Feature #5417
Improve user experience when wiping memory at shutdown
100%
Description
Presumably, displaying a nice splash screen instead of low-level details while wiping memory would improve user experience.
Related issues
| Related to Tails - Feature #5948: Custom plymouth theme | Confirmed | ||
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Related to Tails - |
Rejected | 2014-06-01 | |
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Related to Tails - |
Resolved | ||
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Related to Tails - |
Resolved | 2014-10-15 | |
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Related to Tails - |
Resolved | 2017-03-20 |
History
#2 Updated by BitingBird 2014-06-09 10:35:24
- Subject changed from nicer memory wipe UX to Nicer memory wipe UX
- Starter set to No
#3 Updated by intrigeri 2014-06-21 14:56:32
- Subject changed from Nicer memory wipe UX to Improve user experience when wiping memory at shutdown
#4 Updated by intrigeri 2014-06-21 14:56:55
- related to Feature #5948: Custom plymouth theme added
#5 Updated by intrigeri 2014-06-21 14:58:52
- Description updated
#6 Updated by Anonymous 2014-06-22 00:30:40
These are remarks by the UX experts, as collected after the 1st Tails UX session:
> Tails Shutdown: the user shuts down Tails by removing the USB key. A
> black screen appears with some messages regarding sensitive data
> exposure and many lines of hard-to-read status messages. When asked what
> this screen means the user says that it’s basically telling you that
> it’s cleaning up the sensitive data and that she doesn’t really read or
> understand what the rest of the status message means.
>
> Observations: the function of this screen probably wouldn’t be clear
> to a first-time user and even to an expert user it doesn’t mean much in
> its current state. At first glance it looks like a system crash screen,
> more alarming than reassuring.
>
> Recommendations: it seems that the objective of this screen would be
> to a) inform the user that her data is being wiped from memory and b) to
> conceal the user’s activity in case of an abrupt shutdown prompted by a
> physical confidentiality threat (someone entering the room for example).
> You could for example mask this shutdown screen as a common Windows or
> OSX shutdown process, with a progress bar / wheel that informs the user
> that the “cache is being cleared”, “the system is shutting down” or
> whatever other message is more appropriate.
#7 Updated by intrigeri 2014-06-25 09:31:27
Implementation notes:
- we currently disable running plymouth at shutdown time (
config/chroot_local-patches/do_not_run_plymouth_on_shutdown.diff) - it’s probably possible to run plymouth at shutdown time, and have some (existing or new) initscript send a message to plymouth to have it display graphically the message we want
- emergency shutdown handles things a bit differently:
config/chroot_local-includes/usr/local/sbin/udev-watchdog-wrapperrunschvt 1; not sure if that one can easily be converted to using plymouth as well. But improving things for regular (non-emergency) shutdown first would be a first great step.
#8 Updated by intrigeri 2014-06-25 09:32:01
- related to
Bug #7359: Video broken while shutting down on ThinkPad X61 added
#9 Updated by intrigeri 2014-06-25 09:34:47
- related to
Feature #6079: reenable the shutdown splash screen added
#10 Updated by BitingBird 2015-02-23 05:34:11
- related to
Bug #8124: Scary failure messages when shutting down the system while the Unsafe Browser is still running added
#11 Updated by BitingBird 2015-02-23 05:35:02
- related to
Bug #7617: Do not display confusing "Please remove the USB flash drive and press ENTER to continue" message on shutdown added
#12 Updated by sajolida 2015-11-24 02:34:42
- related to deleted (
Bug #7617: Do not display confusing "Please remove the USB flash drive and press ENTER to continue" message on shutdown
#13 Updated by sajolida 2016-10-07 18:07:45
People think that “this is the fundamental functionality of Tails”:
https://twitter.com/thecowboyc0der/status/784321759474364416?cn=cmVwbHk%3D&refsrc=email
We have a serious mental model issue here :)
#14 Updated by intrigeri 2017-05-18 09:10:51
- related to
Bug #12354: Fix shutdown and memory wipe regressions on 3.0~betaN added
#15 Updated by intrigeri 2017-05-18 09:20:30
- Status changed from Confirmed to In Progress
- Assignee set to sajolida
- QA Check set to Ready for QA
- Feature Branch set to bugfix/12354-drop-kexec-memory-wipe
Once our fix for Bug #12354 is merged (likely in 3.0~rc1), IMO there’s nothing to improve here as the machine shuts down in very few seconds:
- with emergency shutdown (unplugging the boot medium), I have barely time to notice the debugging messages that are displayed on the screen; we could hide them once we are confident the new implementation is reliable
- with normal shutdown (shutdown button in the GNOME top-right menu) I see no message at all, just a black screen for a couple seconds
But I’d like sajolida’s opinion on this one, so please test either with 3.0~rc1 once it’s out, or with a nightly build from the feature branch (until it’s merged), or with a nightly build from feature/stretch (between the time my branch is merged and the release of 3.0~rc1). Alternatively, if you have no time, let me know and I’ll test on a couple more machines before closing this ticket as resolved.
#16 Updated by sajolida 2017-05-18 15:54:47
I’ll test with once I’m on 3.0~rc1.
#17 Updated by sajolida 2017-05-23 16:08:35
I tried normal shutdown yesterday for the first time and I loved it!
I’ll try emergency shutdown soon.
#18 Updated by intrigeri 2017-05-23 17:22:52
> I tried normal shutdown yesterday for the first time and I loved it!
Very nice to hear :)
#19 Updated by sajolida 2017-06-13 10:21:45
- Status changed from In Progress to Resolved
- Assignee deleted (
sajolida) - QA Check deleted (
Ready for QA)
I’m very happy with the proposed experience and this is going to be in 3.0, so marking this as resolved. Possible bugs can be filed elsewhere.