Hi,
it's been reported to us [1] that the isohybrid command, when run on
the Tails 1.1 ISO image, displays a warning message. It seems that it
could be even worse: it might prevent devices, onto which the
hybrid'ed ISO image was copied, from booting on some systems.
The root cause for this problem seems [2] to lie in the growth of our
ISO images. That's not something we can easily change, so I would like
to find a workaround.
In order to pick the best workaround, we need to test a few things on
a broad variety of hardware. That's why we need *your* help:
1. Start a GNU/Linux system. Possibly Tails, possibly of another kind.
2. Take note of the version of syslinux you have installed. On Debian
and derivatives, that would be:
dpkg -s syslinux
3. Get a Tails 1.1 ISO image. Verify its OpenPGP signature.
Note: if you have such an image that you've already run isohybrid
on, you'll need a fresh one, otherwise the following tests are
entirely useless.
4. Backup your fresh Tails 1.1 ISO image:
cp tails-i386-1.1.iso tails-i386-1.1.iso.orig
5. Try to reproduce the problem with the documented manual
installation process [3]:
* isohybrid --entry 4 --type 0x1c tails-i386-1.1.iso
* check if you see some warning in the syslinux output,
and take note of it
* dd if=tails-i386-1.1.iso [...]
* try booting the resulting USB stick on various computers
* take notes of your results
6. If the resulting USB stick failed to start on some computers,
we now need to know if that's a regression, so: get a fresh Tails
1.0.1 ISO image [4], and follow steps 4 and 5, replacing "1.1"
with "1.0.1" everywhere. Again, take note of your results.
7. If, at step 6, you have discovered a regression -- that is, if
Tails 1.0.1 boots fine on a given computer where Tails 1.1 fails to
start. Then, we now need you to try isohybrid again with
different options:
* get your Tails 1.1 ISO backup back:
cp tails-i386-1.1.iso.orig tails-i386-1.1.iso
* follow step 5, except that you remove "--entry 4 --type 0x1c"
from the isohybrid command-line
8. If you're in the mood, retry step 7 with different combinations of
isohybrid options (see its manpage). That's optional.
9. Report back by replying to this email, either on the
tails-testers@??? mailing-list, or by using WhisperBack, or to
me personally. For each reported result, we need to know the brand
and model of the computer and USB stick. WhisperBack includes this
information automatically, so it's the method I would recommend.
Thanks in advance!
[1]
https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/7462
[2]
https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/7692
[3]
https://tails.boum.org/doc/first_steps/installation/manual/linux/
[4]
http://dl.amnesia.boum.org/tails/obsolete/tails-i386-1.0.1/
Cheers,
--
intrigeri
