

Great news! Especially considering this may drive other distros to do the same, and on Windows, which would be perfect for non tech savy users who want to start using Linux. It's better than the dropped Ubuntu's approach of installing it side-by-side with Windows because they don't have to worry about not screwing with Windows and a lot of people want to install Linux on their external hard drives and pendrives.

aaren 11y ago

This is a big improvement over the previous setup, but I feel that it could do with handling the most insecure part of the process: downloading and verifying the tails iso. It would be great if this installer could leverage the trust I have in my system to painlessly acquire and then validate the tails iso, without having to deal with I just tried feeding a regular debian iso to the installer and it didn't complain at all. This shouldn't be possible - what if this was a bad tails iso?

voltagex_ 11y ago
Raise a bug? That sounds like a behaviour you don't want. Edit: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=814432 https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=814432

godgod 11y ago

This thread is monitored by the NSA.