Re: [Tails-ux] Backups of the persistent volume

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Autor: Lawrie
Data:  
A: flapflap, tails-ux
Assumpte: Re: [Tails-ux] Backups of the persistent volume
Hi Mr Flapflap.

I agree that your idea is much more flexible and technically correct
than my idea.

The problem is just that though - it's technical .. and it has 10
steps. I think it's fair to say that this is just way beyond most
user's ability. Tails should be something that the very average dude
feels confident in using.


My idea to reiterate is just to _clone the whole complete memory stick -
from start to finish - with one click._ Then if you loose the first one
you have the second one. From a coding and security aspect it would
appear to be pretty simple - but there again I don't know much about
this sort of thing. Maybe it's not simple at all?

Hope this helps

Regards
Lawrie



On 19/12/2014 7:25 a.m., flapflap wrote:
> sajolida:
>> Lawrie:
>>> AS regards this idea-> https://tails.boum.org/blueprint/backups/     -  
>>> Backups of the persistent volume

>>>
>>> I am a user (and donor)
>>>
>>> Backups of the persistent volume is a bit of an issue and my suggestion
>>> is as follows--
>>>
>>> Applications> Tails Installer has options of:-
>>>
>>> 1    Clone                                (other partitions lost)
>>> 2    Clone & Upgrade            (other partitions like Persistent volume
>>> on the target retained)
>>> 3    Install TAILS from an iso.

>>>
>>> What about an option 'Clone Everything' - so the original TAILS _and_
>>> the Persistent volume on the original are cloned to the target. - that
>>> is the backup.
>> I think that's a good idea actually. So I added it to the backup blueprint:
>>
>> https://tails.boum.org/blueprint/backups#index7h2
>>
>> The bad news is that our core team is very busy trying to improve our
>> internal infrastructure and making the project more sustainable and we
>> have little time to dedicate to actually implement the crazy new
>> features that we have in mind (like this one).
>>
>> But another good point about your idea is that it shouldn't be *too*
>> hard to implement by someone who is new to coding for Tails.
>>
> To me the "Clone everything" feature as proposed would be partly useless
> or the naming is not precise enough:
> Say for example the current situation with no incremental upgrade for
> Tails 1.2.1 to 1.2.2. From this usecase's perspective, the user already
> has a Tails 1.2.1 USB stick and wants to install Tails 1.2.2 on another
> one. The user could boot into 1.2.1 and then say "Clone everything"
> which would duplicate the /old/ 1.2.1 on the other USB stick. That is
> already somewhat a nice feature, but not the kind I find of much use.
>
> As an alternative, I'd call that feature, for example, "Import
> persistent volume". The workflow would be:
>  1. The user boots into the old 1.2.1 and enables root.
>  2. The user downloads the new 1.2.2 ISO and the signature.
>  3. The user verifies the ISO.
>  4. The user dd's the ISO onto the USB stick.
>  5. The user does a shutdown and boots into the new Tails system on the
>     other USB stick.
>  6. The user sets up a fresh persistent volume.
>  7. The user reboots (the USB stick with the new Tails) and enables the
>     persistent volume.
>  8. The user plugs in the old USB stick and unlocks the persistent
>     volume.
>  9. The user selects the "Import persistent volume" and chooses the
>     persistent volume directory on the old USB stick.
> 10. The proposed function copies/rsync's the data from the old USB
>     stick to the current persistent volume.

>
> The disadvantage is that this function does/can not really automate the
> process (basically only a frontend to rsync -av... $FROM $TO).
>
> But I'd prefer the notion to "import" or "fetch" data from an old system
> to the new one instead of just cloning the current version+data to
> another medium.
>
> ~flapflap
>