Feature #8524

Do statistics on whether bug reports come from a DVD or flash media

Added by sajolida 2015-01-03 23:30:12 . Updated 2018-02-07 12:53:57 .

Status:
Resolved
Priority:
Normal
Assignee:
Category:
Hardware support
Target version:
Tails_1.3.1
Start date:
2015-01-03
Due date:
% Done:

0%

Feature Branch:
Type of work:
Research
Blueprint:

Starter:
Affected tool:
Deliverable for:

Description

This would be useful before implementing Feature #8510.

Files

medium.sh (1201 B) sajolida, 2015-03-14 18:39:47
medium.ods (11380 B) sajolida, 2018-02-04 10:37:54
medium.sh (1674 B) sajolida, 2018-02-04 10:37:55

Subtasks

Related issues

Related to Tails - Feature #8510: Distribute a hybrid ISO image Resolved 2015-01-03
Blocked by Tails - Feature #8719: Include the output of mount(8) in WhisperBack bug reports Resolved 2015-01-18

History

#1 Updated by sajolida 2015-01-03 23:30:31

#2 Updated by sajolida 2015-01-03 23:45:06

  • Status changed from New to Confirmed

#3 Updated by intrigeri 2015-01-16 15:50:08

  • Target version set to Tails_1.3

(Blocking a ticket flagged for 1.3.)

#4 Updated by intrigeri 2015-01-18 10:41:16

  • blocked by Feature #8719: Include the output of mount(8) in WhisperBack bug reports added

#5 Updated by intrigeri 2015-01-18 10:46:09

I’ve looked at a few WhisperBack bug reports, and could not find a way to gather such statistics => filed Feature #8719.

#6 Updated by sajolida 2015-01-19 15:27:39

  • Target version changed from Tails_1.3 to Tails_1.3.2

#7 Updated by intrigeri 2015-01-26 11:32:17

  • blocked by deleted (Feature #8510: Distribute a hybrid ISO image)

#8 Updated by intrigeri 2015-01-26 11:32:23

#9 Updated by sajolida 2015-01-27 20:12:04

  • Assignee deleted (sajolida)
  • Priority changed from Elevated to Normal

#10 Updated by sajolida 2015-02-26 11:48:49

  • Assignee set to sajolida

This was blocked by Feature #8719 which is now solved, so I’ll do that shortly before 1.3.1 (to have more data at hand). Feature #8510 has been solved already but those stats would definitely be useful for the UX work on the bootstrapping process.

#11 Updated by sajolida 2015-03-14 17:12:27

  • File <del>missing: medium.sh</del> added
  • Status changed from Confirmed to Resolved
  • Assignee deleted (sajolida)

Using the script in attachment I get the following results:

dvd 5 13%
dd 1 2%
usb+persist 18 48%
usb-persist 8 21%
toram 1 2%
qemu 1 2%
vbox 2 5%
vmware 1 2%
total 37

In ‘usb-persist’, I’m not sure how to differentiate between a USB installation with UUI and one with Tails Installer.

Any idea?

#12 Updated by sajolida 2015-03-14 17:55:07

  • File deleted (medium.sh)

#13 Updated by sajolida 2015-03-14 18:39:49

#14 Updated by intrigeri 2015-03-14 18:55:11

> Using the script in attachment I get the following results:

Woo!

These stats seem to be computed based on a tiny data sample, though. IMO we should wait to have more data before we can draw any conclusions from these stats. Now, since you have written the script and can run it again at will, I’m totally fine with leaving this ticket as resolved :)

> In ‘usb-persist’, I’m not sure how to differentiate between a USB installation with UUI and one with Tails Installer.

I’ve not seen a boot medium installed by UUI for a while, so I’ve no idea, sorry :(

#15 Updated by sajolida 2015-03-15 16:49:57

The sample is quite small I know, but I wanted some first numbers for our work on the assistant.

#16 Updated by BitingBird 2015-03-22 12:14:50

  • Target version changed from Tails_1.3.2 to Tails_1.3.1

#17 Updated by sajolida 2015-03-23 21:40:22

dvd 14 17%
dd 3 3%
usb+persist 29 37%
usb-persist 22 28%
toram 2 2%
qemu 2 2%
vbox 4 5%
vmware 1 1%
total 78

#18 Updated by sajolida 2015-04-16 10:38:29

I investigated how to differentiate a bug report sent from a UUI media and a Tails Installer media and couldn’t find something that could be used.

#19 Updated by sajolida 2015-04-16 12:18:29

New update with this time 156 reports:

dvd 28 17%
dd 6 3%
usb+persist 61 39%
usb-persist 42 26%
toram 3 1%
qemu 5 3%
vbox 8 5%
vmware 1 0%
total 156

You might notice that 2 reports are missing from the total, those were weird cases that didn’t fit in any of the above:

  • One with NTFS on /dev/sdd1
  • One with FAT on /dev/sdb

Let’s ignore them.

So DVD usage is 20% from people booting on bare metal.

#20 Updated by sajolida 2015-04-26 12:10:47

NTFS on /lib/live/mount/medium happen if installed using UUI with an original NTFS partition on the USB stick.

#21 Updated by sajolida 2018-02-04 10:39:02

Storing here more stats from 2016 and 2017.

  • NTFS on the system partition has become non negligible :)
  • I still don’t know how to differentiate between Tails Installer without persistence, dd, and UUI so they are all mixed in “usb-persist+fat”.
  • I assume that people running on virtual machine have the ISO image as a virtual DVD (on /dev/sr?).
  • DVD is not clearly dying: 7% in 2016, 8% in 2017.
  • Persistence is on the rise but it’s not that crazy either: 48% in 2016, 52% in 2017.

Spreadsheet and updated script attached.

#22 Updated by intrigeri 2018-02-07 12:53:57

> * I still don’t know how to differentiate between Tails Installer without persistence, dd, and UUI so they are all mixed in “usb-persist+fat”.

commit:1d3df762b50b6d732cc16085a972517e46511988 will help :)

> * I assume that people running on virtual machine have the ISO image as a virtual DVD (on /dev/sr?).

If you want, we could easily include the output of systemd-detect-virt in the WhisperBack reports.