Hello. I have built a custom Ubuntu-based workstation and was able to install all the required components from the Whonix repository. Everything appears to work as expected, except that whonixcheck complains that it cannot find the Whonix Build Version file (duh).
Is there a way to tell whonixcheck to skip this test since it does not apply to this install?
Otherwise the whonix script look to be quite compatible with current Ubuntu except for torsocks which had to be downgraded. Using the version packaged in the Ubuntu 14.04 repositories causes libtorsocks error messages to appear in the terminal for internet related commands.
Keep up the great work!
Using whonixcheck outside of Whonix is currently a bit difficult unless you can fix a few glitches. Currently not supported. In near future there will be a repository https://github.com/Whonix/whonixcheck where you can build a deb package as I am in process of splitting Whonix into multiple packages (https://github.com/Whonix/Whonix/issues/40). I don’t know what changes are required to make it run in a custom debian/ubuntu, haven’t looked into that yet. Mostly simple stuff I am planing to do later. Maybe try this.
In file 50_check-whonix-news in function check_whonix_build_news comment out check_whonix_build_news.
In file 10_preparation it says.
whonix_build_version="Could not read Whonix Build Version File. (Code: 2) Please report this bug!"
Try setting to.
whonix_build_version="custom"
Also.
sudo touch /usr/share/whonix/whonix_workstation
As for torsocks, I don’t recommend downgrade. There is a patch to fix this bug. I am wondering Ubuntu still hasn’t applied it.
I looked around a bit and I found the easy built-in way to disable the individual components of whonixcheck.
In /etc/whonix.d/30_whonixcheck_default I uncommented the line
and now whonixcheck isn’t complaining anymore.
user@host:/etc/whonix.d$ whonixcheck
[INFO] [whonixcheck] Tor Bootstrap Result: Connected to Tor.
[INFO] [whonixcheck] Whonix is produced independently of, with no guarantee from, The Tor Project. Whonix is experimental software. Do not rely on it for strong anonymity. https://www.whonix.org
[INFO] [whonixcheck] SocksPort Test: Testing Tor's SocksPort...
[INFO] [whonixcheck] SocksPort Test Result: Connected to Tor. IP: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
[INFO] [whonixcheck] TransPort Test: Testing Tor's TransPort...
[INFO] [whonixcheck] TransPort Test Result: Connected to Tor. IP: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
[INFO] [whonixcheck] Stream Isolation Test Result: Functional.
INFO: Skipping download_whonix_news, because whonixcheck_skip_functions includes it.
[INFO] [whonixcheck] Debian Package Update Check: Checking for software updates via apt-get...
[INFO] [whonixcheck] Debian Package Update Check Result: No updates found via apt-get.
[INFO] [whonixcheck] Whonix APT Repository: Enabled.
When the Whonix team releases TESTERS updates, they will be AUTOMATICALLY installed (when you run apt-get dist-upgrade) along with updated packages from the Debian team. Please read https://whonix.org/wiki/Trust to understand the risk. If you want to change this, use:
sudo whonix_repository
[INFO] [whonixcheck] Tor Browser Update Check: Checking version...
[INFO] [whonixcheck] Tor Browser Update Check Result: Up to date.
As for using the Whonix components in Ubuntu, all that was required as of version 14.04 was to add the whonix and torproject repositories to the apt sources and all the dependencies were met. I’m still testing to see if something maybe missing under the hood.