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1 • Multiple (by Chris on 2016-01-18 01:19:13 GMT from North America)
Kwort Review:
I love to see a distro use Openbox WM as default, too bad it seems to have so many "rough edges" but maybe it will improve with time. Also strange with an Openbox default that they don't have a 32-bit version (for those of us who like to keep old PCs alive).
Poll:
I select hidden option number five, "I can neither confirm nor deny ever having used Tor, i2p, etc. and therefore cannot say if it worked well for me."
I will say one thing though, Tails, while a great concept for a project and even though imperfect - kudos to their developers, is missing a major point in using one of the larger, full featured, desktop environments. Some of the most oppressed people in the world, who truly need such an anonomizing OS, don't have access to modern PCs! They are lucky if they can access a P4 with 512mb RAM and internet access. Instead of moving to Gnome 3 (or KDE 5, etc.), the Tails developers should look to transition to a lower overhead DE/WM like Xfce, LXDE/LXWM, Fluxbox, Openbox, etc. If they are really betrothed to Gnome due to familiarity as they claim in their FAQ, why not make the switch to Mate?
2 • Poll: Tor (by hotdiggettydog on 2016-01-18 01:26:36 GMT from North America)
Tor is great for anonymity but not security.
Many people think it is safe to log into their bank account with Tor. A very bad idea.
3 • Tor (by a on 2016-01-18 02:19:40 GMT from Europe)
I like how easy it is to use Tor on Linux: just install the package, and start the service (if it isn’t done automatically by your distribution).
4 • Poll (by kernelKurtz on 2016-01-18 02:32:24 GMT from North America)
Hidden option number ... six?
"I'm using Tor right now, and thank you, DW, for not locking up your wonderful site behind a Cloudflare captcha like some sites I could mention ... " (looking at you, Voat; looking at you, FossForce).
5 • Tor (by Mick on 2016-01-18 02:38:33 GMT from North America)
I use Tor via HTTPS Everywhere.
6 • @3 (by Chris on 2016-01-18 02:53:51 GMT from North America)
That is true if all you need to keep anonamous is your browser, irc, etc. traffic using the TBB (Tor Browser Bundle) and/or other properly configured independant apps (not easy for newbies or even experts if they don't review every app and line of code on their system).
But just think of all your ip traffic that likely goes non-anonamized through direct app use or indirect dependency calls (e.g., wget, ftp, ssh, package management, etc.), even if encrypted, if you don't apply the tor proxy to your entire system like Tails attempts to do.
And even then, it may be all for naught if you don't practice good opsec as noted by @2. Just some thoughts...
7 • @6 (by a on 2016-01-18 02:57:25 GMT from Europe)
Actually I have a very specific use for Tor which does not involve the web or irc or any other well known protocol. Everything’s fine. ;)
8 • Kwort / Arch (by linuxista on 2016-01-18 04:09:54 GMT from North America)
"....perhaps more importantly, the Arch Linux project has extensive, well written documentation." Arch also has the most extensive package availability among any distro I have encountered.
9 • I've used Tor and I don't like it. (by czn12@hotmail.com on 2016-01-18 04:17:34 GMT from North America)
It does not do what it said it does, better use VPN: privateinternetaccess...
10 • TOR (by imnotrich on 2016-01-18 06:20:17 GMT from North America)
TOR is ROTten. Ok, let me explain. The bulk of TOR's funding comes from the US Government, and the FBI controls more than a handful of nodes. I've used TOR for many years, software-wise and the concept it's a great product. However, while TOR protects your privacy to a point forget about using TOR if you're looking to avoid unconstitutional US government surveillance.
And these days many websites have begun blocking known TOR exit nodes, so
you're stuck revealing your actual IP if you want to visit those sites.
We must not forget why Lavabit and Silent Mail shut down, and actively develop alternatives which are not vulnerable to illegal search and seizure stuff.
Has anybody tried Signal messenger yet? Hint hint.
11 • Documentation (by Simon on 2016-01-18 08:24:00 GMT from Oceania)
Great to see a review take a project to task for its lack of documentation. One of the worst things about the GNU/Linux world is the widespread neglect of maintaining the accurate, comprehensive, up-to-date documentation that users other than the project authors themselves need in order to actually use the software without wasting hours of time trawling the Internet. The BSDs are much better than GNU/Linux in this respect: some of them recognize the fact that inadequately documented software is not ready for release. Kwort sounds like a waste of time: thanks for saving us all the time we might have wasted trying to figure things out when they should be clearly documented by its authors.
12 • Kwort and CRUX (by Andy Mender on 2016-01-18 08:29:54 GMT from Europe)
@1
Kwort doesn't ship a 32bit version, because its origin, CRUX, also does not.
On that matter, I'm a bit surprised by Kwort's quality. I thought it's a simpler version of CRUX, which is known to be an even more do-it-yourself distribution than Gentoo.I somehow imagined that Kwort adds some hand-holding to facilitate CRUX's lengthy setup. Guess I was wrong...
I'm also somewhat ashamed that Slackware decided to ship PulseAudio. I understand that having Bluetooth audio is somewhat relevant in current times, but honestly, how many of us have Bluetooth headsets or speakers? How many people running something as tech-savvy as Slackware need them?
Just my 5 cents :).
13 • RE: TOR (by me2 on 2016-01-18 09:59:24 GMT from Europe)
I have used Tor for a longtime. It fitted most of my needs, and what it did not I worked around. However, particularly this year, Tor is being ravaged by cloudflare. Tough luck to the site that uses cloudflare as I do not fill in the captcha, but move on to another site. But I have grown tired of that and am now using a vpn. Its easier.
14 • The_Onion_Relay_Tails_and_exception (by k on 2016-01-18 11:44:22 GMT from Europe)
Very timely poll about TOR usage. With Tails, TOR has worked every time, and -- with Tails -- it is so efficient even when TOR off other distro seems censored and blocked.
However, as wisely advised by hotdiggettydog, comment #2 above, avoid using it for online banking. Tails provides a ("unsafe") web browser, presumably for that option(?), which can be tested at https://check.torproject.org/.
15 • TOR (by jymm on 2016-01-18 12:27:47 GMT from North America)
TOR was to slow for any reasonable use for me. It reminded me of the early days of "dial up" modem connections.
16 • Kwort review (by Barnabyh on 2016-01-18 13:54:07 GMT from Europe)
There used to be a list of community provided repositories on the website. However, now looking at the page Packages it is blank which seems rather unfortunate for any new user interested in the distribution. Wonder if security concerns are behind this?
17 • Using Tor? Why, yes! (by tom joad on 2016-01-18 13:55:59 GMT from Europe)
I don't use Tor all the time but I do use it alot.
The more I read about the NSA and Snowden, etc, the more I am interested in protecting myself. The more "they" are determined to pry the more I am determined to protect myself.
Personally, that is plain, old common sense right out of the Fourth Amendment.
Furthermore, I increasingly us Tails which piggy backs on Tor.
Both Tor and Tails are quite stable.
Linux and Linux developers have a potentially major role to play in online security. Linux itself is extremely suited to that. If only more OS's and apps were developed along the with an aim toward online security the better. At present there are too few in that niche.
New Ideas, concepts and competition is good.
18 • Tor (by MrOats on 2016-01-18 14:10:58 GMT from North America)
Unfortunately, Tor is blocked on some networks that then automatically blocks you from the network if detected. Tails was my final hope in overcoming that, but it did not work.
19 • remix os (by peer on 2016-01-18 14:24:53 GMT from Europe)
new Remix os looks promising. It is based on android -x86.
I have android-x86 on my EEE pc and I wanted to try Remix OS.
After downloading and installing it would not run on my EEE. It complainted that my pc was not 64 bit.
Then I tried to start Remix OS on my normal computer. Now it took ages to start. After about ten minutes I stopped it.
Perhaps it will perform better in the future.
So now I am still a happy user of android-x86 on my EEE.
20 • Ubuntu (by Solar Bay on 2016-01-18 15:01:34 GMT from North America)
Ubuntu Linux beats IBM and Microsoft Azure to lucrative AT&T contract
Telecoms firm goes open source
By Chris Merriman
Mon Jan 18 2016, 13:58
Ubuntu Linux beats IBM and Microsoft Azure to lucrative AT&T contract
Linux penguinAMERICA'S SECOND biggest telecoms company has announced that it is switching to Ubuntu for its infrastructure.
AT&T, which has been around in its current form since 2005, has selected Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu Linux operating system, "to be part of an effort to drive innovation in the network and cloud", beating rivals such as Microsoft Azure and IBM to the punch.
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2442220/ubuntu-linux-beats-ibm-and-microsoft-azure-to-lucrative-at-t-contract
21 • Tor poll (by Roy Davies on 2016-01-18 15:07:56 GMT from Europe)
If the option, 'I have tried Tor, but saw no advantage in using it' had been offered, I would have voted for that option. As it is I am one of the minority.
22 • @12 (by angstrom on 2016-01-18 15:18:02 GMT from Europe)
Was Slackware's not shipping PulseAudio until now really such a virtue? It's not only about Bluetooth -- a number of programs prefer to use PulseAudio if it's available, and it's becoming increasingly difficult to work around. If someone wants to compile and run an alternative Desktop Environment (e.g. Mate) on Slackware, it's more of a pain to do this without PulseAudio. I can understand why Slackware was slow to ship PulseAudio, but it's hard to see why never shipping it would be such a virtue. I think that the decision to finally ship PulseAudio is a good one.
23 • Tor and Slackware (by archvortex on 2016-01-18 15:45:41 GMT from Asia)
I use Tor to get around blocks in Indonesia. Reddit and Vimeo amongst other sites are blocked here which is ridiculous.
I agree with @Andy Mender on his comments on Slackware. I don't think Bluetooth is that important/relevant in the overall picture of a Slackware release and it's not like Slackers can't build an SBo for Bluez, Skype or pulseaudio if they want to run those packages on their computers.
24 • D Slackware BlueZ (by Somewhat Reticent on 2016-01-18 16:45:58 GMT from North America)
BlueZ 5.0 came out in late 2012 with a new API, moved "to standard D-Bus ObjectManager & Properties interface", and required kernel version 3.4 at minimum. Support for Gstreamer and pulseaudio included; libbluetooth not.
It's only taken a couple of years for Slackware to adapt. In slacker time, isn't that rather fast?
'Real Geeks Don't Use PulseAudio' may be true for some, but not all. If that's just not good enough, come up with something better. Be awesome!
25 • Misc (by dbrion on 2016-01-18 17:26:20 GMT from Europe)
First, a good new : I managed to compare CentOS and Fedora (results are known) and it was easy to use (no need to email for improvements)
Second, a maybe good one : Sabayon seems to be trying to support RPi2. Main issues I see is that RPis are (partly : I agree something like kodi is not part of the original goal -already exists-) meant to teach people programming and hardware interfacing, though RPis are not outstanding for hardware hobbyists : Arduini and other boards are better. I had noticed that gentoo supports arduino (interfacing "complex " analog devices with RPis becomes trivial using an Arduino as a USB-converter), rapsbian is shipped with Arduino's IDE (but only cross compiler is strategical, which can make Arduino+RPi autonomous ) but I do not think Sabayon has.
26 • D Slackware BlueZ (by Andy Mender on 2016-01-18 17:26:25 GMT from Europe)
@24
The point is not 'being a geek'. The point is pushing for dependencies according to the 'lowest common denominator' concept. The fact that someone needs Bluetooth audio doesn't mean that the whole Bluetooth stack has to now depend on Pulseaudio. That's 'feature creep', no? :)
27 • Pulse Audio and ALSA (by Keith on 2016-01-18 17:37:32 GMT from North America)
Just want to point out that Pulse Audio is a sound server while ALSA is a set of audio drivers. You can't use Pulse Audio without ALSA on GNU/LInux. You can use ALSA without Pulse Audio though.
28 • Tor poll (by Torws on 2016-01-18 18:20:55 GMT from Europe)
Let's see, if this poll works. This comment is written using Tor. I have found few times that Distrowatch deletes comments send through Tor. Would this also be deleted?
29 • Checking too (by Anotheruser on 2016-01-18 18:33:42 GMT from Europe)
I am also writing from Tor. Would Distrowatch allow us to comment using Tor?
30 • block_of_TOR_and_Tails_comment (by k on 2016-01-18 18:40:31 GMT from Europe)
Same issue as Torws #28 and Anotheruser #29.
31 • Pulse Audio and Alsa (by Newby on 2016-01-18 19:52:50 GMT from North America)
27 - Keith re Pulse Audio and Alsa
Thanks for pointing out that distinction between Alsa and Pulse Audio. Currently use Slackware and Alsa has always been dependable and trouble-free for me. Never saw the point of Pulseaudio; seemed to be just another unneccessary layer of abstraction. If you need to route sound somewhere, isn't that what apps like Jack are for? Hmm, should have checked to see if pulseaudio is a dependency for Jack before starting this post. Regardless, I am inclined to agree with Andy Mender in post 12. Now wondering what will happen when installing the upcoming Slackware version 14.2. During package selection, one can choose to omit installing Pulseaudio, if Bluetooth is not a consideration; but the announcement mentions that other packages were tweaked to allow inclusion of Pulseaudio. This leaves the question of what else may "break' in Slackware 14.2 if pulseaudio is omitted during installation?
While on the subject of minimal installation, one distro that does not get enough recognition is Absolute Linux. It seems to strike an admirable balance between light weight, and yet still contains essentials like compiler, checkinstall, LibreOffice, etc. ie., it is semi-lightweight, but contains just enough "bloatware" to actually get some work done without having to download more stuff. The only thing I might try to change in future is to go back to using cdrecord, mkisofs, and growisofs, and then try compiling xcdroast to use instead of xfburn, or k3b (with its kde dependencies). That would give a decent dvd editor with some actual control of things like adding translation tables and other absolute necessities that seem to be missing from xfburn. has anyone here had any luck compiling xcdroast on recent distro lately? May be a few months before I have a free pc handy to try this out.
32 • Re Tor and Leaving comments... (by tom joad on 2016-01-18 21:10:32 GMT from North America)
@28, 29 and 30...
I have never had any issues at leaving comments anywhere using Tor or Tails. I left a comment using Tails 1.8.2 this morning. Now I am further testing Tails 2.0 RC1 this afternoon. Again no issues.
@1...
After I read your comments I agree...Gnome is just not the WM for the latest revision of Tails. I like mate and think it would work well as would xfce...
I hope this posts... I expect it will.
33 • Tails_block_circumvention_on_censored_network (by k on 2016-01-18 23:47:12 GMT from Europe)
@18 • Tor by MrOats
Please see https://tails.boum.org/contribute/design/Tor_network_configuration/
States "can be circumvented by using Tor bridges (solved with UseBridges, Bridge, and possibly ClientTransportPlugin).... In addition, bridges can be used to obfuscate Tor's traffic so that it becomes harder for adversaries to identify Tor usage, especially in combination with pluggable transports. This makes Tor (and hence Tails) safer to use in regions where it's dangerous for some reason, or in other situations where users want to hide that they use Tor. In Tails we think this is a highly useful use case of Tor bridges beyond its more publicly announced "censorship circumvention" usage."
Also note under Implementation: "In Tails Greeter the "Network Configuration" section contains a non-default option called "My Internet Connection is censored...".
It worked reproducibly, even without activating the "hook". For example, AntiX-15 Killah P running TOR daemon from sysVinit was blocked on a certain censored Swiss network, but Tails worked every time.
34 • Tor use (by SlaxFan on 2016-01-18 23:57:38 GMT from North America)
I only use Tor when I check the weekend ads for major retailers. They have so many ad trackers I started using Tor just for them and changing my identity after each URL. I shouldn't have to submit to a strip search just to view the sale ads.
35 • Poll (by Archuser on 2016-01-19 00:26:27 GMT from North America)
Tor is not secure. The end-point of data is no longer encrypted and if a malicious person is running the exit node, they can read the data and use what ever information they get.
If a person uses their CC online and that bad end-point captures your data, well now they can go on a spending spree.
Find a good VPN service, not free ones, and feel safer.
Not trying to advertise, but if you want to use TOR anyway, you can use airvpn's service and tor to have better security, meaning hard to track down and data that goes through tor will still be encrypted at endpoint because it is still encrypted until it reaches the VPN server to go to final destination
36 • Tor (by matt on 2016-01-19 03:39:20 GMT from North America)
Tor isn't secure and gets most of its funding from gov't sources
http://surveillancevalley.net/blog/notes-on-pentagon-funding-of-the-tor-project
Here's a choice quote from another article about tor:
"Let’s start with the basics: Tor was developed, built and financed by the US military-surveillance complex. Tor’s original — and current — purpose is to cloak the online identity of government agents and informants while they are in the field: gathering intelligence, setting up sting operations, giving human intelligence assets a way to report back to their handlers — that kind of thing. This information is out there, but it's not very well known, and it's certainly not emphasized by those who promote it."
I think people---especially in the FOSS community-- are rightfully concerned about online privacy but only think of technical solutions like end-to-end encryption, TOR/tails, etc, but don't want to address the actual nature of the internet as it exists currently. That, as of right now, the internet is used as a way for private companies to collect data about us, and then profit off of that data.
37 • TOR (by Denn on 2016-01-19 04:06:13 GMT from North America)
Unless you do something wrong in the eyes of the law, how do you know if TOR (Tails) works?
How about an option like "I used TOR (Tails) and have no idea if it worked".
I got to some sites some were blocked, was my real info hidden?
38 • Re:Pulse Audio and Alsa (by archvortex on 2016-01-19 04:18:10 GMT from Asia)
@31 Newby
If you look at the January 13th change log you'll see which packages were built with pulse and have to make new builds for those packages. I've already rebuilt the packages and run the new Slackware-Current install without bluez and pulseaudio because I don't want it in my system.
39 • Security Theater of the Absurd (by Arch Watcher 402563 on 2016-01-19 04:22:29 GMT from North America)
Snowden's laptop sports tor stickers. Warrantless surveillance brownshirts begged librarians to remove it. Those recommendations are good enough for me.
The way to enhance tor is the user base. Your VPN can't compete and good luck training Granny and Bubba on VPN. TBB is one of the few Windows/Mac/Linux security apps they can use easily. Distros should ship TBB by default.
Ah, the clueless security claims from those who blindly install network facilities for their soundcards because they "trust" a distro to "think" for them. Anything opening hardware to networks is a security hole. PulseAudio is a needless layer atop ALSA. I see no reason to connect sound to bluetooth.
Consider TBB v Chrome. Which browser turned on mics and cams from a secret closed-source blob? Did that blob use PulseAudio, I wonder? I also wonder if Pulse helps infra/ultrasound tricks for airgaps. The question is academic. With bluetooth, what's an airgap worth anyway? Let me get this straight. We want PC soundcards talking bluetooth because compromised/infested semi-closed-source cell phones carried by everyone who walks by do bluetooth.
And we worry about TBB.
Look kids, if you want wireless headsets, get infrared.
Linux suffers herd mentality. Everyone looks at everyone else's movements. The only person defining a direction is PottyRing for Red Team Black Hats who want, like Microsoft and Apple, to brand, rustle, and slaughter you.
Build packages --nopulse by default. Fork them if you must. Forks will be easy, because nobody uses the touted "benefits" of Pulse. Audio pros use Jack. They avoid PulseAudio like a plague. Even its GUIs reek.
http://www.beastwithin.org/blogs/wolfheadofselfrepair/2013/07/pulseaudio-insidious-linux-malware
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140924071300-170035-why-you-cannot-trust-lennart-poettering-systemd
I'm waiting for the penny to drop. PulseAudio goes closed source...or demands your MAC and IP under EULA 2.0...or installs a closed-source firmware blob on your soundcard...or requires System D- ...etc. etc. etc. I see it coming like a train wreck, once you can't build anything without it. Please start building without PulseAudio right now.
40 • Pulseaudio (by Kragle von Schnitzelbank on 2016-01-19 05:15:30 GMT from North America)
I bet you can use PulseAudio without ALSA - just use OSS ...
Do PA's GUIs reek as badly as those for ALSA or OSS, or their documentation?
Slackers should be able to ignore this issue for a while - just use BlueZ version 4.x
Bluetooth handles more than just those fashion-obligatory barrettes for cell-phones: headphones, speakers, wi-fi, headsets, keyboards, mice ...
41 • TOR (by matt on 2016-01-19 06:41:33 GMT from North America)
@ 39
"Snowden's laptop sports tor stickers."
And? Snowden can have whatever stickers on his laptop he wants, doesn't change the fact that TOR was created by the US Gov't for nefarious reasons, and that TOR still gets a significant amount of its funding from the US gov' t.
42 • re pulseaudio (by Newby on 2016-01-19 06:49:08 GMT from North America)
@38 archvortex
Thanks for the info. Also have no need for bluez, so you are confirming I can skip installing pulseaudio, but some packages will have to be re-compiled to not use pulseaudio. I gather then, that if the changelog shows a binary now requires pulseaudio, installation of that binary should be skipped during installation, and one would then go to the source directory, and build the package with the appropriate flag to blacklist or skip pulseaudio.
@39 Arch Watcher
Thanks for the comments and the links. Re your comment "PulseAudio is a needless layer atop Alsa" - Thanks; you are confirming it is just an unnecessary extra layer of abstraction (and yet more bloat). And good to know Jack CAN be used for routing sound without pulseaudio. Your comments remind me of some history re distros. Going waaay way back to early 90's, your most likely choices consisted mainly of Slackware versus Redhat. Redhat always brroke things, especially on the x.0 releases. By the time things stabilized at the 0.2 releases, they were ready to break things again.....Never had those problems with Slackware. Not sure what timeframe Redhat got the government contracts, but yeah, an RH install should include "tin foil hat' as a requirement.
@40 Kragle von Schnitzelbank
Thanks for the comments; I'd clear forgotten about OSS (was that open source sound, or something to that effect?) Seem to recall it worked fine, and then for some reason (can't recall just what) everyone switched to the newer, prettier software in town - alsa. And we had xfree86, then xorg, then that systemd stuff, and now pulseaudio. Most of us are users who just want a long term stable distro that just works. Some of the developers out there (with emphasis on "some") seem to be on a different page. Linux gives us choice, which is great. But when insidious software starts to spread like a disease, and the alternatives become fewer and fewer, we risk loosing the freedom of choice....
As an example, for anyone who argues that systemd is now stable and works well, that may be true. But for those of us who like to work with plain text files instead of binary "blobs", you are starting to take over. Yes we can remove systemd and revert back to a simpler init, but why should we have to. And now with pulseaudio in slackware, more work cutting that cruft out.
This is NOT an attempt to start a flameware (we already had that here with systemd). Just expressing my shock and horror at seeing pulse in slack.....I'm off to stick my head in the sand until Groundhog Day, or the release of Slackware 14.2 (whichever comes first).
43 • re pulseaudio (by Andy Mender on 2016-01-19 11:20:34 GMT from Europe)
@42
It doesn't look good, but the situation isn't dramatic. There are quite some simpler and more independent init alternatives to systemd, like runit and openRC. I did some tests on runit and handling of runlevels and services is on such a UNIX-like low-level that it can be ported and set up everywhere basically. More similar projects will probably flourish, because people will seek alternatives :).
As for pulseaudio, jack can do as much and even more, again relying on UNIX-like principles (text configs, etc.).
I'm expecting heavy forking of key projects and a rise of alternatives. Groundhog Day is very likely, but I'm more happy than worried now! :)
44 • live distros - poll needed? (by Chris Misawst on 2016-01-19 13:39:42 GMT from Europe)
One poll that I would be interested to see hosted on distrowatch is the use of live cds / dvds. I believe it was Knoppix that first introduced of live distros that could be run from the disk and since then the practice has really taken off. It's not simply only a good way to test a distro before deciding to insatll, or not, but they also make great 'rescue' OS's as well as a way to saty anonomous online with distros like Tails. I'd be really interested to know if many other people use them - how and why.
45 • apropo de nada (by mike_in_louisiana on 2016-01-19 14:29:17 GMT from North America)
I just slipped a surplus Nvidia card in a discarded junk computer with a 12-year-old Dell bios on it. I installed Gentoo on the 20GB drive, put LightDM on top just because -- and it's running Openbox like a champ. And it occurred to me: five years ago I would not have had a clue about what I just wrote. Thank you Distrowatch and thanks to this community.
46 • Bloat (by pfb on 2016-01-19 18:44:13 GMT from North America)
I just bought a 64 Gb USB 3.0 drive. I would like to test it by using the most cumbersome distro (outside of windows) available. So the opposite of lean and mean should the king of bloat. Which is ???
Thanks.
47 • Fedora dropping 32 bit server (by Steve Bergman on 2016-01-19 21:21:09 GMT from North America)
Fedora has a quality assurance team? Really? They could actually drop the whole server spin and no one would notice. No sane admin would use Fedora for a server.
48 • Tor in a virtual machine through a VPN cryptographic tunnel (by Oxynewbie on 2016-01-19 22:13:21 GMT from South America)
Is it possible to run an ISO image of Tails Linux inside a VirtualBox virtual HDD?
How could I do it? (Hey Jesse Smith, what about an article on this subject?)
If I used a VPN (Virtual Private Network) in addition to a virtualized Tails, would I be even more protected against the NSA and FBI spies?
49 • Tails in a virtual machine (by Jesse on 2016-01-19 22:25:12 GMT from North America)
@48: You can absolutely run Tails inside VirtualBox. It works just like any other live CD in that respect. However, Tails is not meant to be installed on a hard drive (virtual or otherwise) as doing so would remove the point of using Tails to begin with.
And to answer your question about Tails + a VPN, the answer is no.
50 • @46 Bloat (by Ben Myers on 2016-01-19 22:26:50 GMT from North America)
Most of the full-featured distros that provide all the bells and whistles and programs can easily fit on a 4.7GB DVD, having outgrown a 700MB CD long ago. 64-bit distros are bigger than comparable 32-bit distros.
The 64-bit Linux Mint Cinnamon 17.3 occupies ~1.5GB on my hard drive.
Using YUMI, you can cram 20 or even 30 distros onto that 64GB USB drive, if it's a flash drive.
51 • Virtualized Tails data flux passing through a VPN server (by Oxynewbie on 2016-01-19 23:08:31 GMT from South America)
"And to answer your question about Tails + a VPN, the answer is no."
Let me try to explain it better:
My intent is configuring the VPN inside the operating system that actually runs VirtualBox, not inside Tails. If it be impossible anyway, maybe I could configure the VPN in a first computer, then run VirtualBox in a second computer (connected to the first one by means of a second NIC configured with an internal IP address). Something like what Microsoft calls "ICS" (Internet Connection Sharing). So the data flux generated by the second ("internal") computer would be routed through the first computer (the one accessing the VPN cryptographic tunnel).
Well, I don't know how to explain it better, and English is difficult to me. Excuse me. I'm just a stupid n00b with only 17 years of age.
52 • Kwort (by Dac on 2016-01-20 00:11:45 GMT from North America)
Jesse, Did you try building from source; prt-get depinst ? Since Kwort is based on crux, it ought to have crux ports installed. Crux ports work really slick. Better than Slackware slackbuilds IMO. I believe Kwort should be a lot like crux except easier to install because you are not required to compile your own kernel as you are with crux.
53 • kernel keyring flaw, heavyweight distros (by frodopogo on 2016-01-20 02:03:14 GMT from North America)
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3024254/security/linux-kernel-flaw-endangers-millions-of-pcs-servers-and-android-devices.html?google_editors_picks=true
Be sure to check for and install kernel updates!
@46
Of the popular desktops, KDE is generally considered the most resource hungry, followed by Cinnamon. So maybe Kubuntu or Mint KDE 17.3.
54 • 46 • (pfb | NA) (by Somewhat Reticent on 2016-01-20 02:04:33 GMT from North America)
Bloat, Cumbersome - please define your terms and intent. Perhaps you are looking for a benchmarking toolset? If so, consider Phoronix; they like to exercise hardware.
There are several (cross-platform) tools for putting multiple ISOs on one large device: YUMI, MultiBootUSB, & Easy2Boot to name a few. Sometimes it's nice to reserve space for persistence as well.
55 • Tracking Protection in Wi-Fi Networks (by eavesdropper stopper on 2016-01-20 04:25:40 GMT from Europe)
"Fedora 24 NetworkManager 1.2 to Offer Tracking Protection in Wi-Fi Networks by randomizing the Mac address. Mr. Rintel explains how your devices are being identified by the MAC address - which is, in most cases, broadcasted everywhere you go before you even attempt a connection to a wireless network... Apple is already using this method in iOS and so is Microsoft in Windows 10"
It's about time devs recognized this problem. It shows that Linux is not always ahead in technology. The only distro that takes into account eavesdropping is Freepto. It doesn't force the wifi on by default. Kudos to the devs for keeping up with hacker tricks.
56 • 42 • re pulseaudio by Newby (by archvortex on 2016-01-20 05:45:20 GMT from Asia)
I rebuilt the 4 alsa packages. Go into the slackbuilds for each package and remove anything referring to pulseaudio, rebuild, remove pulseaudio, the alsa packages and anything else that was installed for pulse. Remove the asound.conf from /etc and replace with an asoundrc file pointing to 0 or 1 or ? depending on your card. Install your new packages and hopefully it works. It may not be the best way to do it but it worked for me. Then blacklist the packages you don't want in your system and the alsa packages in slackpkg. Obviously the packages will need to be rebuilt if there is an upgrade to them. It took me about 15 minutes to do and I'm slow. Good luck!
57 • 42 • re pulseaudio by Newby (by archvortex on 2016-01-20 06:10:05 GMT from Asia)
If you use Plasma it's going to get real messy to get rid of pulse and if you use Xfce you need to add back the default mixer plugin
58 • re Pulseaudio (by Newby on 2016-01-20 08:46:17 GMT from North America)
@56 + 57 archvortex
Thanks, really appreciate the info - gets down to the actual specifics I needed. Since I don't use KDE, gather that means I won't be using Plasma, so at least THAT won't be a further complication.
Presently using Slackware 14.1. Haven't had a chance to try current yet, and by the time I get a spare PC (about 8 weeks), Slackware 14.2 may have been officially released. Looked at my /etc in 14.1, and interesting, NO asound.conf, or any other asound files. There IS an alsa subdirectory, and sound works fine. When using XFCE instead of Fluxbox, there IS a selection for mixer which allows selecting alsa or oss, and that presently works fine. So I guess the /etc/asound.conf is part of what has changed in the new release?
Aside from that bit of confusion, your instructions are clear and helpful. Thanks.
The reason for the caution on my part, is I like to experiment on a spare (or backup) system before "hosing" the main working system. And a "spare" (as pointed out) is about 8 weeks off. I do have backup of main system, but one learns best by having accidents and "blowing things up". (Also saves one's sanity and delays onset of grey hair). Hence the wait for the "sacrificial system".
Just occurred to me that trying things out in a virtual system SHOULD be another option. Should probably spring for some extra memory chips so that would become a possibility.; but the "sacrificial option" with a spare PC has a 100% sanity saving record. Of course, one could argue that none of us who spend all our time with computers is completely sane....(think what that means for those working on "artificial intelligence". Truly frightening......)
59 • IMPORTANT_distinction_of_blocked_comments_on_TOR_and_Tails (by k on 2016-01-20 10:20:11 GMT from Europe)
@32 Re Tor and Leaving comments... by tom joad
You wrote: "I have never had any issues at leaving comments anywhere using Tor or Tails."
Since the 3 others of us (comments 28-30) were able to leave comments USING TOR and Tails, obviously the block of comments ABOUT TOR and Tails was not caused by usage error of TOR or Tails. In fact, the block was at the Distrowatch Weekly server, as notified by the TOR browser on Tails. That is why comment #33 was posted the following day by DWW.
60 • Re:Pulse Audio and Alsa (by archvortex on 2016-01-20 13:02:24 GMT from Asia)
With alsa, you usually don't need an asound.conf or asoundrc but because Pat included it for pulse you need one. It's easy enough to find one online. One thing, if you use LXDE and I'm imagining Xfce also, you need to keep keybinder in for the panel. I use volti for Fluxbox and have no problems. LXDE automagically put volti in the system tray.
As long as you don't blacklist anything until you have alsa working, you can always fix mistakes by slackpkg install-new if you've removed packages and slackpkg will pull those packages back in and you start over. I keep notes while I do stuff like this so I can go back and correct mistakes
61 • Bloat - 54 (by pfb on 2016-01-20 13:17:21 GMT from North America)
My intent is to run a linux system on a USB thumb drive. I have Mageia installed on a 32 Gb drive (although it was recommended that 40Gb was a minumum requirement). It is very slow to start, but runs fine after powering up.
I bought a 64 Gb thumb to cure the slowness (hopefully). And I thought to make a test of the drive, I would install the biggest distro I could find to see if 64 Gb is adequate.
I am thinking that a distro that does everything, or at least claims to do everything, would be perfect. Opensuse and Sabayon come to mind. But I ask, in case someone knows of a distro that is much larger in drive requirements.
62 • bloat (by peer on 2016-01-20 13:27:20 GMT from Europe)
@61: perhaps is Ultimate a good os for you. It seems a very complete os.
63 • @61 (by dbrion on 2016-01-20 15:22:48 GMT from Europe)
Well, you mess up RAM consumption and disk consumption. A somewhat easy to eat RAM is to have KDE applications (need KDE libraries) + Gnome applications (need Gnome libraries) launched together (whatever the DE, a compatibility layer is needed + two DE specific libraries). If not launched, why should they eat a lot of RAM?.
BTW : you can install MAgeia or FEdora on a 16 GB thumbdrive (you do not need each and every application) from a 700M/ca 1G iso and manage to have huge data (if any... think of videos) on an exernal drive.... I prefered 32 G to have much space left for data .. and noticed my 64 G thumdrive was not reliable (and more than twice more expensive than 32 G thumbrives : this means, IMO, that it is very recent design, not yet fully reliable).
64 • 61 • Performance from USB flash drive (by Fossilizing Dinosaur on 2016-01-20 15:25:32 GMT from North America)
A properly tuned system will do well from a stick; some are designed with this in mind. Boot speed is related to size of files, and processes required, at startup; but it isn't everything. If the system can operate entirely from RAM, it may be more responsive. Much depends on how you plan to use the system, hardware specs, and possibly internet connection quality - several systems aim at forensics or maintenance (on both 32-bit and 64-bit hardware), others focus on "cloud" interaction, rather than general-purpose use.
For that matter, a good USB 3.0 device often performs better than a USB 2.0 device, even when in a USB 2.0 port.
How you store data (persistence) is also a factor. A special 'persistence' file can hold all your data in one compressed file, but may take longer to startup and especially to shut down properly. Storage methods for flash media are a bit different from those for spinning rust (hard drives). Sometimes it's handy to have a separate portable hard drive for larger amounts of data.
65 • @61 (Linux in pendrive) (by Oxynewbie on 2016-01-20 15:50:42 GMT from South America)
pfb wrote:
"My intent is to run a linux system on a USB thumb drive. I have Mageia installed on a 32 Gb drive (although it was recommended that 40Gb was a minumum requirement). It is very slow to start, but runs fine after powering up."
By using a program like UNetbootin, Rufus, YUMI, or any other that makes a FRUGAL INSTALL of a Linux LiveCD/DVD in pendrive, you get a copy of that LiveCD/DVD in a pendrive. In other words, you get a "LiveUSB", and then you cannot use it as a normal install.
So it would be preferable to make a REAL INSTALL (the "file system" of a distro) by directly using the installer of that distro. I have antiX MX-14 installed in a very old 4GB USB device. It boots in much less time than the original LiveCD..
66 • • 65 "Frugal" install (by Fossilizing Dinosaur on 2016-01-20 20:50:37 GMT from North America)
"…you cannot use it as a normal install." - unless it can load into RAM, in which case you can install right over its prior setup, or just adjust its partitioning and install on space available.
And then, for real geeks, there's the "bootstrap" method…
67 • @66 (Frugal Install) (by Oxynewbie on 2016-01-20 22:39:45 GMT from South America)
"- unless it can load into RAM, in which case you can install right over its prior setup, or just adjust its partitioning and install on space available."
I didn't understand. (I must really be a stupid noob! :)
As I have found, there's a big difference between a frugal install (also called "fromiso") and a real install. The former is a reproduction of the LiveCD/DVD ISO image, and the latter is the own file system of the distro.
BOTH the frugal AND the real installs load into RAM. But the frugal install loads a "ramdisk" image of the system, while the real install loads the file system itself. Thus you CAN modify the real install, something you CANNOT do with the frugal install, EVEN IF YOU HAVE A "PERSISTENCE" FILE TO (UN)INSTALL SOFTWARE AND/OR COPY/REMOVE FILES, because the "ramdisk" image CANNOT BE MODIFIED. And it is exactly what loads into RAM in the first place.
That said, I suggest everybody makes REAL INSTALLS instead of FRUGAL INSTALLS when decide using a USB thumbdrive with Linux. They are much more flexible, and they load into RAM much faster than a LiveCD/DVD. Better yet: No need to use "persistence", because the entire pendrive is modifiable (i.e., writable).
By the way, I also have an 8GB pendrive with a Scientific Linux 6.5 real install that uses a /boot partition and an LVM partition. I think it's impossible in a frugal install...
68 • @64, 65 : Mageia and Fc do not need persistance (by dbrion on 2016-01-21 10:30:52 GMT from Europe)
One can install (i.e package manager works, as if it were a rotating disk) on a thumbdrive: just select the pendrive instead of the HD. It is very different from unetbootin and its sisters (and persistence files).... One should remove the swap partition (repeated writes wears out flash) and 16-32 G thumbrives could live a long time.
Special stuctures on flash drives (i.e one should try to avoid repeated writes, slow and long term destructive) are discussed, for RPi, in http://www.blaess.fr/christophe/2015/12/08/creation-dun-systeme-complet-avec-buildroot-2015-11/ (boot sector is fatfs, as it is needed by RPis starter; /usr is read only, unless su decides to remount it for writing new stuff; /home is .. fat, as it seems very robust and fast -even 8 bits controllers can cope with fatfs-)
69 • GNU in Alpine and VOID Linux (by PePa on 2016-01-21 15:36:59 GMT from Asia)
Not using the GNU C library doesn't mean that other GNU packages aren't being distributed. They are just linked against the musl C library, and there are lots of Gnome and other GNU applications in both Alpine and VOID.
70 • Frugal Install (by Fossilizing Dinosaur on 2016-01-22 07:52:53 GMT from North America)
A "frugal install" normally involves copying an ISO image to some drive, and then setting up a "persistence file" to contain a compressed version of changes thereto. One feature of this is that it can be inserted into an existing partition's filesystem; another is preservation of the initial system setup.
Customization of an ISO image is a different topic.
Last I checked, musl is optional at The Void, as are Mate, Xfce, Enlightenment, LxDE & LxQt.
(No, Oxynewbie is not "stupid" - everyone is born with limited knowledge.)
71 • Using Tor Poll (by TimeInABottle on 2016-01-23 08:46:43 GMT from North America)
I have used Tor and it worked well. It keeps the snoops away and happy to keep using it more often than not. If it is true that the US Gov't is involved with the developing of Tor, there should be a huge disclaimer on the front of the home page website. ;)
Number of Comments: 71
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