Re: [Tails-dev] Feedback wanted on planned implementation of…

Delete this message

Reply to this message
Author: Alan
Date:  
To: tails-dev
Subject: Re: [Tails-dev] Feedback wanted on planned implementation of Feature #5301 - Clone or Backup Persistent Volume
Hi,

On Fri, 28 Mar 2014 14:30:49 +0000
CustaiCo <CustaiCo@???> wrote:
> Thu, 27 Mar 2014 13:51:32 +0000
> From: sajolida@???
>
> > > The backup step would ensure that persistence has been enabled and
> > > mounted, and then go into /live/persistence/TailsData_unlocked/
> > > then run something that would be the equivalent of something like
> > > this
> > >
> > > tar cjf - . | gpg --cipher-algo AES -c -
> > > > /home/amnesia/YYYY-MM-DD-backup.tbz2.gpg
> >
> > Here the user should be prompted about where to save the backup.
> > Because there might not be enough RAM on the computer to handle
> > that, so they might prefer to write that file directly in some
> > other place, like an external hard drive or USB stick.
> >
>
> I was thinking about that, but the problem here is that it runs as
> root, wouldn't a filechooser allow them to save to any abitrary
> location they wanted?


I would avoid running a GUI as root and rather running the GUI as
amensia or a dedicated user and execute precise actions through
policykit (execute a command with pkexec or implement a dbus service)

> I'll admit to never having touched a line of
> gtk2 in my life untill I started in on this, but the only way I saw
> based on the documentation would be to fork the file picker dialog
> box as the amnesia user to prevent them from picking something bad.


Please write GTK3 for tails 1.1 which will be the next major release,
based on debian wheezy.

[...]

> > Maybe that could go all together in another entry, say "Backup and
> > restore persistent volume"?
> >
>
> I was thinking two seperate items: Backup persistent volume and
> Restore Persistent Volume. In fact, I was wondering if restore was
> even going to be worth it considering how little it would be used
> compared to backup. I would certainly hope one does very large number
> of backups compared to restores.


I think it's important to let non-techy users restore their backups if
necessary.

Thanks for working on that,

Cheers