Tails

#1 Updated by cbrownstein 2019-11-01 01:56:06

I’m not sure if this matters: I upgraded from Tails 3.16 and therefore had old apt lists and old cached packages.

#2 Updated by intrigeri 2019-11-01 09:55:21

Hi Cody,

> Sometimes Tails (v4.0) fails to automatically install the additional software I have selected for automatic installation.

Ouch!

> I believe the install fails because Tails has not yet connected to Tor when the additional software is attempted to be installed.

The log shows that:

• the first attempt to download a package fails
• then the next 6 packages are downloaded successfully

So yeah, it might be that we’re starting too early (e.g. the time sync’ process may mess with ASP).

To investigate, we would need a WhisperBack report.

#3 Updated by op_mb 2019-11-01 21:00:36

if you’re getting this after Tails boots and tries to install aditional software, it means your /var/lib/apt/lists wasn’t synchronized on exit (usually if you pull the usb out).

on Tails start, it will look to “download” from your persistent source=apt/lists.
run: sudo apt-update // after you install additional software for the first time.

if that doesnt help, copy and paste manually from /var/lib/apt/lists to source=apt/lists

#4 Updated by op_mb 2019-11-01 21:04:03

correction: sudo apt-get update

#5 Updated by intrigeri 2019-11-02 06:00:42

> if you’re getting this after Tails boots and tries to install aditional software, it means your /var/lib/apt/lists wasn’t synchronized on exit (usually if you pull the usb out).

The log shared by cbrownstein suggests that the APT lists were just fine. But indeed, one relevant question is: why wasn’t libimage-magick-q16-perl in the cache already?

> I’m not sure if this matters: I upgraded from Tails 3.16 and therefore had old apt lists and old cached packages.

Did this problem happen on first boot on 4.0 after upgrading?
Did this problem happen on any subsequent 4.0 boot?

#6 Updated by cbrownstein 2019-11-02 18:27:42

> […] But indeed, one relevant question is: why wasn’t libimage-magick-q16-perl in the cache already?

Wouldn’t the version in the cache be from stretch rather than from buster?

> Did this problem happen on first boot on 4.0 after upgrading?

Yes, I encountered this problem on my first boot after upgrading from 3.16 to 4.0.

> Did this problem happen on any subsequent 4.0 boot?

Yes, I encountered the problem on every subsequent boot until I ran:

sudo apt install fonts-powerline po4a vim-nox powerline ikiwiki python3-powerline perlmagick libyaml-syck-perl vim-addon-manager

I have not encountered the problem since running that command.

#9 Updated by intrigeri 2019-11-10 17:13:43

Hi,

>> […] But indeed, one relevant question is: why wasn’t libimage-magick-q16-perl in the cache already?

> Wouldn’t the version in the cache be from stretch rather than from buster?

OK, I’m now convinced that you’re right, thanks to this clarification:

>> Did this problem happen on first boot on 4.0 after upgrading?
> Yes, I encountered this problem on my first boot after upgrading from 3.16 to 4.0.

My current conclusion on this front is:

• APT could fetch the lists successfully, then Tails did something that disturbed Tor, which caused the download of libimage-magick-q16-perl to fail, then Tor came back up and the other packages could be downloaded without trouble.
• Regarding the “something that disturbed Tor”: to be investigated; potential offenders:
  • ordering of tails-additional-software-upgrade.service vs. Tor bootstrap and time sync’ing
  • the cases where we restart the tor service
  • time sync’ing

A first, obvious bug is that tails-additional-software-upgrade.service has After=tor-has-bootstrapped.service, while we have no such service: it should instead be After=tails-wait-until-tor-has-bootstrapped.service. I don’t know if that’s the only reason for this bug. I’m tempted to be optimistic, fix this one, and see if more reports about such problems flow in.

>> Did this problem happen on any subsequent 4.0 boot?

> Yes, I encountered the problem on every subsequent boot until I ran:
>

> sudo apt install fonts-powerline po4a vim-nox powerline ikiwiki python3-powerline perlmagick libyaml-syck-perl vim-addon-manager
> 

It’s a weird coincidence, unless you’re always using this Tails on computers and networks with similar performance to each other, in which case, indeed there’s a good chance that you hit the exact same race condition every time.

> I have not encountered the problem since running that command.

OK. My understanding is that this ensured all the packages are in the cache, so next time, they’ll be installed via “Software installation at startup” instead of “Software upgrade on Internet connection” (https://tails.boum.org/contribute/design/additional_software_packages/).

#11 Updated by cbrownstein 2019-11-11 01:42:41

> >> Did this problem happen on any subsequent 4.0 boot?
>
> > Yes, I encountered the problem on every subsequent boot until I ran:
> > […]
>
> It’s a weird coincidence, unless you’re always using this Tails on computers and networks with similar performance to each other, in which case, indeed there’s a good chance that you hit the exact same race condition every time.

FWIW, I was using the exact same computer and network when I was experiencing the problem.