Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: bbbaac on July 11, 2013, 12:22 am

Title: Bootable Encrypted Miniature USB Stick
Post by: bbbaac on July 11, 2013, 12:22 am
I have one but cant get it to work on mac
Title: Re: Bootable Encrypted Miniature USB Stick
Post by: Choniven on July 11, 2013, 03:30 am
Which point are you getting stuck at?
Title: Re: Bootable Encrypted Miniature USB Stick
Post by: heatcheck on July 11, 2013, 05:37 am
I've tried to get Tails to work on my mac too.

And scoured the internet for answers.

And posted on these forums for a solution.


But frankly, at this point I just don't think one exists. The computer resists booting from a USB (which makes no sense because they sent out the last OS on USBs).

Someone posted that they got it to work using a burnt disk instead of a USB. Maybe try that and just use the USB as a persistent drive? Not as quick and easy, but it may work.
Title: Re: Bootable Encrypted Miniature USB Stick
Post by: Sweetwilliam on July 11, 2013, 03:24 pm
I have heard of people successfully doing it - while others can't it to work using the identical procedures. I think it must have to do with individual models...

The reason that it doesn't want to boot on the Mac - and also Windows 8 - is that they both use EFI booting systems instead of BIOS. I'll post a link from the Tails online documentation with the procedure on doing this. It does involve installing some software that modifies the EFI system which is on the logic board like firmware. So, since you are modifying the boot loader for the Mac, there is a slight risk that if something gets messed up during the install that your Mac won't boot at all - even back to OS X, external drive, anything... I don't know how you go about resurrecting a bricked logic board - but it doesn't sound like it's very easy...

But, here is the Tails document for the procedure:
https://tails.boum.org/doc/first_steps/manual_usb_installation/mac/index.en.html
Title: Re: Bootable Encrypted Miniature USB Stick
Post by: Sweetwilliam on July 11, 2013, 03:31 pm
I've been starting to think about just making an OS X bootable USB stick.

I think that with the TOR package installed on it and using bridges in Vidalia, that it could be a good alternative to Tails for a Mac, just because you don't have to monkey about with the boot loader. The big thing with Tails is that it doesn't store any history and also clears out all types of history on every reboot. I'm willing to bet that OS X settings could be tweaked enough to come close to this.

Also, I would want to look into encrypting the entire USB drive.

Now, I just need some time to play around with it all...
Title: Re: Bootable Encrypted Miniature USB Stick
Post by: bbbaac on July 11, 2013, 04:55 pm
so i downloaded the program refit and now whenever i turn my computer on i have the chance to pick which system to boot. now when i plug my usb stick in it says not able to boot. but there is tails on it. not sure now