I just tried to set up tails for the first time using a refurbished computer I got off Amazon, and got the secure boot violation. I had tried to disable the secure boot beforehand, but I must’ve missed something. Either way I got this notification. I read stories before of people not being able to fix this issue no matter what. I haven’t been able to update windows and bios has been off since I got it. Supposedly this computer doesn’t have the hardware to update properly for windows.

Does anyone know if there’s anything that I can do to fix this before I set up persistent storage? This just happened so I’m wondering if I can go back and undo it or something. If not, is there a fix?

For anyone that this has happened to, have you been able to return a refurbished computer with no issues? I imagine that they would wipe the computer right away.

I’d appreciate any advice here. Thanks!

Is tails persistent storage encryption very secure? Can some one at least give me the encryption algorithm used so I can do some research?

So ive been trying to boot tails for like a week now and i have downloaded tails in a usb done everything correctly as it is in the instructions and when i try to boot it i see grub i type boot and it says that i gotta load the kernel ive been tryn to look it up and i cant find nth usefull so my question is how do i load the kernel and what is it can sm1 help me please?

I have tried all the ports, even the eSATA port (oddly enough it mounts) didn't think that would work.

This is a 2TB USB-A flash drive made by Micro Center, take that as Inland. I have been successful before in running Tails on this drive before. I simply wanted to start over from MSDOS and FAT to GPT and exFAT.

According to Tails Doc link below you have to use "tab" or "e" during startup depending on if your running SYSlinux or Grub. After F12 the screen goes blank I don't have diagnostic on so after about x time (its a Thinkpad T420) you see the 3 small squares in the middle of the page indicating Tails is trying to start, then it fails with that message - Unable to find a medium containg a live file system. It never shows the screen depicted in the docs giving you a chance to try Tab or e.

I have a few other computers I can try it in, as I understand once you make the edit -live-media=removeable then that instructions stays with the usb stick and isn't just for that one time on that computer.

https://tails.net/doc/advanced_topics/external_hard_disk/index.en.html

Before I was shown the Grub screen, now Im just waiting in the dark and have tried immediately and randomly with no success. Any tricks of the trade appreciated.

Can someone please guide me on how to make an application i install on tail OS stay even when rebooted. Ive tried Gemini and ChatGPT and both have been useless making me go around in circles for hours. Its a flatpak I am trying to do this with.

So I want to keep my onion link for my website, but when I restart the computer for whatever reason I have to copy the backupfiles and place it back into .config/onionshare.

This isnt a huge issue but I tried to get this to work automatically with dotfiles. The files seem to go to the folder just fine on boot-up, but onionshare refuses to start. Just get a spinning wheel and then nothing. I have to continue moving the files manually from my storage.

Am I not understanding how dotfiles work? Am I a doomed soul to forever manually transfering my back up every start-up?

Thanks for the help!

Hey there,

i'm using an offline TailsOS Version on a thumb drive and it's electrum wallet (with my seed information in persistent storage) to sign transactions created in a watch-only-wallet. Setup is ~1,5a old, don't wanna reboot to check exactly.

I didn't see an update option that works while keeping your OS offline. E.g. saving the update files on another thumb drive.

My questions are:

- Is that correct, is there no way to update tails/electrum if you don't want to connect the setup to the internet.

- Do you just create a new bootable thumb drive and load your seedphrase in the new wallet if you want to update?

- Do i even need to update the setup in the forseeable future? Using tails/electrum to sign transactions created in watch-only-wallets. Doesn't really seem like it since it's all offline. At least until Electrum announces that older versions won't be comatible anymore.

Cheers!

I tried using the troubleshooting page but wasn't able to help myself, im not sure which specific AMD fix i should be trying for my gpu

trying to add boot options with the syslinux troubleshooter. is my gpu too old?

From my understanding, javascript over regular tor is unsafe because a) it makes you easier to fingerprint, and b) it opens up possibilities for zero-day exploits such as privilege escalations and remote code execution, which can in turn cause de-anonymization.

But, doesn't tails negate the effects of both of these things?

For fingerprinting, websites being able to identify a single tails user across different sites doesn't seem like that big of an issue to me as long as you practice good opsec. You shouldn't be giving away anything identifiable when using tails anyway, and your fingerprint is going to be different enough between your tails profile and your actual browser profile to obfuscate who you are.

For exploits, even if an attacker did manage to get a file onto your computer that pinged back to a non-tor server, wouldn't that just give the attacker your tails IP, since tails routes through tor at the os level? From a quick search online, only one exploit has ever been discovered that forced tails to run through the clearnet, which was done by starting "unsafe browser", a feature that has since been disabled by default.

1. What should be the storage capacity of the DVD-R for it to work?
2. Will it affect things like saving keyboard layout/country/language and persistent storage?
3. If i eject it will the current session be "self-destructed" like using a USB flash drive?
4. What else will change unlike booting from a flash drive?

update: burned it onto a single-layer DVD and it works! emergency shutdown works too.

I'm hoping someone has run into this before because I'm out of ideas.

Laptop

• Lenovo LOQ 15ARP9
• AMD Ryzen 7 7435HS
• NVIDIA RTX 4060 Laptop GPU
• BIOS: PQCN30WW

USB

• SanDisk Ultra USB 3.0 (32 GB)

Tails

• Tails 7.9.1
• Downloaded directly from tails.net
• Image verification passed successfully

USB creation

• balenaEtcher initially failed with an etcher-util error.
• Switched to Rufus 4.15 (Run as Administrator).
• Flashed the official .img successfully.
• Rufus completed without errors.

BIOS

• USB Boot enabled
• UEFI enabled
• Secure Boot tested both enabled and disabled
• No Hybrid Graphics option (Discrete graphics only)

Boot behavior

• F12 boot menu detects the USB as "Linpus Lite (USB)".
• Selecting it never shows the Tails menu.
• It immediately drops to:

​

grub>

From the GRUB prompt:

ls

returns:

(proc) (memdisk) (hd0) (hd1) (hd1,gpt1) (hd1,gpt2) (hd1,gpt3) (hd1,gpt4)

ls (hd1,gpt1)/ returns:

efi/
boot/
System Volume Information/
$recycle.bin/

ls (hd1,gpt2)/
ls (hd1,gpt3)/
ls (hd1,gpt4)/

all return:

error: unknown filesystem

I've also:

• Recreated the USB multiple times.
• Verified the download.
• Used the latest Rufus.
• Tried Secure Boot both enabled and disabled.

Has anyone seen this on a Lenovo LOQ or another recent Lenovo laptop?

I'm wondering if this is:

• a firmware issue,
• a known Tails compatibility issue,
• or if I'm somehow still creating the USB incorrectly despite using the official .img.

Any ideas would be appreciated.I'm hoping someone has run into this before because I'm out of ideas.
Laptop

Thanks in advance!

Every time I try to create the user name, an error appears "Close Link: 171,25.... (***baned) Can someone help me?

Hi all,

I usually follow what's happening with Tails via their GitLab, but as of about a week ago it's unavailable. Trying to load it leads to a "Retry later" text. Is it visible for anyone here? If not, is it known why there would be an outage like this?

https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails

Just booted my tails and opened kleopaatra and all my certs are gone, including my own. Why would that be?

Any way to get mine back? Obviously it’s important to me…

I know TailsOS is x86-64 but there are github projects that have Tails running on Android phones using Termux. This got me thinking, ia there a way to get Tails to run on a Linux OS phone?

Wondering if Jolla bootloader will allow a USB-C SSD 2TB flash drive to boot? If it does not, would it allow it to boot if it was 1TB or on the micro SDcard? GSMarena site does not have many specs on this phone (specs from 12/2025). Specifically (comms) is thin on info, only USB-C but no further details such as OTG or 3.1 / 3.2, I'm guessing 3.0. I also hope micro SDXC card supports 1TB (usually the limit seems to be 512GB.

Being that AI is bringing a close to the personal PC market, I think we can all see the writing on the wall that personal desktops and laptops are going way a lot sooner than we would like. A simple search shows all vendors in personal PC market are suffering and not just a little, worst numbers ever. The AI overlords want us using terminal setups in our houses. It is the only way to kill/severely limit Local LLM/AI setups.

Anyway we are going to need Tails to migrate to mobile- (even old mobile tech like arm7 or maemo5) in a secure and permanent way and not via a one or two man team that will abandon it after a couple years like the current projects.

1TB requirement to run a node, since Tails already understands the importance of including electrum wallet in their basic necessities stack. I just wish it would include Chris Belchers EPS and not leave people hanging with having to connect directly the blockchain via Tor. Though I suppose you can opt for a pruned node in a pinch.

Thank you in advance for any feedback. (I cross posted to r/Jolla as well)

I am making secret website.

but I can't test the website using localhost.

how can I fix it?

Hey guys, every time I boot into my tails I get this message. Installation of your additional software failed?

Never had this before. Can anyone give me an advice?

Thanks 🙏

I'm new concerning linux stuff. I wanna use tails to keep photos on a safe place and to naviguate freely since the ChatContol text got voted. I wanna get as safe as i can since im in local political actions. Excuse my bad english, consider me aware of most cybersecurity basic knowledge.

i got tails on a 32Go USB Drive aswell as microsoft if thats important?

I can check on things if needed :)

Machine: Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 15ABR8, AMD Ryzen 5 5625U, BIOS up to date (KYCN42WW)

Symptom: A bootable USB drive (Tails/Debian) fails to boot on this PC — error message “Unable to find a medium containing a live file system”. In the kernel logs (dmesg), I see this message repeating in a loop:
usb 1-2: reset high-speed USB device number 2 using xhci_hcd
The device is briefly detected (it shows up correctly in the F12 boot menu with its proper name), but the connection fails as soon as it needs to actually read data from it.

Tests already done:
Tried on every USB-A port → same result
USB-A extension cable → same result
USB-C to USB-A adapter → same result
Updated to the latest available BIOS version → no change
This exact same USB drive works perfectly fine on a second, identical PC (same model)
A different USB drive (borrowed from a store) works normally on my PC

My question: Since my drive works fine elsewhere, and a different drive works fine on my machine, could this be a specific electrical/timing compatibility issue between this particular drive and my USB controller, rather than a general hardware failure? Has anyone seen this kind of selective behavior before? Any software angle worth exploring (Tails kernel, controller firmware) before going the warranty route?

Thanks in advance for any input!

I'm trying to boot Tails from a USB on an HP EliteBook 830 G7. The laptop originally came from my mom's company (Aon), so the BIOS is protected with an administrator password and I can't change the boot order or other BIOS settings.

Secure Boot is already disabled. The boot order has Windows Boot Manager listed first. When I press F9, I can see and select my Tails USB, but instead of booting Tails it either returns to Windows or fails to boot. Because the BIOS is locked, I can't move the USB above Windows Boot Manager to test if that makes a difference.

What's confusing is that I previously booted Kali Linux and Parrot OS from USB on this same laptop without changing the boot order, so I'm not sure why Tails won't boot.

Does anyone know what could be causing this? Could it be an issue with how the Tails USB was created, an HP firmware restriction, or something else?

Hey!

So my last USB died and I had to go through the process of re-downloading tails, monero, etc. and relogging into all of my stuff, because I lost my persistent storage. Sadly, I lost my kleopatra PGP stuff. Therefore I got a back up usb, so I'm wondering: can I copy and paste my main USB files to my back up USB? Will that keep all of the stuff I've saved? Eg: monero, kleopatra, etc.

Hope this makes sense!

Thanks!

Well, I reinstalled Tails OS into my thumb drive, I typed in my persistent store, and I wrote it down and took a photo of it. When I went to activate it again, I typed in the phrase correctly, but it wouldn't work. Did Tails forget the phrase already? Did I miss a step?

I am a first time user and had tried for a couple of weeks to get my 5 year old IdeaPad-5 to work. I tried multiple USB sticks. I flashed and refreshed the sticks. I turned off Secure Boot. I renumbered the priority on the drives. No matter what I did I was stuck at Bash Prompt and it just would not load. Finally this weekend I got it. The problem was the quick start from sleep. I had assumed if I held down the power button that it was fully powered off. I changed the power button from “sleep” to “shut down” and just like that it resolved. I had not seen this as
Part of the original instructions. There were lots of posts about BIOS and security and various other things. But I just had not seen that the default for the IdeaPad was always to sleep/hibernate and not to simply power off. Everything installed, no issues. I’m sure most are rolling their eyes at my noob attempt and solution (essentially turn it off and turn it on) but that simple answer was such an ah ha for this tech limited dude.

i know i know there have been A LOT OF POSTS about this topic and I also know that I can basically use any usb stick as long as it has 16gb storage . but as I want to buy a new usb stick for tails I would like to buy a good one so I am asking you to give me so recommandations based on what you are using. thanks

btw should i be worried buying usb sticks from amazon?