Ok first off the documentation is not straightforward and it can be downright hard to follow. It can be all over the place and it can be hard to follow. And some things in the documentation don’t even make sense. Source: go here and read my back and forth with Multicorn76, I’ll show you something that doesn’t even make any sense https://www.reddit.com/r/Whonix/comments/1lh3ctu/any_whonix_experts_here_i_need_your_guidance/
Patrick, you give hints but you just won’t come and say it directly “If you’re on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS then VirtualBox 7.0.16 is the recommended version for use with Whonix 17.3.9.9”
So because you wouldn’t just come out and say this fact straight to my face (which would’ve saved me so much time and trouble) I had to find out the hard way. So here’s what happened.
So if you’ll remember in this thread The --oracle-repo command line option failed the --oracle-repo option failed and it simply installed VB 7.0.16 and then you had to go and fix it. So the --oracle-repo option didn’t even work til I came around and started asking about it. So that was the first clue.
So about a month ago or so I installed VirtualBox and whonix using this
bash ./whonix-xfce-installer-cli --oracle-repo
and it installed VirtualBox 7.1 and whonix and but life got busy so I’ve only really used it a few times. And just over a week ago I was screwing around and uninstalling VB and whonix and reinstalling them. VirtualBox in particular, I uninstalled VB and reinstalled VB like 5 times, I was just trying out all the different ways to install VB. This broke my PC (I couldn’t install VB anymore and I couldn’t figure out why) so about a week ago I had to do a clean install of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and then I was able to successfully install VB (I installed VB using that wget command you said not to use) anyhow I was just experimenting around with different ways to install both VB and whonix.
Well in my Whonix tutorial I wanted to show 2 different methods of installing whonix.
So this was just days ago, again I uninstalled VB and whonix and then installed whonix again using
bash ./whonix-xfce-installer-cli --oracle-repo
and it installed VirtualBox 7.1.10 (this version of VB just came out literally days ago so it’s really new, and is probably untested by the whonix developers isn’t that right Patrick?) and Whonix 17.3.9.9, so this was like a week ago or so.
So yeah over the past month or so since I’ve been so busy with life I’ve only used whonix about 7 times total, not enough time for a bug to rear it’s ugly head. Well a bug just reared it’s ugly head a few days ago. So a few days ago the GUI of gateway I was in, froze up on me. I just ignored it thinking it was a fluke. I had fixed this problem by installing an SSD in my PC and putting gateway ram to 512 MB so it opens in CLI, I had fixed this freezing problem and I refused to believe it had come back. So I just ignored it.
Now just a couple of hours ago I was using workstation and I had about 40 tabs open and BOOM! It froze up on me. Gateway was not frozen but workstation was totally frozen (except for the clock in workstation just kept ticking) so I had no choice but to hold the power button on my PC and shut it down and turn it back on.
Now I installed whonix for the first time last year, and this was when I still had an HDD in my PC and whonix would just freeze up on me randomly about once a week. So I read the documentation and it said for best performance use an SSD so around September of last year I installed an SSD. And then someone on Reddit said to reduce gateway to 512 MB and 1 core, bump workstation up 4 gigs of ram and 2 cores, which leaves 1 core for the host OS (I have a 4 core CPU and 16 gigs of ram in my PC) so with an SSD and the changes made to ram and cores, whonix never ever froze up on me and it was awesome!!! In fact whonix ran pretty smoothly overall.
But that was because I used this method to install whonix, I went off the whonix installer
bash ./whonix-xfce-installer-cli
So my point is, using VB 7.1.10, whonix has now frozen on me twice in like 3 days so clearly I should not have used the --oracle-repo command line option.
Once whonix froze for the second time on me, I instantly knew the --oracle-repo was a mistake!!!
Well, and I started thinking, the --oracle-repo option didn’t even work til I came around and started asking about it, and it probably still wouldn’t work if I hadn’t asked about it, and if you go here to the whonix installer Whonix Linux Installer for VirtualBox the whonix installer doesn’t use the --oracle-repo option. Which means Patrick the Whonix head developer doesn’t intend for VirtualBox 7.1.10 to be used, he clearly intends for VirtualBox 7.0.16 to be used with Whonix 17.3.9.9
And then if you read here Recommended VirtualBox Version for use with Whonix you’ll see this https://imgur.com/a/QcDSYSt it’s basically saying that newer versions of VirtualBox are untested by the whonix developers and so they might cause issues with whonix, and indeed, whonix has frozen up on me twice now in about 3 days using VB 7.1.10
And VB 7.1.10 was just released a couple of weeks ago.
So clearly I shouldn’t have used the --oracle-rep command line option. I should have just followed the whonix installer to the t.
But dude, you could have just said this to me weeks ago and saved me all this trouble. And even now if I’m wrong about anyting then please tell me, or if I’m correct here then just confirm that I’m correct please?
So yeah it seems to me the truth is, if you’re on Ubuntu 24.04, the recommended virtualbox version for use with Whonix is VB 7.0.16 which means I need to go and edit my Whonix tutorial on askubuntu. And I also need to uninstall both VB and whonix and then reinstall them.
I mean it’s cool you’re giving me hints but you could’ve just said it weeks ago. Just tell it to me straight please don’t beat around the bush.
And listen I’m only trying to help the community cause it’s true, essentially all the tutorials on the internet that show you how to get whonix installed on ubuntu, and get it up and running are all old and incorrect now. Someone who is new to whonix needs a tutorial that will hold their hand and walk them through it. Whonix is not easy, there is a lot you gotta do to get whonix up and running. And all the tutorials are wrong.
So yeah listen, last summer I installed whonix on my PC. at the time my PC specs were 16 GB of ram, 4 core AMD CPU, an AMD GPU, and an HDD. And whonix was so slow and it’d constantly freeze up on me, I was about to leave whonix and go over to Tails but I decided to install an SDD and then I followed someone’s recommendations on Reddit for the ram and cores.
And whonix never once froze up on me again and it ran pretty smoothly, so it seemed I had fixed the freezing problem, cause if I couldn’t fix the freezing problem then I would’ve left whonix and went over to Tails. That freezing up problem was a deal breaker for sure. I’d be in the middle of my work and then BOOM! Workstation would freeze up on me.
And then I installed whonix using the --oracle-repo option and first gateway froze on me a few days ago, which i ignored, and then today BOOM! I had about 40 tabs open in TOR in workstation, I was in the middle of my work, and it froze up on me for the second time.
So yeah clearly I need to go back to VirtualBox 7.0.16 cause there whonix wasn’t freezing up on me at all. Well not with the SSD at least.
I mean I appreciate the hints you’re leaving me but I really wish you’d just tell me what I need to know.
So the official proper way to install whonix (if you’re on Ubuntu 24.04 that is) is to follow the whonix installer AND NOT use the --oracle-repo option, so it’d be
curl --tlsv1.3 --output whonix-xfce-installer-cli --url https://www.whonix.org/dist-installer-cli
and then
bash ./whonix-xfce-installer-cli
I mean, and this is smoking gun for me, when you literally go and follow the whonix installer for ubuntu, you’ll see it makes no mention of the --oracle-repo option, you won’t see it, you’ll only find it if you go digging for it.
So yeah I need to get back over to VB 7.0.16 cause whonix is freezing up on me on VB 7.1.10
And now I’m gonna go over to my tutorial https://askubuntu.com/questions/1550871/how-do-i-install-whonix-on-ubuntu-24-04-lts and edit it and delete the --oracle-repo command line option.
I just uh… Man why didn’t you just tell me this information weeks ago?
And yeah I do read the documentation but I’m the average layman and it can be confusing to me. My IQ is between 90 and 100 which is just average. Patrick your IQ is probably north of 130.
p.s. The documentation should specifically say that if you’re on Ubuntu 24.04 then you need to be using VirtualBox 7.0.16 which means you only need to follow the simple whonix installer Whonix Linux Installer for VirtualBox the documentation should be clear on this but it’s not, it’s not clear.
Thank you.