Feature #6387

Create screencast videos of installing Tails onto a USB stick

Added by sajolida 2013-10-26 13:36:17 . Updated 2017-11-11 10:35:24 .

Status:
Rejected
Priority:
Normal
Assignee:
sajolida
Category:
Installation
Target version:
Start date:
2015-01-08
Due date:
% Done:

100%

Feature Branch:
Type of work:
Discuss
Blueprint:

Starter:
Affected tool:
Deliverable for:

Description

I might be useful for some people to have a screencast video explaining how to install Tails onto a USB stick. This should reuse the written documentation, and might even be an opportunity to review it.

Subtasks

Feature #8610: Create a screencast video of installing Tails onto a USB stick - from Windows Rejected

0
Feature #8611: Create a screencast video of installing Tails onto a USB stick - from Mac OSX Rejected

0
Feature #8612: Create a screencast video of installing Tails onto a USB stick - from Linux (CLI and GUI) Rejected

0

Related issues

Related to Tails - Bug #6851: Fix ISO verification using checksum Resolved 2013-08-16
Related to Tails - Feature #6853: Give an overview of the workflow from downloading an ISO to having a working persistent volume Duplicate 2014-03-06
Related to Tails - Feature #7492: Explain graphically different steps of a typical use of Tails through photos or screencast Rejected 2014-07-06
Blocked by Tails - Feature #8581: Analyse and simplify the installation and upgrade workflows Resolved 2014-04-07

History

#1 Updated by sajolida 2014-06-29 14:22:02

  • Category set to Installation

#2 Updated by intrigeri 2014-07-07 10:02:58

  • Tracker changed from Bug to Feature

#3 Updated by intrigeri 2014-07-07 10:03:08

  • related to Feature #7492: Explain graphically different steps of a typical use of Tails through photos or screencast added

#4 Updated by spriver 2014-07-15 09:28:13

  • Assignee set to spriver

#5 Updated by spriver 2014-07-16 07:32:27

First ideas on that:
-Downloading, verifying and signing a Tails iso on windows (atm I have a Windows 7 machine), I could also do that on Debian (in terminal)
-Installing the iso to a DVD
-Booting up the DVD
-Installation of tails on USB with the tails-installer
-Some helpful links at the end for troubleshooting (known issues page, mailing lists etc.)

Perhaps also the manual installation could be shown on Windows and Linux (in a seperate video)

#6 Updated by sajolida 2014-07-30 18:21:38

  • related to deleted (Feature #7492: Explain graphically different steps of a typical use of Tails through photos or screencast)

#7 Updated by sajolida 2014-07-30 18:21:40

  • related to Feature #6853: Give an overview of the workflow from downloading an ISO to having a working persistent volume added

#8 Updated by sajolida 2014-07-30 18:24:30

  • related to Bug #6851: Fix ISO verification using checksum added

#9 Updated by sajolida 2014-07-30 18:30:01

> First ideas on that:
> -Downloading, verifying and signing a Tails iso on windows (atm I have a Windows 7 machine), I could also do that on Debian (in terminal)
> -Installing the iso to a DVD
> -Booting up the DVD
> -Installation of tails on USB with the tails-installer
> -Some helpful links at the end for troubleshooting (known issues page, mailing lists etc.)
>
> Perhaps also the manual installation could be shown on Windows and Linux (in a seperate video)

Thanks for moving this forward!

This ticket is called “Create a screencast video of installing Tails
onto a USB stick”, and the main issue I see here is that there are
several ways of achieve this, even for people on Windows: you can burn a
DVD and then clone, or do the manual installation and then clone. Our
experience showed that the complicated part is to understand the
workflow, and this relates to Feature #6853.

So we should plan on having I would say three videos to start with:

1. Downloading and verifying on Windows
2a. Burn a DVD and cloning
2b. Manual installation and cloning

Also note that currently it is only documented how to verify the ISO
with OpenPGP. Are you planning to document that in your screencast using
Kleopatra?

As a general comment as well, the best screencasts I’ve see in the past,
the ones that were the most clear to look at were actually reading
written documentation out loud and showing the steps visually. That
means that a first thing to do is for you to check that the written
documentation works by being read out loud. And if not, work together to
fix that. I’m very interested in doing that work, but I need an external
point of view, like yours, on the doc.

Working like this will also allow us to agree on the spoken content of
the screencast before you recording it and avoid round-trips.

#10 Updated by spriver 2014-08-03 09:31:32

sajolida wrote:
> > First ideas on that:
> > -Downloading, verifying and signing a Tails iso on windows (atm I have a Windows 7 machine), I could also do that on Debian (in terminal)
> > -Installing the iso to a DVD
> > -Booting up the DVD
> > -Installation of tails on USB with the tails-installer
> > -Some helpful links at the end for troubleshooting (known issues page, mailing lists etc.)
> >
> > Perhaps also the manual installation could be shown on Windows and Linux (in a seperate video)
>
> Thanks for moving this forward!
>
> This ticket is called “Create a screencast video of installing Tails
> onto a USB stick”, and the main issue I see here is that there are
> several ways of achieve this, even for people on Windows: you can burn a
> DVD and then clone, or do the manual installation and then clone. Our
> experience showed that the complicated part is to understand the
> workflow, and this relates to Feature #6853.
>
> So we should plan on having I would say three videos to start with:
>
> 1. Downloading and verifying on Windows
> 2a. Burn a DVD and cloning
> 2b. Manual installation and cloning
>
> Also note that currently it is only documented how to verify the ISO
> with OpenPGP. Are you planning to document that in your screencast using
> Kleopatra?
>
> As a general comment as well, the best screencasts I’ve see in the past,
> the ones that were the most clear to look at were actually reading
> written documentation out loud and showing the steps visually. That
> means that a first thing to do is for you to check that the written
> documentation works by being read out loud. And if not, work together to
> fix that. I’m very interested in doing that work, but I need an external
> point of view, like yours, on the doc.
>
> Working like this will also allow us to agree on the spoken content of
> the screencast before you recording it and avoid round-trips.

This sounds good, especially the idea of the three videos. I think that most newbies are coming from Windows and that this would be the most important part. The verifying with Kleopatra is also an important issue to cover. Later we could also create some videos for terminal installation under e.g. linux.
Your suggestion with the read out documentation is also a good point. It would also proof if the doc is clearly to understand at the moment.
I will have a look at that in the next days. I’m also very interested in that task because it would make it very much more easy to start using Tails.

#11 Updated by BitingBird 2015-01-08 16:20:45

  • Subject changed from Create a screencast video of installing Tails onto a USB stick to Create screencast videos of installing Tails onto a USB stick

#12 Updated by sajolida 2015-01-09 15:26:03

  • blocked by Feature #8581: Analyse and simplify the installation and upgrade workflows added

#13 Updated by sajolida 2015-02-26 16:00:00

  • Assignee deleted (spriver)

I’m more and more convinced that this work will be very hard (if not pointless) to do before we have the ISO verification extension (see https://tails.boum.org/blueprint/bootstrapping/extension) and probably the web assistant (https://tails.boum.org/blueprint/bootstrapping/assistant/) since this will completely rewrite the documentation.

Once we get there I think it should document the path for Windows users:

  • Download through HTTP
  • Verify the ISO using the Firefox extension
  • Install using UUI
  • Clone

People willing to work on this should actively review and comment on the work that we will be doing on the assistant to make sure it’s compatible with the screencast format. More on that later…

#15 Updated by sajolida 2015-04-08 19:19:38

  • related to deleted (Feature #6853: Give an overview of the workflow from downloading an ISO to having a working persistent volume)

#16 Updated by sajolida 2015-04-08 19:20:24

  • related to Feature #6853: Give an overview of the workflow from downloading an ISO to having a working persistent volume added

#17 Updated by Anonymous 2017-06-30 14:56:41

  • related to Feature #7492: Explain graphically different steps of a typical use of Tails through photos or screencast added

#18 Updated by sajolida 2017-08-15 11:20:57

  • Type of work changed from End-user documentation to Discuss
  • Starter deleted (Yes)

For some reason, I’ve been the one to open this ticket years ago though I never clarified my personal opinion on this in this ticket. I actually think it’s a bad idea and we shouldn’t put that much energy into this project and we should reject this ticket and its subtickets, and for the following reasons:

  • Following the full installation assistant for Windows for example takes about 1 hour (download not included) so the video would be that 1-hour long.
  • Producing such videos (Windows, macOS, and possibly several different for Linux) would be a lot of work, while the benefits are uncertain: how many people would really find it easier to follow 1-hour long video instead of our current step-by-step instructions?
  • Videos are notoriously hard to mantain, so producing a one-shot video without having a way to make it easier to update the video as our installation procedure changes would make the video outdated very quickly. For example, in 2017 only we did the following changes to the installation assistant that would have required an updated video:
    • Ubuntu graphical configuration of PPA
    • Update Debian instructions to Stretch
    • Rename to macOS
    • Remove Torrents and reintroduce them
    • Update to 3.0
      • New Greeter
      • Change to amd64
      • New GNOME Disks
    • Change in interface of UUI 1.9.7.7
    • DVD burning in El Capitan
  • The instructions are not exactly linear, for example for the different download technique or in case people have to fallback to troubleshooting instructions. This would make the creation of such a video even more complicated and more complicated for the user. In the case of the troubleshooting sections:
    • You would either have to watch tons of troubleshooting instructions that you don’t really need.
    • Or switch back to troubleshooting instructions on the website or in dedicated videos.

All-in-all, I don’t think it’s worth putting that much energy into solving this properly. Quick-and-dirty solutions would be still tons of work and outdated in a matter of months.

#19 Updated by intrigeri 2017-08-19 16:27:01

> All-in-all, I don’t think it’s worth putting that much energy into solving this properly. Quick-and-dirty solutions would be tons of work and outdated in a matter of months.

Your reasoning makes sense. I’m convinced.

#20 Updated by sajolida 2017-11-06 18:27:20

  • Assignee set to sajolida

#21 Updated by nodens 2017-11-06 20:39:48

  • Status changed from Confirmed to Rejected

This ticket was discussed during the monthly meeting (November 2017).
Here is a summary of the discussion / decision:

Discussion summary

Decision:

Reject this ticket. We acknowledge that such videos could be useful, but we can’t maintain them ourselves

Please refer to the meeting notes for detail (including full log): https://tails.boum.org/contribute/meetings/201711/