Cannot install Element in Sysmaint Mode

Support
1

I’m new to Whonix and I’m trying to install Element on the newest Whonix version. In order to install software, you have to use Sysmaint Mode. Okay, but the install commands for Element are long and have to be pasted into the terminal and I cannot find a way to do that. I’ve tried:

  1. Copying the commands on the host OS and paste them into Whonix (through Virtualbox), but that doesn’t work because Whonix doesn’t accept the Virtualbox paste clipboard function.
  2. Opening the browser in Whonix and copying the command on Element’s website, but that doesn’t work because the browser cannot be opened in Sysmaint Mode.
  3. Creating a text file that contains the commands to install Element, but that doesn’t work because I don’t have permission to open text files in Sysmaint Mode.

What are you supposed to do here? I can’t type the command manually because the english keyboard doesn’t accept certain symbols required and typing long commands out manually every time doesn’t feel very optimal to begin with.

2

Indeed, there are quite a few usability shortcomings. [1]

That’s a bug indeed which will hopefully one day be fixed. References:

Browsers aren’t blocked if started from the command line (implementing this is hard, would require a restricted shell, depending on if that’s an accidental protection of enforcement).

Not something we encourage.

Opening text files isn’t blocked in sysmaint mode.

It’s just a bit complicated due to the Linux permission model that we inherit. Files located in home folder owned by account user (no sudo/root access by default) cannot be accessed by account sysmaint, even though that account has sudo/root access by default.

The question is:

How to (safely) open a file owned by a different Linux user account? (If you have sudo/root access.)

(Which you do have in sysmaint mode.)

Can be found out using Self Support First Policy for Whonix?

Keyboard layout can be configured, see:

[1]

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3

sysmaint wont take the host clipboard, thats normal. drop the element install lines into a text file on a shared folder from the host, then in sysmaint open/cat that file and copy from inside the vm. usb stick works the same way if shared folders are annoying. typing those long curl lines by hand sucks.

4

Can become superuser in sysmaint mode. Run su and read text file from user folder.

5

Thank you very much for the detailed reply. Like nite_route suggested I did also try to put the file in a shared folder and then open/cat it from the terminal, but it just said “Permission denied”. I also tried to change the permissions of the file and then it said “Operation not permitted”.

6

“Permission denied: su”

7

yeah sysmaint blocks host clipboard and shared folder mounts often land owned weird so cat/chmod fails.

dont use su on whonix. use sudo. from sysmaint try sudo cat /path/to/the/file and copy from that terminal, or sudo cp it into /root and run it from there. if the shared folder itself is denied, copy the script onto a fat usb from the host, mount that in sysmaint, then sudo bash it.

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8

It does not. Why do you believe it does?

This is true, but can be worked around with sudo as you cover.

2 Likes
9

My bad, I actually forgot sudo before using chmod :confounded_face:
It works now, I was able to cat the file, and install the program. Thank you, and everyone who replied :heart:

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