[tor-reports] Tails report for August, 2013

[Tails folks]

Hi,

here is the Tails report for August.

Releases
========

Tails 0.20 was released on the 9th of August.
Tails 0.20.1 release is scheduled for September 19.

<https://tails.boum.org/news/version_0.20/>
<https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-August/003502.html>

Metrics
=======

- 190 521 connections of Tails to the Tor network. This makes a boot
  every 14 seconds on average. This is an approximation from the
  requests made to the security announcements feed when Tails is
  connected to Tor.

- 93 non-empty bug reports were received through WhisperBack.

- 57 222 downloads of the OpenPGP signature of Tails ISO from
  our website.

Code
====

- A new contributor (a.kuckartz) has started to debug what appears to
  be incompatibilities between our Vagrant setup and the current state
  of Debian unstable.
  <https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/6221>

- Some initial steps were taken to get VirtualBox guest modules back.
  <https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/log/?h=bugfix/fix_virtualbox_dkms_build>
  <https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/5972>

- A branch to properly umount the persistent volume on shutdown was
  prepared. Thanks to Steven J. Murdoch for the useful bug report.
  <https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/log/?h=bugfix/unmount-persistent-volume-on-shutdown>
  <https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/6228>

- The additional software upgrade notification failure message now
  points the user to the system log so that they have a chance to
  debug it.
  <https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/log/?h=bugfix/additional-software-upgrade-failed-message>
  <https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/6211>

- The I2P IRC network preset in Pidgin was corrected.
  <https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/log/?h=bugfix/i2p-irc-in-pidgin>

- Some initial work to have a consistent persistence path was done.
  <https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/log/?h=feature/consistent-peristence-path>
  <https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/5854>

- Some sanity checks in our test suite were fixed. Another set of test
  suite improvements has seen progress.
  <https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/log/?h=test/fix-iso-reporting>
  <https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/log/?h=test/firewall-check-tag>
  <https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/>

- Starting with Tails 0.20.1, bug reports sent with WhisperBack will
  be sent to a dedicated (encrypted) mailing-list.
  <https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/log/?h=feature/tails-bugs>

- GnuPG now uses --no-emit-version.
  <https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/log/?h=feature/GnuPG-no-emit-version>

- Switch to Linux 3.10-2 from Debian unstable.
  <https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/log/?h=feature/linux-3.10-2>

Documentation and Website
=========================

- A new contributor (Vigdis) posted drafts to document why Tor is slow
  and update the persistence path in the documentation. Congrats!
  <https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-August/003421.html>
  <https://git-tails.immerda.ch/vigdis/tails/log/?h=doc/update-persistence-path>
  <https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/5641>

- A new contributor (carmie) proposed logo ideas. Thanks!
  <https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-August/003382.html>
  <https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/5797>

- The installation documentation was improved to mention USB sticks
  and SD card adapters with read-only switches. Some style
  improvements were done too.
  <https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/commit/?id=91b796c9180b26cc22460c62e2fe3dfbafce4d95>
  <https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/commit/?id=5fb52dfaed1fcd2dd40b4b93bcb5dd38bba32573>

- The website now advertises the use of Tails as a censorship
  circumvention tool, too.
  <https://tails.boum.org/about/>

- A workaround to verify ISO integrity on other operating systems
  was documented.
  <https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/commit/?id=91efa6597619e156fc764caece9a52c7f5c5624a>

- The manual USB installation documentation now recommends using `dd`
  instead of `cat` (so that those who need it can easily prefix it
  with `sudo`).
  <https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/commit/?id=58c80f43dc48c610bc847d12400b610e8fb0adfc>

- A revised cold-boot attack documentation was drafted and proposed
  for review.
  <https://git-tails.immerda.ch/mercedes508/tails/log/?h=doc/cold-boot-attack>
  <https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-August/003427.html>

- The shiny new tails-support mailing-list was documented.
  <https://tails.boum.org/support/>

- The news page now has a form to subscribe to amnesia-news and
  mentions Twitter.
  <https://tails.boum.org/news/>

On-going discussions
====================

- We further discussed carmie's proposals to improve the visibility of
  links on top of the contribute page.
  <https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-August/003367.html>
  <https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-July/003339.html>
  <https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/6165>

- Jacob Appelbaum started a discussion about Tahoe-LAFS, Tor and
  Tails. It should now be clear what kind of work is needed to make
  some integration possible.
  <https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-August/003393.html>

- It was suggested to tweak the GnuPG configuration in various ways.
  <https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-August/003468.html>

- We discussed how to handle divergence of bundled packages due to
  point-releases.
  <https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/2013-August/003492.html>

Infrastructure
==============

- To make our infrastructure more reliable, we are still organizing to
  get a system that will act as a fail-over for our main server.
  <https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/6185>

- We better shared access to the round-robin DNS that gathers our HTTP
  mirrors. (Many thanks to those who host the mirrors, by the way!)

- We created a bunch of sysadmin tickets as a step towards being able
  to ask for help in this area first, and towards being able to
  actually share the work with the volunteers that will show up once
  we have sent our call for help. Stay tuned!
  <https://labs.riseup.net/code/projects/tails/issues?query_id=113>

Funding
=======

- The short-term funding project we have with sponsor Bravo is still
  slowly going through the paperwork stage.

- The bounties program is moving forward (slower than we may have
  hoped, but still).

- We keep working on a funding proposal to be sent to sponsor Foxtrot.

Cheers,
-- 
Tails folks