r/tails • • 4d ago

News Tails 7.15 released with improved hardware support

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31 Upvotes

r/tails • • Feb 14 '21

Announcement Read before posting

121 Upvotes

Read before posting

Tails has very complete documentation, before posting, try to give it a look. It's likely to have the answer to your questions https://tails.boum.org/doc/.

A few common issues posted here that are already addressed in the documentation:

You can always check to see if your question is covered in the Tails FAQ https://tails.boum.org/support/faq/. It genuinely covers most things people think of. There is also the list of known issues https://tails.boum.org/support/known_issues/ and known issues for graphics cards https://tails.boum.org/support/known_issues/graphics/. There is a good chance your problem is already known.

Those few links are NOT an exhaustive list, but should cover >50% of the questions here. If you don't see the answer to your question, look directly to the documentation https://tails.boum.org/doc/. It may just be one or two clicks away.

  • If you are answering peoples questions, try to include the links to the documentation, so people can think about checking it :-)

  • There is no "best laptop" and "best usb" for Tails. Please don't make yet another post about that (there are already hundreds if not thousands of them).

  • 99% of USB sticks works with Tails. USB 3 ones will be faster.

  • A majority of computers works. Almost any 5-10 years old laptop should work, especially professional series (lenovo thinkpad (https://www.bobble.tech/free-stuff/used-thinkpad-buyers-guide), HP elitebook, Ubuntu/red hat/suse certified laptops)... In doubt, check Linux support before, qubes hcl (https://www.qubes-os.org/hcl/), and avoid chromebooks, recent Macs, brand new high end laptops with dedicated gpu.

  • Remember that your experience of a given machine or drive is anecdotal and others can have a different experiences. Don't write off something just because you couldn't get it work, others might have.

  • Remember Reddiquette always applies https://www.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/205926439. Also, while they are not supposed to apply here, because its an unofficial support channel, https://tails.boum.org/doc/first_steps/bug_reporting/, https://tails.boum.org/contribute/mission/ & https://tails.boum.org/contribute/working_together/code_of_conduct/ are good source of inspiration. Please be nice with people, and if you post about errors, things that "don't work", please try to describe them

  • Feel free to post remarks/suggests below. For questions, better to make a dedicated post.


r/tails • • 15h ago

FAQ - Read the Documentation Having trouble with booting a verified usb tails os

1 Upvotes

Hi guys, so I downloaded tails to a usb and verified it when I tried to boot the tails os it has put my computer into recovery mode. Unsure what mistakes I made as I followed directions from tails site. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks


r/tails • • 18h ago

Installation issues Having problems with Tails

1 Upvotes

I have tried several times flashing tails on a usb from windows and get the gnu grub. I read up on it and went the linux mint way and I'm still having the same problem. Any advice?


r/tails • • 22h ago

Boot issues Latest update crashed out my thunderbird.

0 Upvotes

Upgraded my tails today and when I did the installation of thunderbird failed. I had thunderbird previously loaded and idk what to do …


r/tails • • 2d ago

Debian/Linux question How do you know your files/documents aren't being written to the bootable USB?

8 Upvotes

Hi

This is a dumb question but how do I know that important documents/files aren't being written to the bootable usb's drive storage for either tails usb or ubuntu's try ubuntu feature on bootable usb? My understanding it's supposed to run on RAM only other than the usb's OS data.

Im not worried about the PC's internal drives because I will be removing them.

Is it as simple as looking at the usb drive's storage to see if your files appear there in some form? Or is that not effective?

Is there a permanent way to ensure data is never written to the bootsble usb?

Thank you


r/tails • • 3d ago

Installation issues Any safe manual update methods?

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4 Upvotes

It’s been awhile since I was into tor, i waited too long to update and after updating the very next version after what I used to be on, I successfully updated to the very next version after. Upon reboot on that version, the automatic update screen didn’t prompt without issue like it normally does and I got this instead. Which method has the lowest failure rate and what steps do I take to make the updates I need, happen? Any help appreciated


r/tails • • 7d ago

Solved MacBook pro 2018 internet issue

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25 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I have been trying to use tails from an usb stick in my mac.

But I don't even see the wifi symbol. kindly see the pictures.

I have tried several things like plugging on and off, usb tethering but none of it is working.

Also I can't use a mac keyboard and mouse, fortunately I have a mouse but it would be great if you have some solution for this too.

Thanks a ton you all.


r/tails • • 7d ago

Solved [Fix] No sound on ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 (Lunar Lake) with Tails 7.14:diagnosis and workaround

3 Upvotes

So I had zero audio on Tails 7.14 with my ThinkPad X9-15 Gen 1 (Core Ultra 226V). Took me a whole evening, but I finally got the speakers working, so I figured I’d post this in case someone else has the same laptop.

The card showed up fine (sof-soundwire, CS42L43 codec + two CS35L56 amps), but nothing played. Turned out to be three problems stacked on top of each other:

  • The SOF firmware shipped in Tails (2025.12) seems too new for the 6.12 kernel. dmesg was full of failed to create module drc.100.1 and then DSP panic!, and after that nothing worked until a reboot.
  • Tails doesn’t ship alsa-ucm-conf, so none of the mixer routing gets set up.
  • Even with an older firmware (sof-bin v2025.01.1, which doesn’t crash), the speaker audio comes in on SoundWire port DP6, but UCM routes DP5. I only figured that out by routing the codec’s speaker outputs directly to DP5, DP6 and DP7 while a test tone was playing. Only DP6 made noise.

What I ended up doing:

  • I put the sof-bin 2025.01.1 files (sof-ipc4/lnl, sof-ipc4-lib/lnl, sof-ipc4-tplg) on the Tails USB boot partition. It’s FAT, so you have to copy with cp -rL. Then I added firmware_class.path=/usr/lib/live/mount/medium/x9-firmware to the kernel line in the boot config, so the kernel loads those instead of the stock ones.
  • A small script in Dotfiles autostart sets the routing at login:
    • cs42l43 ASPTX1/2 Input to 15/16 (DP6)
    • AMPL/AMPR ASP1 TX Source to 9
    • cs42l43 Speaker L/R Input 1 to 7/8
    • all the speaker volumes to 0dB
  • I also put a WirePlumber rule in Dotfiles so it stops auto-probing the card, plus a manual PipeWire sink on hw:sofsoundwire,2. Don’t install alsa-ucm-conf with this setup, it puts the routing back to DP5.

Now the speakers just work on every boot, no admin password needed. The internal mic, headphone jack and HDMI aren’t set up though, and a Tails update will probably overwrite the boot config so I’ll have to redo that part. Also obviously messing with the boot partition isn’t supported, so do it at your own risk.

If anyone from the Tails team reads this: a SOF firmware that actually matches the kernel, shipping alsa-ucm-conf, and that DP5/DP6 thing are probably what needs looking at for Lunar Lake laptops with this codec. I can share full logs if that helps.


r/tails • • 6d ago

Debian/Linux question Pls help i can figur aut what to do

0 Upvotes

how do i sawe me passwords so i dont hev to log in egan end egen (for youtobe en youtobe music)


r/tails • • 7d ago

"Solved" - Not Supported I'm having trouble with TailsOS not booting when booting from a flash drive.

3 Upvotes

When I try to load the flash drive, an error appears:

[ 7.689917] nouveau 0000:2b:00.0: unknown chipset (1b6000a1)

I have other flash drives, but I would prefer to use this one as it contains more data than the rest and there were no other issues.

I'm using an RTX 5000 series card, I think this information is important.

Please ask for unprovided information, I will answer.


r/tails • • 8d ago

FAQ - Read the Documentation New user advice needed please

8 Upvotes

Hi all,

I’m currently about to set up a tailsOS usb tonight but everything I see online is people using windows.

Now I’m looking to run this on a Linux laptop I have but I can’t seem to find how to boot into the usb from Linux someone holds shift and restart for windows but I’m slightly lost for Linux.

Just wondering if this is usable and creatable on Linux


r/tails • • 8d ago

Help Can't access GitLab

5 Upvotes

Hi all,

Some weeks ago the Tails GitLab server (gitlab.tails.boum.org) went dark, presumably as part of the migration over to gitlab.tails.net. Now the old URL auto-forwards to the new one, but stuff like the issue boards and code merges are still only accessible with an authorised account. Is there any info on when it'll be available again? The documentation still links to the old URL.

Thanks.


r/tails • • 8d ago

"Solved" - Not Supported Tails boots on Macbook (Intel i9) but keyboard and trackpad don't work

3 Upvotes

Hi everyone, wanted to set up Tails earlier today and got the USB stick ready. Booting works perfectly fine and I get straight to the welcome screen.
My problem is that the built-in keyboard and trackpad don't react at all. I can't click or type anything once Tails is loaded.
It's a Macbook with the Intel i9 processor. Has anyone dealt with this before or knows what's causing this? Do I need specific boot options or do I really have to plug in an external mouse and keyboard?
Thanks in advance for the help!


r/tails • • 12d ago

Solved Kinda weird booting error

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4 Upvotes

yeah so basically, i dont know what happened but i tried booting up my tails after like a day or 2 of not using it and i got hit with these screens, im not sure whats happened since it was working completely fine before but one thing i do know is that i accidentally pressed hibernation while trying to shutdown my computer and i never normally do that. Other than that im completey confused and dont know what i need to do, help would be appreciated! :D btw im on a lenovo thinkpad!


r/tails • • 13d ago

Solved Tails USB no longer showing up as a bootable option (“removable device” on new laptop

2 Upvotes

Hello, I had an asus vivobook that I would use a usb stick to boot tails easily with and no issues. Sandisk 64 gb.

This was made in April of this year and was working with my ASUS just about a week ago.
that laptop is gone, so I had to buy a new one. This is a Lenovo i3 Ideapad and the same USB drive is no longer showing up as a bootable option on this new laptop.

(in the “choose an option” menu I mean. that you hold shift while restarting on Windows to get to. then choosing “use a device.” it normally shows up as “removable device” here, but not on this new hardware for some reason.)

There are two USB ports on the laptop and neither of them work.
In BIOS, I turned off secure boot and enabled USB Boot.
still not showing up. Really not sure what to do and I’m really hoping that there’s no way that booting Tails would be entirely unsupported on this brand of Windows laptop.
I’m not very tech savvy, but back in April I just wanted to use tails and the instructions of setting up the USB drive were very simple, and this is the first time I’ve run into massive issues, just by changing the hardware I’m sticking the stick into lol.

Help please. Thank you.


r/tails • • 13d ago

Hardware question Recommendations

5 Upvotes

Tried to boot on my dell latitude E6420 (old ass laptop), don’t think it’s supported so I was wondering if anyone had some good suggestions that I could use besides the ones on the tails site


r/tails • • 16d ago

Solved OnionShare chat NOT working.

3 Upvotes

just updated tails, i had the same issue in previous version:

i start OnionShare, i start chat server, opens fine in tor browser, then i type, everything still good, i hit ENTER and no text appears. Nothing happens. The end.

Am i the only one? Tried rebooting many times. Even after this update.

Tails 7.14

OnionShare 2.6.3 (i was unable to install the 2.6.5 flatpak)


r/tails • • 16d ago

"Solved" - Not Supported I am unable to boot

2 Upvotes

I’m unable to boot Tails 7.14 after updating. Tails 7.13 boots and works normally, but 7.14 does not boot. I’m using Ventoy.

Edit:

I formatted my USB drive, and now it’s working. I created the bootable USB again using Ventoy.


r/tails • • 16d ago

Application question No quiero perder mis cosas, y no se si se pueden recuperar

11 Upvotes

Antes que nada, estoy instalando Tails en un pendrive de 64G, si no recuerdo mal (con todo instalado y listo), debería reiniciar la PC y acceder a la BIOS cuando se esté arrancando para lograr iniciar el pendrive con Tails.

Mí pregunta es está: ¿Una vez lo usé y retire el pendrive con el sistema operativo, al iniciar la PC se iniciará con el sistema operativo y las cosas que tenía instaladas, como siempre lo hace, o debo iniciarlo a través de la BIOS cada vez? ¿Se perderá algo de lo que tengo en el disco duro?

Perdón si la pregunta es algo tonta, soy principiante en este mundo y la verdad no conozco casi nada, gracias por adelantado


r/tails • • 16d ago

Boot issues Updated today and now it won’t boot

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8 Upvotes

9/30/26 was working great before the update


r/tails • • 17d ago

News Tails 7.14 Released

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blog.torproject.org
40 Upvotes

Changes and updates
Update Tor Browser to 15.0.24.

Update the Tor client to 0.4.9.13.

Update the Linux kernel to 6.12.111.

Fixed problems
Fix the default keyboard input method when starting a session in Korean. (#21779)


r/tails • • 16d ago

"Solved" - Not Supported Is Tails usable with 2GB of RAM?

4 Upvotes

I am thinking of buying an old notebook for exclusive use of tails; what I found has a limitation of 2gb of ram. Is it usable? (English is not my first language)


r/tails • • 17d ago

Help Tails known issue

1 Upvotes

You might know this issue already if you are running tails on a laptop, But for those who don't know there is a issue for laptops where the keyboard is not working, but if you really need to get to tails right now use the On-Screen Reader, This is temporary until it gets fixed.


r/tails • • 18d ago

Application question GPG persistent settings

3 Upvotes

So I created my key the other day and I do have persistent storage enabled. I log back in and I have my public key saved in the correct folder but it looks like I didn’t enable the right saving as my public key isn’t saved not in kleopatra.

I’m seeing another post that sometimes turning on persistent storage for the right setting will work, but I can’t find anything that looks right