Re: [Tails-testers] USB installation instructions for Linux

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Autor: intrigeri
Data:  
Dla: Tails list for early testers, Limnivorous
Temat: Re: [Tails-testers] USB installation instructions for Linux
Hi,

u:
> Limnivorous via Tails-testers:
>> This looks like a great development! Jumping through this initial hoop is a big hurdle for newbies.


> Thank you very much!


:)))

>> The Linux instructions presume a distribution with Gnome-Disks
>> available. This may be the largest group of users but it still
>> probably excludes the majority. This is confusing for users
>> inexperienced enough to need help writing the image to USB.


> Oh? Many Linux distributions rely on Gnome though and so this tool seems
> to be widely available.


Sure, but some distros have another default desktop environment and
even Debian lets you choose which one you want at installation time,
so indeed, we cannot assume GNOME Disks is already *installed*.
This being said, we don't as the new doc reads:

     Otherwise, install the gnome-disk-utility package using the usual
     installation method for your distribution.


According to https://repology.org/metapackage/gnome-disk-utility/versions,
this app is available for all major distros and that's indeed the correct
package name.

Limnivorous, can you please point out which distribution does not
make GNOME Disks available to its users?

>> I suggest mentioning Etcher and dd at the top. And in fact, maybe
>> Etcher is more straightforward to use than Gnome-Disks?


I could agree on "more straightforward to use": Etcher does only one
thing, i.e. exactly what we need here, while the functionality we need
here is treated somewhat as a corner case (and almost hidden) in
GNOME Disks.

However, according to https://repology.org/metapackage/etcher/versions,
Etcher is not available in most major Linux distributions, so
_installing_ it will be hard for most users. Of course, upstream
offers Linux binaries, but I'd rather not suggest that to Linux users,
for many reasons.

Cheers,
--
intrigeri