Feature #5502

Next time we bump RAM requirements: notify user at runtime if RAM requirements are not met

Added by Tails 2013-07-18 07:41:59 . Updated 2019-08-21 12:00:39 .

Status:
Confirmed
Priority:
Low
Assignee:
Category:
Hardware support
Target version:
Tails_5.0
Start date:
Due date:
% Done:

0%

Feature Branch:
Type of work:
Code
Blueprint:

Starter:
1
Affected tool:
Deliverable for:

Description

Latest update: Feature #5502#note-14

Users with less RAM than recommended get confused because they can’t start all the software they would like concurrently.

Tails should therefore notify the user when booting it on a computer that does not meet the hardware recommendations. This notification would be printed somewhere on the tails-greeter (Feature #5496) (boot menu (Feature #5528)) screen.

A more dynamic approach (possibly for a later iteration) could be to use http://www.hadess.net/2019/08/low-memory-monitor-new-project.html or similar; it could not only automate the detection of “how much RAM is needed for basic Tails usage” (instead of having to keep this knowledge up-to-date ourselves: if low-memory-monitor complains during our test suite, it could be a clear sign that we need to either optimize our stuff or bump the documented requirements); it could also warn the user whenever their usage of Tails requires an amount of RAM that exceeds their hardware’s capacity, which can happen even for systems that meet the documented minimum memory requirements.

Subtasks

Related issues

Related to Tails - Feature #7235: Looser memory requirements when checking for upgrades Resolved 2014-05-13
Related to Tails - Feature #7986: Re-evaluate hardware requirements on Jessie Resolved 2014-10-02
Related to Tails - Feature #14544: Spend software developer time on smallish UX improvements In Progress 2018-08-31
Related to Tails - Feature #6876: Have the incremental upgrade process use less RAM Resolved
Related to Tails - Feature #10060: Warn when the in-memory filesystem is getting full Confirmed 2015-08-18
Related to Tails - Feature #7782: Warn the user when available RAM / memory is low Confirmed 2014-08-14
Has duplicate Tails - Feature #7586: Inform user she/he is close to the system requirement before doing upgrades Duplicate 2014-07-13

History

#1 Updated by intrigeri 2013-07-19 09:56:16

  • Starter set to Yes

#2 Updated by intrigeri 2013-10-04 01:22:38

  • Category set to Hardware support

#3 Updated by intrigeri 2014-05-12 08:01:45

  • Subject changed from notify user if hardware requirements are not met to Notify user if hardware requirements are not met

#4 Updated by intrigeri 2014-05-13 15:28:56

  • related to Feature #7235: Looser memory requirements when checking for upgrades added

#5 Updated by alant 2014-07-05 16:11:46

  • design UI
  • code (python/Gtk)
    • fetch the source code of the greeter at http://git.tails.boum.org/greeter/
    • add a .py file in the tailsgreeter package to check for hardware requirements (Python)
    • edit glade/persistencewindow.glade with glade
    • code GUI glue in persistencewindow.py (Python/Gtk)

#6 Updated by intrigeri 2014-07-06 06:28:44

It’s unclear to me that the greeter is the best place to put that notification.

#7 Updated by intrigeri 2014-09-22 12:17:14

  • has duplicate Feature #7586: Inform user she/he is close to the system requirement before doing upgrades added

#8 Updated by BitingBird 2015-01-07 17:42:29

  • related to Feature #7986: Re-evaluate hardware requirements on Jessie added

#9 Updated by sajolida 2015-09-22 07:49:22

  • Target version deleted (Sustainability_M1)

#10 Updated by Anonymous 2018-08-19 10:18:59

  • Priority changed from Normal to Low

We now recommend much more RAM: https://tails.boum.org/doc/about/requirements (2GB) but this might still be useful. Although low prio as we have not committed to work on it ourselves.

#11 Updated by intrigeri 2018-08-19 11:50:14

u wrote:
> We now recommend much more RAM: https://tails.boum.org/doc/about/requirements (2GB)

This ticket exists precisely because users miss that page and try to start Tails on systems we don’t support. So the fact Tails now needs more RAM makes this ticket more important, not less :)

#12 Updated by sajolida 2018-08-25 08:28:45

  • related to Feature #14544: Spend software developer time on smallish UX improvements added

#13 Updated by sajolida 2019-01-18 15:43:31

  • related to Feature #6876: Have the incremental upgrade process use less RAM added

#14 Updated by sajolida 2019-01-18 16:10:43

  • Subject changed from Notify user if hardware requirements are not met to Notify user if RAM requirements are not met
  • Target version set to Tails_4.0

I’m renaming to “RAM” because that’s the only requirement that we can warn people about after they manage to start Tails.

From https://data.firefox.com/dashboard/hardware, as of January 2019, only 1.4% of Firefox users had 1 GB of RAM. So, given our current resources, I don’t think we should spend time on this for that many users. 11% of Firefox users had 2 GB. So, let reconsider this the next time we really have to boost the RAM requirements.

Maybe in 4.0?

#15 Updated by sajolida 2019-01-18 16:19:45

  • related to Feature #10060: Warn when the in-memory filesystem is getting full added

#16 Updated by sajolida 2019-01-18 16:19:52

  • related to Feature #7782: Warn the user when available RAM / memory is low added

#17 Updated by intrigeri 2019-04-02 15:47:37

  • Subject changed from Notify user if RAM requirements are not met to Next time we bump RAM requirements: notify user at runtime if RAM requirements are not met

#18 Updated by intrigeri 2019-04-02 15:48:48

  • Description updated

#19 Updated by intrigeri 2019-05-24 09:01:52

  • Target version changed from Tails_4.0 to Tails_5.0

At the moment it seems that we won’t have to bump RAM requirements for 4.0.

#20 Updated by intrigeri 2019-08-21 12:00:39

  • Description updated