Feature #11825

Consider switching to Rufus instead of UUI for Windows users

Added by emmapeel 2016-09-22 10:31:42 . Updated 2017-08-24 16:40:02 .

Status:
Rejected
Priority:
Normal
Assignee:
Category:
Installation
Target version:
Start date:
2016-09-22
Due date:
% Done:

0%

Feature Branch:
Type of work:
Research
Blueprint:

Starter:
Affected tool:
Deliverable for:

Description

We receive many reports of users that have problems after installing Tails
with UUI.

Rufus is free software and does not seem to have problems to create our
filesystem correctly.

Maybe we could change the install procedure to recommend Rufus?

Subtasks

Related issues

Related to Tails - Feature #10984: Test Rufus Rejected 2016-01-22
Related to Tails - Feature #14448: Consider documenting Rufus as a workaround in case UUI doesn't work Rejected 2017-08-24
Blocked by Tails - Bug #7938: Universal USB Installer creates unbootable devices Rejected 2014-09-23

History

#1 Updated by intrigeri 2016-09-23 03:27:32

  • Assignee set to sajolida

> We receive many reports of users that have problems after installing Tails with UUI.

I hope that sajolida & al have seen detailed reports about it.

> Maybe we could change the install procedure to recommend Rufus?

Let’s see what sajolida thinks about it.

#2 Updated by sajolida 2016-09-24 06:10:37

#3 Updated by sajolida 2016-09-24 06:15:17

  • Assignee deleted (sajolida)

We already have tickets for doing more testing of Rufus as some people have reported it working but I failed when I tried. This is Feature #10984.

UUI has been working fine until now, so before replacing it I would spend more time on understand if it really got wrong now, if so why and whether we can fix it. That’s part of Bug #7938.

So there’s a bunch of testing to be done here, which could be done by pretty much anybody with a Windows machine and could also fit in the duty of help desk since they have first-hand reports from these issues and investigating and can be considered as a “small task to make their job easier in the future”. I personally won’t have time to work on any of this in October.

#4 Updated by sajolida 2016-09-25 10:15:03

#5 Updated by sajolida 2016-09-25 10:15:13

#6 Updated by sajolida 2016-09-25 10:15:28

  • blocked by Bug #7938: Universal USB Installer creates unbootable devices added

#7 Updated by sajolida 2016-12-03 20:06:17

  • Type of work changed from Discuss to Test

This needs more testing.

#8 Updated by mercedes508 2017-01-11 13:54:45

  • Assignee set to intrigeri

From a frontdesk point of view, many people (even recently) can’t get a booting Tails using UUI, but are successful by using Rufus, so I’d be in favor of moving this forward to at least help our Windows users and the frontdesk team :)

If there’s anything I can do, let me know.

#9 Updated by sajolida 2017-01-11 19:59:29

  • Assignee deleted (intrigeri)

From the test I did UUI never gave me any problem and Rufus never worked. So before I could reconsider my position, I would need to have more results on:

  • Failures of UUI. See Bug #7938 to understand what’s the problem we’re trying to solve here. Please add this info about failures to Bug #7938 once you manage to reproduce them.
  • Successes of Rufus. See Feature #10984 to understand why Rufus would be a solution. Please add you successful results there.

#10 Updated by emmapeel 2017-05-05 07:53:51

mercedes508 wrote:
> From a frontdesk point of view, many people (even recently) can’t get a booting Tails using UUI, but are successful by using Rufus, so I’d be in favor of moving this forward to at least help our Windows users and the frontdesk team :)
>

Me too. At least I want to add a known issue/troubleshooting section note around: “When you get a message of ‘Configuration file not found’ try to install intermediary Tails with Rufus instead”

#11 Updated by emmapeel 2017-05-05 08:00:29

sajolida wrote:
> From the test I did UUI never gave me any problem and Rufus never worked. So before I could reconsider my position, I would need to have more results on:
>
> * Failures of UUI. See Bug #7938 to understand what’s the problem we’re trying to solve here. Please add this info about failures to Bug #7938 once you manage to reproduce them.

I cannot reproduce the errors because of ethical issues, as the users have a real Windows installation.

> * Successes of Rufus. See Feature #10984 to understand why Rufus would be a solution. Please add you successful results there.

It is not clear for me what do we have to add there, as that note brings me here again.

#12 Updated by sajolida 2017-05-12 07:06:30

>> * Failures of UUI. See Bug #7938 to understand what’s the problem we’re trying to solve here. Please add this info about failures to Bug #7938 once you manage to reproduce them.
>
> I cannot reproduce the errors because of ethical issues, as the users have a real Windows installation.

I can provide that to you any time.

Note that I tested UUI again last week for Feature #12499 and it worked as expected.

>> * Successes of Rufus. See Feature #10984 to understand why Rufus would be a solution. Please add you successful results there.
>
> It is not clear for me what do we have to add there, as that note brings me here again.

The few times I tried Rufus it didn’t work for me. I’m happy to try
again after someone from help desk tried it successfully and provides me
with clear instructions.

#13 Updated by emmapeel 2017-05-27 08:49:39

And what if it will depend on the libraries Windows needs to create our kind of partitions?

Maybe we should ask users which Windows version are they using?

#14 Updated by mercedes508 2017-07-10 19:14:23

  • Assignee set to sajolida

Hey, I answered on Feature #10984, but have trouble understanding what I should try?

Is it trying exact same UUI / rufus version on same Windows version?

#15 Updated by sajolida 2017-08-02 14:27:59

  • Assignee deleted (sajolida)
  • Type of work changed from Test to Research

Let’s track the next step on Feature #10984 only for the time being.

#16 Updated by mercedes508 2017-08-24 16:38:35

Closing this as we decided not to switch, but to eventually adivce the use of Rufus when UUI failed.

#17 Updated by mercedes508 2017-08-24 16:39:08

#18 Updated by mercedes508 2017-08-24 16:39:32

#19 Updated by mercedes508 2017-08-24 16:40:02

  • Status changed from Confirmed to Rejected

#20 Updated by sajolida 2017-10-24 17:43:40

  • related to Feature #14448: Consider documenting Rufus as a workaround in case UUI doesn't work added