I didn’t know if I should post in the development sub-forum or here, so I thought I would ask here first.
I was randomly googling around the internet for nsisbi and I found whonix used to use nsisbi in the past (don’t know if you still use it now or not).
I am the sole developer of nsisbi and I just wanted some feedback on your experience with it. What worked, what needed modifying, any bugs you found, maybe even some questions you have and I can try to answer them.
Thanks, Jason.
Why did you stop using nsisbi?
My findings would suggest that it’s not because of nsisbi per se.
2017:
Currently, the Whonix-Installer for Windows is based on nsisbi, a fork of the often used “Nullsoft Scriptable Install System”, which was required to circumvent the general size limit of 2Gb usually enforced by “NSIS”. Even with that though, a bit of additional modification was required to include all the files required for Whonix into one simple to use “.exe file”. That’s why for the foreseeable future, a disk-space of 8Gb is required during installation, as the Gateway and Workstation required additional compression, since even “nsisbi” has a single file size limit of 4Gb. [Release] Whonix-Installer and UI
2018:
About a year ago, the first version of the Whonix Installer for Windows was made available to the public. Since then, there has been a continuous effort to find ways to make the process simpler, more reliable and less taxing for computers with little disk space. This effort now culminates in the release of a new Installer, build from the ground up with these things in mind. Based on InnoSetup instead of NSIS, it is far better suited to the task of handling the large files Whonix requires. New Whonix Installer Release
On Github (https://github.com/Whonix/Whonix-Windows-Installer):
There used to a version of this installer based on NSIS which has been discontinued, due to stability and a host of other issues.
But maybe you’ll be able to get an more definitive answer from someone involved in the process.
Since I didn’t develop it, since the original developer is no longer around, and since it’s a long time already, I don’t know that. Might be possible to find out more by reading the development discussion [Release] Whonix-Installer and UI but @LavenderLevitator seems to have already done that.
Ok thanks.
The 4GB limit is actually a Windows limit, not a nsisbi limit (trust me, I tried). I have fixed a handful of issues along the way too.
Just recently (September 2020), I added support for files bigger than 2GB. I tested it on my handful of VirtualBox virtual drives, and it worked fine (one was 60GB, the total installer was 140GB, and this was using the 32bit version of nsisbi).
It is also cross-platform, I mainly use various VM’s of ubuntu to test on. And also another developer packaged it for Hombrew on Mac too.
But anyway, I appreciate that this project used nsisbi in the past. Nice to know some projects find it useful. Nsisbi is just a hobby for me, I don’t get anything in return for it.
Thanks, Jason.