Hi, I have a Thinkpad T520 belonging to "these machines [which] do not start on USB sticks created using Tails USB Installer, due to a firmware limitation." (https://tails.boum.org/support/known_issues/index.en.html#index9h2)
I wanted to be able to set up a persistent volume on my external USB key with Tails. I have currently found a work around: It's about creating and booting a USB key made through Tails USB installer on Virtualbox (I'm on a Debian Wheezy host). The caveat is of course this resorts to using the closed-source Extension Pack in order to make USB work. So here are the steps: -Enable USB on Virtualbox -Boot on a Tails live DVD (through Virtualbox or not) and create a USB Tails system through the Tails USB installer. -As Virtualbox can't simply boot from USB, create a virtual machine disk to use in Virtualbox for the USB key This is described here: http://wire.less.dk/?p=139 and worked for me only if acting as Root - Create a new Virtualbox Machine and boot from USB on Virtualbox Here you choose the newly created existing hard disk. I had to put Hard Disk as first in boot order, and enable USB 2.0 in settings - Boot from Tails live USB in Virtualbox and create persistent volume - After shutting down, the USB disk is altered because of the persistent volume and you need to create a new virtual machine disk and add a new Machine before booting once again and being now able to enable peristent features. I hope this is helpful to someone else too. Any ideas on other VMs being able to replicate this without non-free bits or future developments in Tails (uefi maybe?) that could make a usb key made with Tails USB installer workable otherwise, without waiting for an important firmware update from Lenovo for fixing this? Can anybody point to more information regarding this firmware limitation on select Thinkpads? I couldn't find something on Tails riseup platform. _______________________________________________ Tails-support mailing list [email protected] https://mailman.boum.org/listinfo/tails-support
