Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: TA on August 14, 2013, 01:39 am

Title: Windows 8 help
Post by: TA on August 14, 2013, 01:39 am
Does anyone have experience with tails and windows 8? Im sitting here about to bang my head off the wall with this damn OS. I figured out how to get my tails dvd to boot by disabling secure boot but it wont even read my usb. On an older computer with Vista, the usb boots up to the point of the white loading bar then it freezes. Anyone have any suggestions??
Title: Re: Windows 8 help
Post by: kwantum on August 14, 2013, 03:17 am
You're not alone! I've spent 5+ hours trying to boot TAILS on my Windows 8 laptop. My laptop is currently running Win7 and BIOS is on "Legacy Mode", and I still can't get it to boot. Hopefully someone has an answer.
Title: Re: Windows 8 help
Post by: kwantum on August 14, 2013, 03:23 am
    3. I was attempting to create a TAILS 0.20 bootable USB by using a DVD, and then cloning to a USB. I managed to do both these steps, but when I tried to boot the live USB on a Windows 8 laptop (that's now currently Win7), it didn't detect the USB in the BIOS, and it said "Operation system not found" when I pressed "ESC" on the TrueCrypt screen. I then tried it on another laptop (3-4 year old one) and it worked perfectly. Does TAILS not work on Windows 8? I searched high and low for answers, but there's not much helpful information on this.

Tails doesn't support hardware that requires EFI boot.  It's hit or miss sometimes, and with Win8 hardware, it's often miss.  Ditto with Apple, but I believe there's a method for building Tails sticks for Apple machines.

Hope that helps. Just another reason to hate Windows.
Title: Re: Windows 8 help
Post by: TA on August 14, 2013, 04:40 am
Is it the usb you cant get to boot or the dvd? I can help you get a dvd to boot if you cant, thats one thing I figured out. Just not the dvd. Let me know.
Title: Re: Windows 8 help
Post by: kwantum on August 14, 2013, 04:48 am
Is it the usb you cant get to boot or the dvd? I can help you get a dvd to boot if you cant, thats one thing I figured out. Just not the dvd. Let me know.

I got the DVD to work, no problems at all. It's just the USB that's causing me issues. There are too many extraneous variables for me to bother on a UEFI laptop.
Title: Re: Windows 8 help
Post by: Hitch on August 14, 2013, 06:57 am

   Hi :) sorry if you're already doing this, but I got tails running from dvd and then to usb on my friend's win8 system by switching from UEFI boot mode to legacy bios. It's not possible to boot win8 in legacy so you had to keep switching back and forth between legacy and UEFI, but it works like a charm.

   If you want more details happy to help, Hitch.
Title: Re: Windows 8 help
Post by: ixcc on August 14, 2013, 08:06 am
How did you create your USB? I always use "Universal USB Installer" from Pendrivelinux which is a free program, it has always produced bootable USB drives for me.
Title: Re: Windows 8 help
Post by: Hitch on August 14, 2013, 08:09 am


  No, Tails doesn't like being installed on a usb by any program but the usb cloner in the Tails OS. You get the tails iso onto a dvd, run the dvd and then clone the OS from the DVD onto a usb.
Title: Re: Windows 8 help
Post by: ixcc on August 14, 2013, 08:13 am
I have never used Tails, thanks for the clarification.
Title: Re: Windows 8 help
Post by: Hitch on August 14, 2013, 08:20 am

  All good  :)
Title: Re: Windows 8 help
Post by: BlackIris on August 14, 2013, 08:24 am

   Hi :) sorry if you're already doing this, but I got tails running from dvd and then to usb on my friend's win8 system by switching from UEFI boot mode to legacy bios. It's not possible to boot win8 in legacy so you had to keep switching back and forth between legacy and UEFI, but it works like a charm.

   If you want more details happy to help, Hitch.

That's the #1 reason why I don't like Windows 8 (well, apart the others having to do with Microsoft in general, but I'm talking here in the specific). Yes, it's true that UEFI is much faster to boot but it is a too much pain in the arse. To boot in safe mode is a matter of a quantum mechanic degree, to boot on certain peripherals you have to switch to legacy, no multi-boot etc. etc.

Moreover all that Metro thing in W8 is just annoying in the end. It can be fun to dabble with it at beginning but after a while it just becomes a burden. Let's see what Microsoft will do for Windows 9; I really hope it will do a good move just for once and revert to a desktop modus operandi for people having desktops and not a touch system for everyone.
Title: Re: Windows 8 help
Post by: Bazille on August 14, 2013, 12:44 pm
I've installed Tails on 2 USB sticks. On one it did boot right away, for the other one I had to use the boot menu of my BIOS (pressing F8 during boot). Though that may depend on the options I've selected in the Tails USB installer.
Title: Re: Windows 8 help
Post by: TA on August 14, 2013, 10:22 pm
I used the cloner inside tails to make mine. I finally got the usb to start booting but it freezes when it gets to the end of the white loading bar. Does the same thing on my Vista laptop. I dont know how the hell else Im going to securely store my pgp keys. I could encrypt with truecrypt on a seperate flashdrive but without truecrypt on tails dvd I have no way to mount the device and retrieve them. I really need that persistant volume.......
Title: Re: Windows 8 help
Post by: Bazille on August 14, 2013, 10:44 pm
Maybe you should have a look at Whonix instead. You can install that on an encrypted USB stick and all changes are persistnt. I'm trying it right now, so I can't tell you much about it yet.
Title: Re: Windows 8 help
Post by: TA on August 14, 2013, 11:50 pm
Yea Im thinking of looking into something diferent. Whonix is on that list. Question: Has anyone used Truecrypt portable? It is my understanding that having truecrypt on the computer (or tails dvd) isnt required. That could be a solution to encrypted storage and using a tails dvd.
Title: Re: Windows 8 help
Post by: Bazille on August 15, 2013, 02:16 pm
I'm currently writing a step-by-step tutorial how to install Whonix on an encrypted USB stick using portable TrueCrypt and portable VirtualBox. I will probably post it later today, or tomorrow.
Title: Re: Windows 8 help
Post by: kwantum on August 15, 2013, 04:29 pm
I'm currently writing a step-by-step tutorial how to install Whonix on an encrypted USB stick using portable TrueCrypt and portable VirtualBox. I will probably post it later today, or tomorrow.

That tutorial will be extremely helpful, I look forward to it!
Title: Re: Windows 8 help
Post by: TA on August 15, 2013, 08:39 pm
I GOT IT! Totally figured out the tails usb issue. Press tab on the first greeting screen to bring up the command line. Delete the "live-media=removable" part of the kernel command line. See if that helps.

Some recent USB sticks pretend they're not removable which is not compatible with tails. This isnt the end all solution but it worked for me!