Dr B:
> Hello there,
>
> I have encountered a problem in which TAILS does not shutdown; this is even after waiting for more than 9 minutes (I never had TAILS shutdown properly).
>
> As TAILS do not shutdown (for me), I decided to apply "force shutdown", but this had made me very anxious, will there be trace left in some part of my system's memory?
>
> And also, for additional information, I will include a part of the log (at shuttingdown and rebooting), which is seemingly the one affecting the shutdown:
>
> -----
> Please remove the USB or DVD and press ENTER to continue: live-boot: caching reboot files
> [4098.342154650] Starting new kernel
> -----
> Does the value next to "Starting new kernel" affecting the memory-wiping time?
No, that is the time in seconds since initial boot of the system. The
"Starting new kernel" message is a good sign actually.
In Tails, the memory erasure routine [0] is executed by adding kernel
boot parameters (sdmem=... and sdmemopts=...) and then booting a new
kernel via kexec. Then, sdmem is used to erase the memory.
If you used sdmem directly, it would also clear the memory except the
part allocated by the kernel. So by executing a new/fresh kernel, which
resides at another memory location than the running one, and then
calling sdmem, it is possible to erase the old kernel's memory, too.
~flapflap
[0]
https://tails.boum.org/contribute/design/memory_erasure/
