Testers-wanted! Whonix 8 Release candidate #2 Whonix 7.7.9.8

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Download

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VirtualBox

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Whonix-Gateway for VirtualBox

http://sourceforge.net/projects/whonixdevelopermetafiles/files/whonix-8/Whonix-Gateway-8.ova/download

Whonix-Gateway for VirtualBox signature

http://sourceforge.net/projects/whonixdevelopermetafiles/files/whonix-8/Whonix-Gateway-8.ova.asc/download

Whonix-Workstation for VirtualBox

http://sourceforge.net/projects/whonixdevelopermetafiles/files/whonix-8/Whonix-Workstation-8.ova/download

Whonix-Workstation signature

http://sourceforge.net/projects/whonixdevelopermetafiles/files/whonix-8/Whonix-Workstation-8.ova.asc/download

KVM / Qemu

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Entirely untested! This is only useful if you have a developers mindset!

This is the first time .qcow2 images are available (as .tar.gz, qcow2

image and signature must be unpacked):

http://sourceforge.net/projects/whonixdevelopermetafiles/files/whonix-8/

We have unfinished(!) instructions for KVM:

https://www.whonix.org/wiki/KVM

There are still a few blockers before using Whonix with KVM can be

considered sane:

https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Dev/KVM

Please help out solving them. Whonix also needs a maintainer to

support using Whonix with KVM.

If you want to upgrade existing Whonix version using Whonix’s APT repository

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Use the whonix_repository tool and switch to Whonix testers repository, see:

https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Whonix-APT-Repository

If you want to upgrade existing Whonix version from source code:

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Updating from the previous testers-only version 7.7.8.6 should be possible, see:

https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Dev/BuildDocumentation_8_deb

Sorry, upgrading from existing Whonix version (0.5.6, 7, etc.) to

7.7.9.8. (and 8 when it’s released) will not be possible.

If you want to build images from source code

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See https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Dev/BuildDocumentation_8 and use git

tag 7.7.9.8.

Physical Isolation users

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Use Debian stable instead of testing, use git tag 7.7.9.8 and see

https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Physical_Isolation.

Changelog between Whonix 7 and Whonix 7.7.9.8 (testers-only version)

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* Whonix is now based on Debian stable instead of Debian testing.

  • In new installations, automatic updates of Whonix’s debian packages

are disabled by default. During first start, users can decide if they

want to enable Whonix’s APT repository or want to leave it disabled.

  • Fixed Whonix’s Tor Browser download and start script for TBB 3.5.

  • Fixed physical isolation build script.

  • Verifiable Builds. Whonix now has a feature which allows the community

to check that Whonix .ova releases are verifiably created from project’s

own source code. Also made ade Whonix’s APT repository verifiable (even

deterministic!). Please see

Verifiable Builds - Whonix for details.

  • Made Whonix build script configurable (can now build terminal-only

Whonix-Gateway’s and/or Whonix-Workstations; 64 bit builds and more)

  • Improved Whonix News’s security. All Whonix News Files are now inside

one tarball, which is signed. This stops leaking how many users are

using a particular version.

  • whonixcheck’s Whonix News download now checks if Whonix News are still

valid (currently up to 4 weeks) and therefore detects indefinite freeze

and replay attacks.

  • whonix_repository tool now has a graphical user interface; added more

command line switches.

  • Set default locale to en_US.UTF-8.

  • Simplified custom user installation of TorChat, thanks to dummytor.

(Protecting from Tor over Tor.)

  • Removed apper and synaptic from default installation, because they are

too confusing / have too many bugs, do not always work in all cases for

all users, #104, can still be manually installed if wanted, see also

https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Dev/Automatic_Updates

* whonixcheck: more configuration options, any function can now be

disabled, this is useful for users who wish to disable control port

filter proxy, they can disable the check_tor_bootstrap function

  • whonixcheck: added protection against possibly malicious strings from

check.torproject.org (in case of a bug, compromise of check.tpo server

or CA compromise), IP strings are now max 50 characters long. User will

be warned in case the limit is exceeded.

  • Whonix-Workstation: no longer installing Tor Browser by default, this

simplified implementing verifiable builds (#113), installing iceweasel

by default, which can be used to download Tor Browser, added local

iceweasel browser homepage saying that iceweasel should not be used for

anything other than downloading Tor Browser, unless one knows what one

is doing.

  • Removed galternatives from whonix-workstation-default-applications

because galternatives has been (temporarily) removed from Debian testing

make the build script more resistant from upstream changes and also to

make Whonix verifiable.

  • The Whonix Team can now use separate keys for Whonix’s APT Repository

and Whonix News.

  • Added technical documentation about keys in Whonix

whonix_shared/usr/share/whonix/keys/readme.

  • new man page: man/whonix_shared/sdwdate.8.ronn

  • Deactivated Maximizing Windows by dragging them to the top of the

screen to prevent users from accidentally maximizing their browser

window when they are using resolutions higher than 1024×768. See

Higher Screen Resolution without VirtualBox Guest Additions ;

https://github.com/Whonix/Whonix/issues/110 and

Prompt if Tor Browser is Maximized (#7255) · Issues · Legacy / Trac · GitLab for more

information. #108

  • added udisks to whonix-shared-packages-recommended for mounting

removable drives

  • KDE settings changes, set to oxygen as suggested by scarp in

“[Whonix-devel] Plastique kwin style & Widget Style”

  • whonixcheck: increased timeout for the tor bootstrap.py utility from 5

to 10 seconds to make it compatible with slow systems as per bug

reporthttps://www.whonix.org/wiki/Special:AWCforum/st/id248/whonixcheck%3A_tor_bootstrap_statu….html

  • whonixcheck: Whonix News File is now deterministic

  • whonixcheck: Whonix News added timeout for gpg and tar

  • added secure-delete, because it contains sfill, which can be used to

zero out free space, which is required for disk shrinking

  • Deactivated running update-command-not-found during build, since not

deterministic (verifiable). Manually running is of course still possible.

  • whonix_shared/etc/apt/sources.list.d/torproject.list: removed the “deb

Index of /torproject.org tor-0.2.4.x-jessie main”

repository, since that repository has been removed by The Tor Project

(Tor is now in their Debian testing repository, which is already added)

  • fixed a bug reported by scarp,

whonix_shared/usr/share/whonix/postinst.d/70_disable_kdm_autostart: was

not disabling other display managers other than kdm. Now using the more

generic

/usr/lib/whonix/display-manager-dpkg-post-invoke.

  • msgcollector: fix race condition not always closing progress bar when

it reached 100%

  • Whonix-Gateway: Workaround for

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=732578

https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Download#Connection_Issues_-_Tor_stops_working_after_an_Upgrade_and_needs_a_Workaround

Set in /etc/default/tor:

USE_AA_EXEC=”no” Can be commented out when that bug gets fixed.

  • optionally (opt-in) building qcow2 images, first rudimentary

implementation, build target (VirtualBox or qcow2 or both) should

probably be configurable in whonix_build script (#122)

  • Whonix News Blog Download / Whonix News: Whonix News Blogs (Whonix

Feature Blog and Whonix Important Blog) are now deployed over the same

mechanism as Whonix News.

  • Whonix-Workstation: better implementation of dummytor using

config-package-dev (might break compatibility with Whonix 7)

  • removed adrelanos’ old key; removed

whonix_shared/usr/share/whonix/postinst.d/70_legacy (breaks

compatiblity with Whonix 7)

  • Re-implemented uwt and dummytor using config-package-dev instead of

custom dpkg-diversions. Breaks compatibly with Whonix 7.

  • Removed rawdog and pandoc since no longer required.

  • moved misc scripts (Scripts for managing Whonix’s offical repository

and Whonix News; debug scripts; developer documentation and deprecated

code) to GitHub - Kicksecure/developer-meta-files: Scripts for managing derivative official repositor; debug scripts; developer documentation

  • whonixcheck: do not show output of gpg for Whonix News verification

  • whonixcheck: do not start whonixcheck, if whonixsetup hasn’t

finished yet

  • whonixcheck: new –verbose / –debug options

  • whonixcheck: Check that /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward and

/proc/sys/net/ipv6/ip_forward aren’t set to 1 to prevent users from

shooting their own feet.

  • whonixcheck: Whonix News can now optionally be signed with two keys, as long as either one is still valid, will be accepted

  • whonixcheck: whonix_shared/etc/init.d/whonixcheckd: on stop, give whonixcheck time to gracefully shut down so it can close any still eventually open progress bars

  • whonixcheck: fix, exit cleanly (close progress bar) when killed by other instance of whonixcheck

  • whonixsetup: start whonixcheck at the end of whonixsetup on

Whonix-Workstation

  • torbrowser: hide output of gpg import; ask “Start Tor Browser yes/no”

after upgrading”

  • torbrowser: added timeout to gpg to prevent endless data attacks

  • torbrowser/whonixcheck: alternative method detecting locally installed

Tor Browser version. When $tbb_folder/Docs/version does not exist, i.e.

when the user manually downloaded Tor Browser, try to detect version

number from ~/tor-browser_en-US/Docs/sources/versions.; comment

  • desktop: higher resolution icons for whonix_repository, whonixcheck,

contribute and donate, whonix gateway firewall, tb recommend, important

blog and torbrowser

  • ram adjusted desktop starter: fixed lightdm (/usr/sbin/…) auto detection

  • qcow2 images: added metadata preallocation

  • qcow2 images: added “-o cluster_size=2M” to “qemu-img” for better

performance

  • build script: fix “sudo: unable to resolve host debian”

  • build script: added –no-options to gpg to avoid conflict with user’s

gpg config files

  • build script: added benchmarking

  • build script: whonix_build_both: support extra parameter

  • build script: got rid of grml_config by using grml-debootstrap’s new

environment variables feature

  • build script: skip backup-img-after-grml-debootstrap and

backup-img-after-meta-package-install build steps by default, can be

re-enabled by builder

  • build script: allow running build-steps.d/2400_convert-img-to-qcow2

without root

  • build script: improved error handling, when error is detected, wait until builder presses enter before cleanup and exit to make it simpler to read error messages when building in cli

  • build script: fixed update-locale bug

build script: Avoiding “perl: warning: Setting locale failed.” as suggested on DebootstrapChroot - Ubuntu Wiki and Re: Problem with locale in a 32bit chroot by setting export LANG=”C”

  • verifiable builds: new build step build-steps.d/2350_cleanup; Get rid

of /dev folder inside the vm image. This is only required for verifiable

builds. Otherwise this could be skipped. For example, “sudo

sha512sum /dev/xconsole” or “sudo sha512sum /dev/initctl” would run

forever. The /dev folder gets recreated by the kernel upon first boot.

  • Improved messages.

  • Lots of smaller fixes.

  • Code refactoring.

  • For more details, see the git log.


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Report: I successfully built the GW today - bare-metal, terminal-only. Was about to try the Workstation VM full package but failed at Whonix Forum

Sorry for actually messing up threads :-[ I have noticed too late that there’s another testers-thread for that particular RC2 release. Anyway, the issue I encountered with the Workstation VM build isn’t too 7.7.9.8 specific after all.

Bare metal in VM builds fine, boots fine but some Tor problems (could be related to the inside-VM fact).

[code]
tor is not running …failed!

sudo service tor status
exit code 3

sudo service tor restart
[warn] Could not bind to xxx.xxx.x.xx:9100-9189 (192.168.0.10): Cannot assign requested address

[code]

torrc

Disable Network 0

Gateway is next.

[quote=“Occq, post:3, topic:89”]Bare metal in VM builds fine, boots fine but some Tor problems (could be related to the inside-VM fact).

[code]
tor is not running …failed!

sudo service tor status
exit code 3

sudo service tor restart
[warn] Could not bind to xxx.xxx.x.xx:9100-9189 (192.168.0.10): Cannot assign requested address

[code]

torrc

Disable Network 0 [/quote]

This error happens, if you only assigned on network card to Whonix-Gateway. The whonixsetup error guess is wrong. (Torrc is correct, but Tor fails to start due to missing network interface. Which is a bug on my personal todo list. Worth to be fixed for Whonix 9. Even if just writing “There could be something wrong with your /etc/tor/torrc” instead of writing “There is something wrong”.)

There is one problem with the build script error handler.

If the build fails in the middle (for whatever reason, like if you forgot to set disk space to more than 8GB. Stupid mistake) the script keeps running because it requires user input. That is highly impractical for those of us who use input log redirection. We don’t see the question, we can’t answer it.

"Please enter c and press enter to continue..
"Please enter to cleanup and exit"

Short term solution is to delete user input option and end the script when it breaks (no continue choice, direct auto exit).

Oh and bare metal was run successfull with India as the location (the same settings failed in the last version) so update-locale seems fixed.

An anonymous wiki editer suggested as build command including logs:

It’s interesting.

Advantages:

  • You see the log in tty.
  • And have a copy in the file.

Disadvantages:

  • No colors in tty.
  • No user input possible in tty. (Which can be an advantage?)
  • Cleanup function does not get run when pressing ctrl + c.

Therefore I reverted the edit.

[quote=“Occq, post:5, topic:89”]There is one problem with the build script error handler.

If the build fails in the middle (for whatever reason, like if you forgot to set disk space to more than 8GB. Stupid mistake) the script keeps running because it requires user input. That is highly impractical for those of us who use input log redirection. We don’t see the question, we can’t answer it.

"Please enter c and press enter to continue..
"Please enter to cleanup and exit"

Short term solution is to delete user input option and end the script when it breaks (no continue choice, direct auto exit).

Oh and bare metal was run successfull with India as the location (the same settings failed in the last version) so update-locale seems fixed.[/quote]

I see. This is non-ideal. Should documented for now. And improved for Whonix 8 + 1.

I don’t want to entirely remove this feature. Has proven very useful in development. Could be disabled by default and enabled with a build configuration. I am not sure. I’d still prefer finding a real solution. Somehow writing a wrapper that can easily write to the tty, to the log, supports color (for tty) and user input would be ideal.

I have an idea about the log. Let’s not fill up this general user testing topic with development discussions. I’ve created a separate topic for this: