Bug #10937: Test and Update documentation for Mac Disk Utility to 'reset Tails'

Bug #10937

Test and Update documentation for Mac Disk Utility to 'reset Tails'

Added by emmapeel 2016-01-14 11:19:58 . Updated 2016-03-17 18:48:32 .

Status:

Resolved

Priority:

Normal

Assignee:

Category:

Target version:

Tails_2.3

Start date:

2016-01-14

Due date:

% Done:

100%

Feature Branch:

doc/10937-mac-reset-instructions

Type of work:

End-user documentation

Blueprint:

Starter:

Affected tool:

Deliverable for:

Description

User reported that the instructions on our website to ‘reset Tails with Mac’ do not work.

The process leads her consistently to an error:


Erasing "TAILS 1.8 - 2015" and creating "NONAME"
Erase process has failed. Press Done to continue.

Name invalid.
Operation failed...

But she could format the USB stick from another Tails with Disk Utility.

It would be great if some Mac-OSX users can have a look at our docs and see if they apply.

Files

du-tails2.png (57223 B)	muri, 2016-02-10 12:08:21
du-tails.png (57462 B)	muri, 2016-02-10 12:08:21

Subtasks

History

#1 Updated by muri 2016-01-14 12:06:15

hi,

i’ve followed the documentation on https://tails.boum.org/doc/first_steps/reset/mac/ step by step. the only thing that changed in the ‘El Capitan’ release of os x is the position of the ‘Erase’ Button (i’ll update the docs accordingly). other than that, i cannot reproduce the error…

#2 Updated by emmapeel 2016-01-14 19:25:09

QA Check changed from Info Needed to Ready for QA
Feature Branch set to muri:muri-doc/fix-mac-reset-instructions
Type of work changed from Test to End-user documentation

#3 Updated by emmapeel 2016-01-14 19:30:24

Status changed from New to In Progress

#4 Updated by sajolida 2016-01-15 12:06:31

Assignee set to sajolida

Assigning to me for review then.

#5 Updated by sajolida 2016-02-01 11:29:01

Target version set to Tails_2.2

#6 Updated by sajolida 2016-02-01 15:18:48

Assignee changed from sajolida to muri
Feature Branch changed from muri:muri-doc/fix-mac-reset-instructions to doc/10937-mac-reset-instructions

Thanks for working on this. I improved a bit the format of your patch with 9151bcf..a803548. Tell me if I didn’t screw up and then I’ll merge.

#7 Updated by muri 2016-02-02 10:55:56

hi,

thanks, i’ve reviewed the changes and tested them on an osx el capitan
machine. everything is oke, please merge ;)

cheers,
muri

#8 Updated by muri 2016-02-02 11:00:13

Assignee changed from muri to sajolida
% Done changed from 0 to 50
QA Check changed from Ready for QA to Pass

#9 Updated by sajolida 2016-02-02 14:04:26

Status changed from In Progress to Resolved
% Done changed from 50 to 100

Applied in changeset commit:f14c044ce8d47cf27e588d596e705933dd049076.

#10 Updated by sajolida 2016-02-02 14:06:05

Assignee deleted (~~sajolida~~)
QA Check deleted (~~Pass~~)

Merged, yeah!

#11 Updated by muri 2016-02-04 10:18:45

Status changed from Resolved to Confirmed

i’m sorry, but i have to reopen that bug- apparently that only happens with devices created by ‘dd’ and not by devices created with the installer (i only tested with a installer created device)

#12 Updated by sajolida 2016-02-05 12:57:51

I don’t know what the “Erase” action does but then maybe you need do force creating a new partition table (as devices installed using dd might have a weirder one).

#13 Updated by intrigeri 2016-02-09 20:30:31

Assignee set to muri

(A ticket with a target version but no assignee feels wrong.)

#14 Updated by muri 2016-02-10 12:14:56

File du-tails2.png added
File du-tails.png added
Assignee changed from muri to sajolida

oke, sorry for the delay, i missed sajolidas comment:
> I don’t know what the “Erase” action does but then maybe you need do force creating a new partition table (as devices installed using dd might have a weirder one).
the problem is: there is only an ‘erase’ button and an ‘unmount’/’mount’ button. i’ve attached two screenshots with the device mounted resp. unmounted. in both scenarios i can only click the ‘erase’ button, which leads the the error message of the initial bug report.

i have also tested this with a debian-live-8.3.0-amd64-gnome-desktop.iso, which i dd’ed to the stick the same way i did the tails iso. erasing the debian live usb stick is no problem. i don’t know if we should update the instructions by including a way for the users to reset using dd on the stick before ‘erasing’ using disk utility, or if this is a bug somewhere else? (if you want me to test anything else, i can do that)

#15 Updated by sajolida 2016-02-12 13:17:05

Adding you as watcher of this ticket then.

To summarize:

It’s possible to use “Erase” on USB sticks installed with Tails Installer.
It’s impossible to use “Erase” on USB sticks installed using dd.

Right?

Then, since people who insalled using dd already used this command once, then they can use it twice. And maybe we can erase the partition doing something like:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX count=1

The objective being, unless I’m mistake to erase the first 512 bytes, which is what I got here:

512 bytes (512 B) copied, 0.000317289 s, 1.6 MB/s

Also, seeing ~~Bug #11040~~ I would use the less options possible and make sure that they are in both the GNU and FreeBSD manpages:

#16 Updated by muri 2016-02-12 17:46:10

Assignee changed from sajolida to muri

On 02/12/2016 02:17 PM, sajolida wrote:
> Adding you as watcher of this ticket then.
ah, yeah- i’m still not used to the fact that i don’t get notifications
for tickets i merely comment on

> * It’s possible to use “Erase” on USB sticks installed with Tails Installer.
> * It’s impossible to use “Erase” on USB sticks installed using dd.
>
> Right?
thats my interpretation of the status quo

> Then, since people who insalled using dd already used this command once, then they can use it twice.
yes, you’re totally right- i didn’t think about that

> dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX count=1
>

i can try that on a mac after the weekend and i can then also propose a
patch for the documentation

#17 Updated by intrigeri 2016-02-13 01:11:37

> And maybe we can erase the partition doing something like:

I bet you’ll need to erase more than 512 bytes: presumably you want to get rid of the partition table, that is further on the disk in, at least in legacy MBR format.

#18 Updated by muri 2016-02-15 09:42:55

Assignee changed from muri to sajolida

intrigeri wrote:
> I bet you’ll need to erase more than 512 bytes: presumably you want to get rid of the partition table, that is further on the disk in, at least in legacy MBR format.
hm, i thought the partition table was byte 446-510. but you are right, it didn’t work with count=1 (i tried: 1, 4, 8, 12, 16, 24 and 32). it worked with

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of/dev/rdisk2 count=1 bs=16m

then, on replugging the device, osx asks the user to initialize the usb stick.

another option would be to use:

sudo fdisk -iy /dev/rdisk2

which would be an additional command we bring into the mix, but it seems easier to use than dd (and the user doesn’t have to reinitialize the disk afterwards)

if you tell me which one you think is better to document, i’ll extend the documentation

#19 Updated by sajolida 2016-02-15 14:45:38

Assignee changed from sajolida to muri

The fdisk command is shorter and easier to use, so let’s do that, no?

#20 Updated by intrigeri 2016-02-15 16:00:28

> hm, i thought the partition table was byte 446-510.

That’s correct IIRC for legacy MBR partition table, but we’re using GPT :)

#21 Updated by muri 2016-02-20 17:18:58

Assignee changed from muri to sajolida

sajolida wrote:
> The fdisk command is shorter and easier to use, so let’s do that, no?

oke, please review
https://gitlab.com/muri/tails.git
[10937-mac-reset-instructions 60cd68c] updated instructions for resetting manualley created device

#22 Updated by sajolida 2016-02-21 13:26:54

QA Check set to Ready for QA

#23 Updated by sajolida 2016-03-07 15:21:09

Target version changed from Tails_2.2 to Tails_2.3

#24 Updated by sajolida 2016-03-15 18:06:08

Assignee changed from sajolida to muri

Thanks for working on this! I improved on your branch by:

Changing the flow: only proposing the command line as fallback.
Redacting the instructions for the command line in detail to avoid some pain to the reader.
Fixing a bunch of minor formatting and nitpicking things.

Can you have a look? Especially, I’m not sure whether we need step 6 diskutil unmountDisk [device].

#25 Updated by muri 2016-03-17 09:40:43

Assignee changed from muri to sajolida

sajolida wrote:
> Can you have a look? Especially, I’m not sure whether we need step 6 diskutil unmountDisk [device].

hi, i’ve tested this again and yes, we need the diskutil unmountDisk step. two things: after the manual steps the user needs to do the disk utility steps (the manual steps make them possible) and i think the comment for the translators breaks the numbering, because now the first two points are number 1

#26 Updated by sajolida 2016-03-17 15:47:43

Assignee changed from sajolida to muri

Ok, so the command line instructions are only a troubleshooting technique for people who installed with dd but it’s not an alternative path as everybody has to go through Disk Utility. I adjusted the flow accordingly in d9818bc.

I also fixed the numbering issue in fe0b834.

Please have a look. We’re also there now!

#27 Updated by sajolida 2016-03-17 15:48:31

I meant “we’re almost there now!”

#28 Updated by muri 2016-03-17 15:54:51

Assignee changed from muri to sajolida

sajolida wrote:
> Ok, so the command line instructions are only a troubleshooting technique for people who installed with dd but it’s not an alternative path as everybody has to go through Disk Utility. I adjusted the flow accordingly in d9818bc.
wow, great. moving the cli instruction to a troubleshooting part is a great idea!
everything is fine for me, please merge!

#29 Updated by sajolida 2016-03-17 18:48:32

Status changed from Confirmed to Resolved
Assignee deleted (~~sajolida~~)
QA Check deleted (~~Ready for QA~~)

Cool, thanks for the quick feedback (I wish I was as quick as you reviewing). I’m merging now!