[Tails-dev] Substitute Tor-launcher with Anon-Connection-Wiz…

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Author: iry
Date:  
To: tails-dev
Subject: [Tails-dev] Substitute Tor-launcher with Anon-Connection-Wizard in Tails?
Hi anonym!

> Cool! If we pick a-c-w that ticket will likely be rejected, and
> I'll open a new one about a-c-w but I'll do my best to add you as a
> watcher to that and related tickets in that case.


Thank you very much for your help!

> I'd like to know how you feel about extending a-c-w so it deals
> with the network connection setup as well, as I have alluded to
> before [1]. I could imagine this benefiting from switching to a
> plugin architecture, where plugins correspond to pages in the
> wizard. Example: those wanting a-c-w to act as Tor Launcher would
> only load those plugins, but in Tails (and Whonix?) we'd also load
> the network connection setup plugin, the MAC spoofing plugin, and a
> Tails-specific "Congrats, your Tails is connected to Tor! Here are
> some recommendations of what to do next..." plugin that only we
> ship, or something like that.


I love this idea very much because it is a low-coupling design. This
is what I have been thinking about.

Apart from serving as a plugin, I can also maintain a "plugin caller"
so that anon-connection-wizard can be used as a standalone application
which will be useful to other Debian users(not just Tails or Whonix).

> As for a larger collaboration, I could see us in Tails providing UX
> insight and GUI design work, and coding if necessary (although I'm
> sure you're eager to be the main developer, which would be perfect
> for us :)). Whonix and Tails could apply for funding together
> (increased probability of acceptance) to have us paid for doing
> this work and pay for UX research, user testing etc. Note that this
> is just *my* vague vision, and I have no clue how the rest of the
> Tails crew feels about it. :)


It sounds like a really bright future to anon-connection-wizard! I am
willing to do more for it :)

> I did a quick and dirty test:
>
> git clone https://github.com/Whonix/anon-connection-wizard git
> clone https://github.com/Whonix/python-guimessages sudo env
> XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=GNOME
> PYTHONPATH=/home/amnesia/anon-connection-wizard/usr/lib/python3/dist-p

ackages/:/home/amnesia/python-guimessages/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/
> /home/amnesia/anon-connection-wizard/usr/bin/anon-connection-wizard
>
>

Thank you for your testing! I am impressed that you figure out the
dependencies and tested it so quickly!

> which starts a-c-w (but actually configuring Tor fails, which I
> expected). This is probably because anon-connection-wizard is using
> [torrc.d

feature](http://forums.whonix.org/t/torrc-d-is-comming/4041) which is
firstly implemented in `0.3.1.1-alpha`.

I just posted a instruction on how to install anon-connection-wizard
in a clean /Debian8 or Debian9 and I am going to paste inline text
here, but for better UI you may see this post:
http://forums.whonix.org/t/graphical-gui-whonix-setup-wizard-anon-connec
tion-wizard-technical-discussion/650/329

1. install all the dependencies: `sudo apt-get install git
python3-pyqt5 python3-yalm python3-stem tor`

2. anon-connection-wizard is using [torrc.d
feature](http://forums.whonix.org/t/torrc-d-is-comming/4041) which is
firstly implemented in `0.3.1.1-alpha`. Use `tor --version` to check
if your Tor version is below that. Currently, you need to upgrade to
an unstable version of Tor to use it, see [this
page](https://www.torproject.org/docs/debian.html.en) for better
instructions on how to upgrade Tor.

3. `git clone https://github.com/Whonix/anon-connection-wizard`
`git clone https://github.com/Whonix/python-guimessages`

4. `sudo cp anon-connection-wizard/usr/* /usr/ -r`

5. `sudo cp python-guimessages/usr/* /usr/ -r`

6. run `sudo anon-connection-wizard` to start it

Btw, I followed the instructions above testing it on clean Debian8 and
Debian9 and it was able to configure Tor and worked without obvious
problem. I will test it on Tails later.

> GNOME integration is currently not great:
>
> * the fonts are very small (and perhaps blurrier?). FTR, I observe
> the same in Electrum.


That is true. I tested on a Debian with GNOME, and the Bold fonts
looks normal but normal fonts is too light.

> * Qt GUI elements (e.g. buttons) are fairly different than the GTK
> ones.
>
> My hope is that we could improve this with something like
> qt5-gtk-platformtheme, or perhaps themes like QGnomePlatform and
> adwaita-qt.

I am doing some testing and modifying basing your suggestions. I am
not very familiar with the posting things so far, but I am trying to
educate myself on this topic:)

> This initial testing also tells me that there are quite some
> Whonix-specific stuff going on, so a-c-w will not be a
> drop-in-replacement,

Whonix-specific stuff:
1. python-guimessage is used to help instructions wirtten in
anon-connection-wizard easy to be translated into different languages
in the future. I am curious how Tails do the translation
implementaion, btw.
2. anon-connection-wizard will detect if its the first time to use in
Whonix. This Whonix-specific thing can be killed by removing serveral
lines from code.
3. anon-connection-wizard is using a Whonix icon. This can be killed
by removing one line.

> but require some substantial modification. I'll have a closer look
> next week, hopefully.

That sounds awesome! Thank you very much for your effort and time,
anonym! I will keep doing the GNOME integration work, too!

Best,
iry