[archived] Previous, now Deprecated Whonix Windows Installer Testing

To sort out that strange ssh issue… I created a new user ego on my local disk and populated it with the following files.

ego-ssh-test - upload script
.ssh - .ssh folder
.ssh/known_hosts - preconfigured known_hosts
.ssh/id_ed25519.pub - ssh public key
.ssh/id_ed25519 - ssh private key
some-file - just a test file
some-file.asc - just another test file

Then tar’ed it, sent it to another VM, untared, moved to the home folder and run ./ego-ssh-test. Worked. Just now sent ego.tar.gz to @Ego.

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Good day,

Success. Finally works. We might want to find a better solution though and use this key pair only in this solitary instance. Still don’t get why it didn’t work before too, as Github and my Amazon Instances had no issue accepting the same keys…

Either way, is currently uploading the Installer.

Have a nice day,

Ego

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Good day,

Just uploaded it together with the signature. My Public Key may be found here: Mailvelope Key Server

The output if verified should be:

gpg: Signature made Fri 06 Jan 2017 10:55:22 PM UTC
gpg:                using RSA key 0x584A8DF9FBB8E862
gpg: Good signature from "Ego <ego-superego-id@protonmail.com>" [unknown]
gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg:          There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: 2B72 83C9 D382 4D7F 9D11  8364 584A 8DF9 FBB8 E862

Have a nice day,

Ego

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Great!

Can you announce it in Whonix blog please, call for public testing?

Good day,

I’m not certain, though I think I don’t have writing privileges there yet.

Have a nice day,

Ego

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New admin account Ego created just now and password sent by e-mail.

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Good day,

Am now half through with adding the Installer to our current Download pages and just got a question. Who should sign them? They’ve currently been signed by me, though that would require additional instructions on verifications as I obviously use a different key to you.

Also, was able to decrypt the mails, though replying was not possible, as Protonmail still seems to have some issues with certain PGP messages for some reason…

Have a nice day,

Ego

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What about /wiki/Installer → /wiki/Windows for better SEO?

Eventually we should also mention /wiki/Windows on /wiki/Download as well as /wiki/VirtualBox and /Download. Exciting Whonix times for platform support! :slight_smile:

I am very much for you signing them.

(Until we maybe some day get something better than signing by individuals. Signing by a somehow securely shared project signing key and a build server and deterministic builds. Could be years.)

Generally, not all in Whonix development activity can be proxyied through me. I’d like that, but time and energy has physical limits unfortunately. I am glad that there are other maintainers taking responsibility for other certain components.

Yes.

Good day,

Sure, can change it. Also, planned on including it on /Download and Vbox, though only after the Installer Page has been finalized.

Ok, great.

Have a nice day,

Ego

Great!

Added a few minor blog post revisions on top. (Added link to why Windows is insecure, made links clickable, fixed a typo (familar vs familiar).)

What I don’t understand is the following…

The Whonix-UI can be found separately here:
GitHub - EgoBits1/Whonix-Windows-UI

Why a link to the Whonix Windows UI? Isn’t the UI included with the installer? If it is included, was the goal to add a link to the build documentation or source code?

Good day,

Obviously it’s included. That’s why I wrote “separately” and furthermore:

If you’d like to try the UI with your existing installation of Whonix, you may simply drag-and-drop it into the folder in which you’ve installed VirtualBox.

That link is for those who’d like to test the UI with their existing Whonix installation (if there are any people who’d like to do that…)

Have a nice day,

Ego

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A minor nitpick for some later release… Could you please fix the line breaks under Preliminary notes:? Not have a new line after together, etc.

Let’s move this to public development forum now?

Good day,

Not certain what you mean. Could you maybe elaborate?

Sure.

Have a nice day,

Ego

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Here it is good to see:

Currently:

Preliminary notes:
Due to the fact that this Installer has bundles multiple different projects
together,
for which the creators decided to use different licenses, following are there
different

Better:

Preliminary notes:

Due to the fact that this Installer has bundles multiple different projects together, for which the creators decided to use different licenses, following are there different

I.e. not together, and that line ending there.

Created a pull request here.

(I however don’t suggest to rewrite all the other licenses. It’s rather a minor point. but for the first impression it’s a bit better if there are not lines that start with one word and then end there.)

Good day,

Oh, that’s what you were referring to. Thanks, just merged it.

Have a nice day,

Ego

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Would you like to significantly reduce the installer size? Try using the srep deduplication tool before compressing. I tested compressing two ova images in a single solid block using freearc and latest version of srep:

http://freearc.org/download/research/srep393a.zip

From 3,89 GB to 2,06 GB

This is the full method I used:

srep:m3f:mem256mb+dispack070+delta+lzma:max:256mb

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I also recommend adding Whonix version numbers to the installer: Whonix-13.0.0.1.4-Installer or Whonix-Installer-13.0.0.1.4

There’s a typo in Whonix.exe: “If the program persists” to “If the problem persists”

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Good day,

I’ll have to look into it again, though I actually tried dozens of different compression standards and setups. I in the end chose the one used now because it doesn’t create to much strain on even weaker hardware during decompression. There are certainly better standards, though they necessitate more processing power and prolong the decompression process.

Will try your recommended solution though anyways.

Thank you, will fix/change that in the next version.

Have a nice day,

Ego

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You should be able to use srep standalone before using the current compressor. It should improve the (de)compression time too because there is less data to work with thanks to deduplication.


The icon of Whonix-Installer has lower quality than that of Whonix.exe. Could that be improved?

Good day,

NSIS handles icons slightly differently to VisualStudio. That’s why the Installer actually has a higher quality icon then the UI. So, sadly, this can’t be improved at the moment.

Have a nice day,

Ego