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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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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!

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!

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.

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

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)

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.

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

9/30/26 was working great before the update

I've used a random brand USB with tails for a year on and off and had 0 issues. I recently re-flashed tailos onto the same usb, and now when I boot from it in the boot menu, it just takes me to regular windows. I've tried this on my old windows 7 laptop (which is what i've always used for tailsos usb), and on my windows 10 PC and this issue happens on both.

I've verified the download and followed the steps in the guide on the website, so I assume the issue is with the USB itself? I'm confused why it is a problem now and not before, maybe something in the new update?

Should I just try another USB or is there a different problem I am missing?

thanks for the help ")

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)

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.

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

There's a known bug that causes a fresh Tails USB to get stuck in the GRUB boot menu. The most reliable fix is to flash Tails from a Linux environment:

(Note: Mac users can also flash Tails directly using DD)

-Download a Debian Live ISO from here

-Using Rufus (or BalenaEtcher on Macs) flash the Debian ISO to a secondary USB (not the one you want to install Tails on)

-Boot from the Debian USB and follow the Linux install instructions to flash Tails to your primary USB

I am brand new to this so be nice, but every time I attempt to boot up Tails from a USB it just takes me to the Grub console and refuses to let me do anything else. I have used both balenaetcher and rufus on two different USB's. Someone save meeeee.

can someone give me a fix? i know there are troubleshoot guides but i have a much better time when people have experience in a more specific scenario.

i am running a gaming system with an nvidia etc 4070 and amd radeon graphics card which i understand to arise some issues but i didnt expect booting to freeze like this. this is my first time attempting an install with this os. thank u!

"Avoid buying USB sticks online or using USB sticks that were given to you, because they could contain malware."

It explains that this is due to uncertainties in knowing if it was tampered with beforehand, which makes sense, but who are the people wanting to tamper with random firsthand USB sticks? What does end up being the safest source?

I think I am overthinking this. I know this definitely means avoid random ebay vendors, but is Amazon safe? I see no reason it should be less safe to buy from the sandisk store on there than going to a local officeworks for example, which the website recommends most.

Other than that, is there a solid way to check a new USB for any tampering for the super paranoid?

I'm relatively new to this, and am doing my due diligence in learning opsec, but experience wins over research, so I just wanted to hear the opinions of those more knowledgeable. Thanks!

Edit: I keep getting replies saying this is for pre-flashed sticks, (which is obviously a very bad idea) but while that does kind of make sense for it to mean that, it doesn't explicitly mention, or even really imply that is what it means.

"Buy your USB sticks from a reputable local store.

If you are in a place where counterfeit electronics are common, buy your USB stick from an international supermarket chain, which should have a more reliable supply chain.

Avoid buying USB sticks online or using USB sticks that were given to you, because they could contain malware.

(In 2020, the FBI warned US companies to avoid USB sticks received by mail because some of them contained malicious software, such as BadUSB.)"

This can be found on this page: https://tails.net/install/linux/index.en.html

I think I may just be bad at comprehending what it's trying to say. It seems like it is clear with what it is saying, but someting isn't clicking...

So I suppose my question is still unsolved? It was more of an open ended one in the first place, but I would like to hear more takes on this!

I tried two diff usb stick one memorex and one sandisk 16gb 3.0
Trying to flash with Rufus I get a grub message every time. I mad asf bruh like fr. Using Lenovo flex 5. Pls help me I’m finna crash out ong.