may you please make sure that it gets wiped then? I would really like to contribute to Whonix testing with logs and everything. Shared with a small group but doing this on a public forum is stupid to say the least. Wouldn’t want to be too paranoid but (1) posting the log was never needed as it’s perfectly clear that it’s your script that’s failing, not me - other than you assumed for the last 36 hours + 3 failed build runs (“locales” certainly is installed) and (2) I do not have control over your database and I do not want that information in there. So, if possible, please wipe it.[/quote]
I and perhaps fortasse (webmaster) as well know as much as smf forum database as you do. If you tell us, how to do that, it can gladly be done. I’ve spend an hour already figuring out how to do it. Well, learned one thing or another in meanwhile. Seems like no one else on search engines ever asked how to do it. (And I doubt it’s so trivial no one needed to ask.) I asked fortasse and stackexchange. With some nagging others it may be possible. If you want to speed up the process: 1. install smf locally 2. post something 3. delete it 4. check the database 5. delete from database 6. tell us how you did it.
No offense intended here (really) but this testing session just isn't worth it from my perspective.
Sad to hear.
Let's change some parameters and I'm gladly in.
What parameters?
That is to say: (1) exchanging logs by encrypted means (pgp, otr, whatever else) and (2) taking reports about failing scripts seriously.
There is pgp e-mail available. Linked on the contact site. And I guess you overestimate those uuids. Those aren't hardware serials, they're software uuids. If you figure out how, you can change them without re-installation. They're gone after re-installation.
I heard several times during the last two days, that something stupid ("locales" not installed, possible typo, etc.) is the reason for a failing script while it's the stupid script itself that's failing (sorry, again, no offense intended really).
Any command that exits with an unexpected exit code is considered a failure and the script exits. This ensures integrity of the build. This isn't a game, where small differences in the gameplay don't matter. Whonix makes these things uniform, i.e. timezone, username, hostname as well as locale. In case later any custom installed application leaks it, you're in the Whonix (and in many cases Tails etc.) anonymity set and better off.
Whonix 8 + 1’s build script will have an undocumented feature to continue in case of unexpected exit codes.
hope you don't mind my response but this needed to be said after 2 days of failures due to a faulty script
Well, the physical isolation instructions are meant to be used by advanced Linux users. It can probably never be convenient and simple. Advanced Linux users as well as testers require a high frustration tolerance. Welcome to Free Software development. And you can always claim your money back, if you're not satisfied.
Honesty is the best policy here I guess - with all due respect.
Honesty is fine. And I don't easily take offense, because I am not convinced of the hypothesis of free will.
I’ve read the http://producingoss.com/ book by Karl Fogel. He advises to treat users as developers as well. I can’t provide the quality of robustness and simplicity you’re asking for. And without any help of testers, it would be simplest to just drop support for physical isolation at all.
But for my defense, I guess there are worse build environments.
How to build a Debian/Ubuntu installer cd from source code? I haven’t even found instructions on how to do it. Then I asked on stackexchange, and no one else knew either. Well, would I have been more serious about it, i.e. by meeting up with Debian developers, they would have probably told me.
Did you try to build Tails from source code? Last time I checked, their git repository was several gigabytes big. And since their forum and website shares the same git repository, it is difficult to keep up with changes they make in git, because most changes were simply irrelevant (website, forum). You need to build using squeeze (which I consider obsolete) and manually install build dependencies using backports (there is no script to automate it). And when you finally have your build environment, it requires a vagrant box (a virtual machine). So building Tails within a virtual machine is difficult, since you would have to build inside a nested VM. That vagrant box is a binary box based on Ubuntu. I didn’t want to use their binary box, not because I distrust it, but because I really wanted to build from source code for the sake of it. And I didn’t want to use a Ubuntu box, because I don’t trust and choose to boycott Ubuntu since they started messing up with amazon data leaks. And they have no instructions on how to build that vagrant box from source. So I would have required to learn vagrant first, then I gave up.
I do my best to do better. And I am not there yet where I want it to be.