Long Wiki Edits Thread

Dumb question since I rarely do blog posts, where is the button/link/login section to do that again? :blush: (via forums? via doc page login? don’t see it)

Looking high and low and I don’t see it anywhere. Let me know, and I’ll draft up the HTML markdown version for Whonix 14 release.

I don’t plan on going anywhere in foreseeable future. You’re stuck with me.:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

I think having your name on the contributors list is a privilege that is earned. I have a ways to go on that? I guess you could say I’m a padawan learner of sorts.

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torjunkie:

Dumb question since I rarely do blog posts, where is the button/link/login section to do that again? :blush: (via forums? via doc page login? don’t see it)

Looking high and low and I don’t see it anywhere. Let me know, and I’ll draft up the HTML markdown version for Whonix 14 release.

There’s none as far as I know. Manually only.

1 Like

torjunkie:

@Patrick

In my hunting for missing images on wiki pages, I noticed the following.

:slight_smile:

1. The following wiki pages link to nothing (virtually empty pages) on the main wiki TOC:

  • Whonix.org Site Security”. It used to have ratings of various website features etc.

http://dds6qkxpwdeubwucdiaord2xgbbeyds25rbsgr73tbfpqpt4a6vjwsyd.onion/wiki/Whonix:Privacy_policy#Technical_Information

Removed.

  • “Disclaimer” - dead redirects. Suggesting removing or fixing whatever it is meant to link to (I’m not sure what resource it should pull in).

http://dds6qkxpwdeubwucdiaord2xgbbeyds25rbsgr73tbfpqpt4a6vjwsyd.onion/wiki/Whonix:General_disclaimer

Removed.

2. Also, do you want the “Expand or Collapse All” widget embedded on each of the main wiki documentation pages i.e. this? →

{{#widget:Expand or Collapse All}}

Not sure I understand the question.

{{#widget:Expand or Collapse All}} is currently only on
Whonix Documentation. What other pages do you
suggest? I don’t see any other pages where it would be useful currently.
Please elaborate.

3. The following page is definitely an old version. I remember editing the text about different repositories to improve it i.e. remove folksy language.

http://dds6qkxpwdeubwucdiaord2xgbbeyds25rbsgr73tbfpqpt4a6vjwsyd.onion/wiki/Whonix-APT-Repository

Edits since June 2016…

Project-APT-Repository: Difference between revisions - Whonix

No big changes.

4. I see there are old edits awaiting approval for the “Tor Browser without Tor” page. Probably missed in all the action.

http://dds6qkxpwdeubwucdiaord2xgbbeyds25rbsgr73tbfpqpt4a6vjwsyd.onion/wiki/Tor_Browser_without_Tor

Not sure who did that, but they look good. Suggest you approve that.

It’s mixed up with other changes which are untested. This was the
problem. And the person who contributed these disappeared.

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0brand:

Done!

After stopping Tor, /var/lib/tor had to be unmounted. When moving new Tor folder back into /var/lib the new folder did not need to be mounted for Tor to start. Should it be mounted anyways?

It’s mounted by bind-dirs. So when manually unmount it would have to be
manually remount the same way bind-dirs does.

Probably better to use:

rm -r /var/lib/tor/*

To avoid any mount / unmount.

But then the user needs to be careful not to use any extra space before
the asterix /var/lib/tor/ *.

Please change.

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torjunkie

I can update the wiki if you like. Shouldn’t be too difficult.

Unless its something you’d like to tackle?

2 Likes

Please do.

Hi Patrick

Draft for updating wiki/forcing_onion

Note: Whonix maintains compatability with both v2 and v3 onion services so users can access web resources while staying in the Tor network. However, users are encouraged to use v3 (next generation onion services) when visiting whonix.org. This will allow users to benifit from the many improvements over the v2 legacy system.

  • homepage v2 onion v3 onion
  • wiki v3 onion
  • forums v3 onion
  • downloads v3 onion
  • phabricator v3 onion
  • debian repository v3 onion

If I understood correctly, you wanted only 1 mention of v2 onions on whonix.org i.e. forcing_onion chapter?


Wiki/Tor chapter has been updated

https://whonix.org/w/index.php?title=Tor&oldid=33463&diff=cur

For removing Tor files ?

sudo rm -r '/var/lib/tor/*

Added warning about extra spaces (possible consequences)

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Thanks.

No problem - forget it then.

I definitely saw it used on another page on my image hunting exercise, but if not useful I won’t bother.

OK - repository description must have been edited by me on another page that also references it. I do recall tidying this up at some stage.

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→ Draft blog post (Whonix 14 release) done.

Before it gets published, must fix the following:

  • Date at the top.
  • Superscript for references. Wordpress allegedly allows superscript with <sup>1</sup> etc. But when you use this, it just appears in plain text. Unlike in this forum where it works e.g. 1

Tried the markdown to HTML converter, didn’t work for me. Wordpress… harder to configure than Whonix :slight_smile:

1 Like

0brand:

Hi Patrick

Draft for updating wiki/forcing_onion

Note: Whonix maintains compatability with both v2 and v3 onion services so users can access web resources while staying in the Tor network. However, users are encouraged to use v3 (next generation onion services) when visiting whonix.org. This will allow users to benifit from the many improvements over the v2 legacy system.

  • homepage v2 onion v3 onion
  • wiki v3 onion
  • forums v3 onion
  • downloads v3 onion
  • phabricator v3 onion
  • debian repository v3 onion

If I understood correctly, you wanted only 1 mention of v2 onions on whonix.org i.e. forcing_onion chapter?


Wiki/Tor chapter has been updated

https://whonix.org/w/index.php?title=Tor&oldid=33463&diff=cur

For removing Tor files ?

sudo rm -r '/var/lib/tor/*

Added warning about extra spaces (possible consequences)

All ok. :slight_smile:

Wiki Forcing Onion

Done!

With minor edits to draft.

https://whonix.org/w/index.php?title=Forcing_.onion_on_Whonix.org&oldid=33112&diff=cur

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Wordpress automatically adds the date on top (as seen in blog post preview).

No idea.


public preview:

News - Whonix Forum

Looks very good!

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sudo rm -r ‘/var/lib/tor/
rm: cannot remove '/var/lib/tor/
’: No such file or directory

* is a shell feature. If you put it into '' then its special meaning is gone.

* is not a feature by rm.

Since user cannot read /var/lib/torsudo won’t work either.

sudo rm /var/lib/tor/*
rm: cannot remove ‘/var/lib/tor/*’: No such file or directory

1 Like

Fixed!

Removed '' from sudo rm -r /var/lib/tor/*

Warning Box text updated.

https://whonix.org/w//index.php?title=Tor&oldid=33476&diff=cur

Didn’t realize using * with '' would change the behavior of the command.

Takeaway:

Test even if you are 100% sure the command works.

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Since user cannot read /var/lib/tor… sudo won’t work either.

sudo rm /var/lib/tor/*
rm: cannot remove ‘/var/lib/tor/*’: No such file or directory

Hi Patrick

Fixed!

https://whonix.org/w/index.php?title=Tor&oldid=33483&diff=cur

When step 3 was reverted back to previous command I failed to remove the asterisk (*).

With the change, Tor file can now be removed. Since this directory is mounted by bind-dirs, it will always complain resource busy?

user@host:~$ sudo rm -r /var/lib/tor
rm: cannot remove '/var/lib/tor': Device or resource busy
user@host:~$ sudo ls /var/lib/tor
(no output)

Also, 2 out of 10 times moving Tor state file from sys-whonix-13 to sys-whonix-14, Tor (sys-whonix-14) would not start due to missing
DisableNetwork 0 in torrc.

Its likely I made a mistake but couldn’t find anything in command history.

BTW, fully tested intructions and everything works as it should with the new edit.

Thanks for being so patient :blush:

1 Like

0brand:

With thie change, Tor file can now be removed. Since this directory is mounted by bind-dirs, it will always complain resource busy?

user@host:~$ sudo rm -r /var/lib/tor
rm: cannot remove '/var/lib/tor': Device or resource busy

Means something is very wrong.

umount alone is very bad. If you do an action (umount), it should
probably be redone (mount again). Unless completely understood and not
required.

To simulate the parts which bind-dirs would do and recreating the
folder… (Not fully tested.)

sudo umount /var/lib/tor
sudo rm -r /rw/bind-dirs/var/lib/tor
sudo mkdir -p /rw/bind-dirs/var/lib/tor
sudo chown -R debian-tor:debian-tor /rw/bind-dirs/var/lib/tor
sudo mount --bind /rw/bind-dirs/var/lib/tor /var/lib/tor

But this is quite lengthy and complicated.

I see two options. a)

sudo su
sudo rm /var/lib/tor/*

or b)

sudo find /var/lib/tor -type f | sudo xargs rm

None is very elegant. Isn’t there a better linux command?

user@host:~$ sudo ls /var/lib/tor
(no output)

Also, 2 out of 10 times moving Tor state file from sys-whonix-13 to sys-whonix-14, Tor (sys-whonix-14) would not start due to missing
DisableNetwork 0 in torrc.

DisableNetwork 0 should have Tor start but not connect. Is that what is
happening?

Its likely I made a mistake but couldn’t find anything in command history.

Maybe also a bind-dirs issue?

Could you please also mention torrc migration? Mostly interesting for
users who changed torrc settings.

@0brand - You’ll lick your lips with this. The key to editing longevity is balancing the boring shit (eg sys-whonix Tor state), with the fun.

Now, everybody loves unbreakable encryption. “It doesn’t exist” they say? Well, we know that is not true with One Time Pads (OTPs) used properly providing perfect encryption.

Now I’m talking about the physical creation of OTPs, not the electronic program fails which can of course be backdoored by adversaries 6 ways since Sunday.

Anyway, there is no wiki page for that, so I just created an empty one. This is a good guide below that summarises the technique nicely. Of course, multiple dice always comes in handy for generating true randomness where required; no backdoored “RNGs” for us. People don’t need fancy 10 sided dice and all that crap. It can be accomplished properly with good technique with 6 sided dice, to adjust for statistical issues that would otherwise not create true randomness.

Why you say?

If this is wrapped up with the GPG email encryption guide when finished, our most paranoid friends could wrap up a OTP message, inside of a GPG-encrypted email, thrown 100% through the Tor network, using a truly anonymous email account, via an .onion server. And with icing on the cake, we can eventually add the “Jason Bourne” GPG key creation guide from the terminal, so users have the hottest key generation and strongest algorithms going around.

Gives me a stiffie thinking about it. :grinning: ha ha. Anyway, I suggest you start with One Time Pads, instead of that proxy crap, since that is piecemeal, and this is fun.

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I didn’t have time to thoroughly read through the paper but this does look really cool! Plus its easier (for me at least) if the chapter can be started from scratch.

Another benefit to having individual wiki pages is users can more easily find what they are looking for without having to role the dice and sift through an entire page.

“Jason Bourne” GPG key creation will definitely look good along side one time pad. I think this page will perk interest with Quantum computers just around the corner? Possibly here already?

Once i get “sys-whonix Tor state” completed I have a few other small thing to complete and then I can start this :grinning:

Also

VirtualBox troubleshooting wiki enhancement

Low RAM issues (VMs freezing)

TODO

May have to quit my job so I can work on wiki full time!:crazy_face:

1 Like