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Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: gustono on July 07, 2012, 11:58 am

Title: How to use PGP on Tails?
Post by: gustono on July 07, 2012, 11:58 am
Haven't seen a thread on this and need to find out how to use it before I place another order.
Title: Re: How to use PGP on Tails?
Post by: Wazup7 on July 08, 2012, 10:29 pm
You can use Tails to create a LiveUSB--Applications --> Tails --> Tails USB Installer --> Clone and Install.

Once it's on USB, boot into your LiveUSB, and go to Tails --> Configure Persistent Volume.  This creates an Truecrypt encrypted partition on the USB stick that sits alongside the main LiveUSB parition.  Then, you would can just create a private key like you normally would through the gnome keyring, and it will remain on your USB, and be persisted each time you boot from it. 

I was wondering the same thing when I first started using Tails, as they originally didn't have that functionality, and I had to copy over my private key, which I had saved on a seperate encrypted USB, each time I wanted to place an order or send an encrypted message.
Title: Re: How to use PGP on Tails?
Post by: BigScrote on July 09, 2012, 12:10 am
Haven't seen a thread on this and need to find out how to use it before I place another order.

It took me a while. Thank goodness for Guru - he patiently walked me through it.

I'm speaking as a complete Linux-noob, so I'm going to type this out the way I'd want someone to show me. So yeah, not so technical.

At the top left of your screen you see a red swirl, Applications, Places, System.
Click on System.
Under preferences you'll see "password and encryption". Click on it. You will be required to generate a new key for yourself before you can import anyone else's. I may have made that up, but it seems that I had to. Then just copy their PGP key and paste it in the open window where you generated your key. That's the first part.

Under the red swirl, select Accessories and then gedit Text Editor. Type your business in there. Under edit, select Encrypt. You will then see a list of PGP keys you have. Select the box with the one you want, and hit enter. Boom - it's encrypted and you're done.


Oh, if you want to save all these after you shut down, you'll have to create a partition (it'll save some data to your USB key, to be unlocked with a password upon starting up). I can't remember how off-hand, but it's not that tough.

Title: Re: How to use PGP on Tails?
Post by: Wazup7 on July 09, 2012, 04:36 pm
Is the LiveUSB with a persistent partition insecure in some way that I don't know of? 

Is there a benefit of manually backing up the keyring, rather than using the Tails bulit-in persistent drive to back up the keyring (and your home folder, etc.)?
Title: Re: How to use PGP on Tails?
Post by: Wazup7 on July 09, 2012, 05:13 pm
Ahh I gotcha, Guru.  Thanks for clearing that up.  ;)

Backing up the whole keyring...I originally had only backed up my secret key, and would re-add any public keys from other users as I needed them.  I guess backing up the whole keyring would have saved me some time...

But, like you said, the USB persistent partition works fine for me, so I'm gonna stick with that. 

On a more general note, Gustono, always make sure you are using the lastest version of Tails.