The issue of burdensome and repetitive instructions on a single page regarding the different ways to edit a text file was discussed before. I was recently surprised to find this taking place even on the KVM installation instructions page.
I would like to suggest the following be added to the top of every guide-style page that requires editing text files:
Editing text files
In this guide [/page] we use nano [optional: link to a very quick guide, added below] as a text editor. If you prefer a graphical editor use mousepad (on XFCE) or kwrite (on KDE).
For example, instead of:
nano filename [or always sudo nano?]
use
kdesudo mousepad filename
Then, all the instructions throughout the page will only use nano instead of the repeated clause "if you are using… then… ".
To make things more friendly I wrote the following “very quick guide” mentioned above (should appear on a dedicated page, containing only that):
Nano is a popular and simple text editor in Linux. Basic usage:
Open the file for editing by typing in terminal:
nano filename
If the file was created by root, we need to use sudo to get proper privileges:
sudo nano filename
If you try to edit a file that does not exist, nano will create the file.
Essential keyboard shortcuts:
To save: CTRL-O
To Exit: CTRL-X
Moving the cursor is done using the arrow keys or Page Up and Page Down. Mouse click does not move the cursor.
More keyboard shortcuts:
To delete a full line: move to that line, then press CTRL-K
To search: press CTRL-W, then type the text you wish to find, then ENTER.
Formatting can be improved of course.
More can be added, but I think it’s unnecessary. Better keep it short. Even the search function is probably not required for the tasks users are expected to follow throughout the guides. We may add:
Yes if we talk about stable which is stretch then that might be still working , but im using now buster and testing it with vbox-whonix-15. so instructions for e.g which doesnt work like
No problem. BTW I forget why the v3 onion Whonix download links were removed form the relevant template(s)?
I saw someone (not me) editing KVM instructions talking about this exact naming issue (and name change) recently? Didn’t look closely, but something about Whonix (or external?) being dropped from network name.
1. The second, extra Whonix-WS firewall wiki info went MIA? Is it deprecated / no longer under development? If so, there are a few references to it here and there that need to be removed from wiki e.g.
Consider enabling the optional (extra) Whonix-Workstation ™ firewall.
2. Also this recommendation in the “Expert” section - what about Coreboot? Should we add it - did anyone ever get Whonix running on it? (never tried - way, way too hard ) cc: @madaidan
Libreboot is a free, opensource BIOS or UEFI replacement (firmware) that initializes the hardware and starts the bootloader for your OS.
I’ve never tried Coreboot/Libreboot as it’ll probably brick my motherboard. I would recommend against Libreboot though as
it allows no proprietary firmware at all. This means no microcode updates which are pretty important for security.
It doesn’t look like forcing onion with HTTPS Everywhere user rule sets is possible with the current version which is 2019.5.13. Or at least it can’t be done using these instructions.
I am able to copy over my user rule sets from an earlier Tor Browser/HTTPS Everywhere version. (works OK). However, unless someone has an idea, this part of the forcing onion docs should be deprecated imo.
Yeah please recommend against libreboot and the reason why (hopelessly impractical becuase firmware blacklisting), also keep a note on Coreboot for those who might want to buy systems that have it by default like Chromebooks or maybe they would want to research how to flash it onto the handful of refurbished boards out there that support it.
The only thing I couldn’t remember in those edits was whether it must be tor+http for whonix sources list, or just http.
(Or maybe you already modified the code block by default to have the onion available just by uncommenting - don’t remember, was a while since I played with whonix sources)
Thanks for pointing that out. Room for improvement here.
As a general rule:
When using apt-get and .onion one should always be using tor+http whether inside or outside of Whonix. Non-critical (as per footnotes in link below).
Wiki History - template deprecation isn’t ideal. If tor+http doesn’t work on plain Debian, then we need to update the instructions for plain Debian. The fix would be “install apt-transport-tor beforehand” most likely. tor+http isn’t developed by Whonix, apt-transport-tor implements it. Could you revert that please?
In that apt-transport-tor stuff, I had also changed one of the weird onions (earth… .onion) to the proper Debian security one? Check that was correct also.
BTW Can Whonix builds etc. borrow any settings from this hardening list?
) cc: 