Tails/Debian delta [Was: Sponsoring a Tails hackfest?]

[intrigeri <intrigeri@debian.org>]

Hi,

[Moving this discussion to the -derivatives@ list, which seems more
relevant for this subthread. Not sure if it's worth going on
Cc'ing -project@.]

Paul Wise wrote (09 May 2014 01:12:23 GMT) :
> On Thu, May 8, 2014 at 11:01 PM, intrigeri wrote:

>> 1. Six packages for Tails-specific software (liveusb-creator,

> If you mean the Fedorahosted liveusb-creator,

I do.

> that looks useful to
> have in Debian for non-technical users. If upstream could be made
> build-time flexible about distros,

This was our plan initially, and we even implemented configurable
branding and stuff, but then we diverged so much (due to
e.g. wanting a GPT instead of a MBR, and in many other ways) that
our version is now a fork. Our initial analysis of the original
upstream code made us think it would be easier to keep generic, but
sadly we failed at that.

> it could be useful to both Debian or Tails. Our current methods for
> writing ISO images to CD aren't exactly user-friendly.

Doesn't unetbootin work for Debian ISO images?

>>    - iceweasel: we add the Tor Browser's patchset. Previous attempts
>>      to work within Debian to have this packaged have failed.

> I think the iceweasel-source binary package idea was the most likely
> to work in the shortish term

Right.

> and I believe that the issues blocking
> iceweasel-source are solved now so you might want to submit a wishlist
> bug as a reminder about that.

I'd be willing to do that, yes. The main blocker currently is the
co-installability with iceweasel problem. This would have to be solved
in the torbrowser package, which does not exist yet (chicken'n'egg),
so I'm not sure against which package such a bug should be filed.
Any hint?

FTR, this is also tracked there:
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/3994
and there's also:
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=660759

>>    - vidalia: we patch it to hide some parts of the UI that are
>>      useless, or harmful, in the context of Tails. Our attempt at
>>      finding someone to add configuration settings to do the same
>>      failed (we found someone, signed a contract, and then they
>>      disappeared). This piece of software has no active upstream
>>      anymore, which does not help.

> Apparently the Tor Browser folks have replaced vidalia with a
> Firefox-based Tor controller called Tor Launcher, you might want to
> sync with their choices.

We ship Tor Launcher too (used to configure Tor bridges and similar).
It's fine, it lacks features that Vidalia has, that may not matter in
the context of the TBB, but are very useful in the context of an
entire OS. We're tracking the missing bits on
https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/6841.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Cheers,
-- 
  intrigeri
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