Tails report for June, 2020 [1]

RELEASES

Tails 4.7 was released on June 2 [2]:

*

Make the installation of Additional Software more robust. (#17278 [3]) *

Clarify the error message when entering an incorrect password to unlock a VeraCrypt volume: _Wrong passphrase or parameters_ instead of _Error unlocking volume_. (#17668 [4]) *

Clean up confusing comments in /etc/tor/torrc. (#17706 [5])

Tails 4.8 was released on June 30 [6]:

*

We disabled the _Unsafe Browser_ by default and clarified that the _Unsafe Browser_ can be used to deanonymize you [7]. *

We added a new feature of the Persistent Storage to save the settings from the Welcome Screen.

This feature is beta and only the additional setting to enable the _Unsafe Browser_ is made persistent. The other settings (language, keyboard, and other additional settings) will be made persistent in Tails 4.9 (July 28). *

Fix the _Find in page_ feature of _Thunderbird_. (#17328 [8]) *

Fix shutting down automatically the laptop when resuming from suspend with the Tails USB stick removed. (#16787 [9]) *

Notify always when MAC address spoofing [10] fails and the network interface is disabled. (#17779 [11]) *

Fix the import of OpenPGP public keys in binary format (non armored) from the _Files_ browser.

Tails 4.9 is scheduled for July 28 [12].

CODE

*

Adapted our test suite to our new homepage and to GitLab. (#17718 [13], #17719 [14]) *

Upgraded to tor 0.4.3. (#17741 [15]) *

Automated post-release GitLab updates with gitlab-triage [16]. (#17589 [17], !36 [18])

DOCUMENTATION AND WEBSITE

*

@syster added a favicon to our website. (!37 [19]) *

Documented the letterboxing feature of _Tor Browser_ [20]. (#17227 [21])

*

Interviewed 4 more candidates to the Technical Writer job offer [22]. *

Added a shortcut on top of the cloning instructions [23] for people who are already in Tails. *

Reported a bug upstream to Etcher [24] about Windows manipulating the system partition, leading to a failed verification. (#17634 [25])

HOT TOPICS ON OUR HELP DESK

*

A lot of people complained about having trouble starting Tails with [AMD/ATI] Renoir GPUs, but it seems that a kernel update fixed that problem in Tails 4.8 [26]. *

Some MacBook users reported that Tails fails to boot with some recent MacBooks [27]. A workaround was proposed but people were then affected by their key combinations [28] or mouse and keyboard [29] not being supported by GRUB. *

There were still a couple of users reporting having problems to import public PGP keys in Seahorse [30].

INFRASTRUCTURE

*

Decommissioned the system that used to host our Redmine. *

Made it possible for core community members to propose changes to our GitLab configuration with a merge request. (#17753 [31])

FUNDING

* Submitted a full proposal to the OTF Core Infrastructure Fund [32] to improve the user experience of connecting to Tor [33] and using Tails to circumvent censorship.

OUTREACH

Published leaflets and their source on the website:

* tails-leaflet-english.pdf [34] * tails-leaflet-french.pdf [35] * tails-leaflet-italian.pdf [36] * tails-leaflet-portuguese.pdf [37] * tails-leaflet-spanish.pdf [38]

PAST EVENTS

* El Barracon Digital from El Progreso, Honduras, organized an international online webinar on Tails: Privacidad y Anonimato Con Tails [39].

UPCOMING EVENTS

* El Rancho Electronico is organizing 2 online workshops about Tails [40] on July 14 and July 21.

PRESS AND TESTIMONIALS

*

2020-06-23: Privacy-Focused OS Wants to Know How Facebook and the FBI Hacked it [41] by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai in Motherboard. *

2020-06-10: Facebook Helped the FBI Hack a Child Predator [42] by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai in Motherboard.

TRANSLATIONS

ALL THE WEBSITE

* fr: 84% (5415) strings translated, 8% strings fuzzy * es: 47% (3072) strings translated, 8% strings fuzzy * de: 30% (1988) strings translated, 13% strings fuzzy * it: 28% (1808) strings translated, 10% strings fuzzy * fa: 22% (1474) strings translated, 13% strings fuzzy * pt: 22% (1418) strings translated, 9% strings fuzzy

CORE PAGES OF THE WEBSITE [43]

* fr: 83% (1709) strings translated, 10% strings fuzzy * es: 77% (1585) strings translated, 10% strings fuzzy * it: 50% (1043) strings translated, 20% strings fuzzy * de: 50% (1041) strings translated, 21% strings fuzzy * pt: 39% (815) strings translated, 14% strings fuzzy * fa: 20% (415) strings translated, 15% strings fuzzy

CORE PAGES OF THE WEBSITE FOR LANGUAGES NOT ACTIVATED ON THE WEBSITE YET

* zh_TW: 25% (447) strings translated, 12% strings fuzzy * zh: 12% (224) strings translated, 6% strings fuzzy * ru: 8% (160) strings translated, 5% strings fuzzy * pl: 8% (149) strings translated, 4% strings fuzzy * tr: 8% (148) strings translated, 4% strings fuzzy * ar: 7% (132) strings translated, 5% strings fuzzy * ca: 7% (131) strings translated, 5% strings fuzzy * id: 5% (99) strings translated, 3% strings fuzzy * sr_Latn: 4% (80) strings translated, 2% strings fuzzy

METRICS

* Tails has been started more than 926 605 times this month. This makes 30 887 boots a day on average.

How do we know this? [44]

Links: ------ [1] https://tails.boum.org/news/report_2020_06/ [2] https://tails.boum.org/news/version_4.7/index.en.html [3] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17278 [4] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17668 [5] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17706 [6] https://tails.boum.org/news/version_4.8/index.en.html [7] https://tails.boum.org/doc/anonymous_internet/unsafe_browser/index.en.html#s... [8] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17328 [9] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/16787 [10] https://tails.boum.org/doc/first_steps/welcome_screen/mac_spoofing/index.en.... [11] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17779 [12] https://tails.boum.org/contribute/calendar/ [13] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17718 [14] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17719 [15] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17741 [16] https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-triage [17] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17589 [18] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/merge_requests/36 [19] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/merge_requests/37 [20] https://tails.boum.org/doc/anonymous_internet/Tor_Browser/index.en.html#lett... [21] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17227 [22] https://tails.boum.org/jobs/technical_writer/ [23] https://tails.boum.org/install/clone/index.en.html [24] https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/issues/3197 [25] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17634 [26] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17759#note_152260 [27] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17775 [28] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17791 [29] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/13576 [30] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17183 [31] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17753 [32] https://www.opentech.fund/funds/core-infrastructure-fund/ [33] https://tails.boum.org/blueprint/network_connection/ [34] https://tails.boum.org/contribute/how/promote/material/leaflets/tails-leafle... [35] https://tails.boum.org/contribute/how/promote/material/leaflets/tails-leafle... [36] https://tails.boum.org/contribute/how/promote/material/leaflets/tails-leafle... [37] https://tails.boum.org/contribute/how/promote/material/leaflets/tails-leafle... [38] https://tails.boum.org/contribute/how/promote/material/leaflets/tails-leafle... [39] https://barracondigital.org/webinar-internacional-privacidad-y-anonimato-con... [40] https://ranchoelectronico.org/taller-tails-de-nuevo-pero-ahora-en-linea/ [41] https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/dyz3jy/privacy-focused-os-tails-wants-to-... [42] https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/v7gd9b/facebook-helped-fbi-hack-child-pre... [43] https://tails.boum.org/contribute/l10n_tricks/core_po_files.txt [44] https://tails.boum.org/support/faq/index.en.html#boot_statistics