Hi there,


I have some experience with Debian and now I am testing Tails and have some problem, I don't know where should I put my question in the Tails mailing list so I put it here, I believe I can get more responses by doing so thanks !


I've been running the updated version of Tails from USB boot on an Dell Optiplex 360 and it worked great for few months until couple weeks ago, the system keeps halting in the middle while I was browsing the internet, it could be 5min. or an hour after boot up it halts, it is not really stopped but waited for long time to release from freeze but then halt again, everything except the mouse is non responsive. In one time I saw a pop up "Chrome://...." that a script was slow to responses.... I did not install Chrome I just use what came with the image, I was too quick to close the windows without note down the complete error. I tried with Kingston and Sandisk flash drive but the same result, I change the PC with another same model the same result, I even changed the security level from normal to safest but doesn't help it still halts, any idea ?

So you're saying you've
1. Changed the box you're running on.
2. Changed the disk you're running it from.

All good practise. Have you gone back to a revision of tails that works. Tails is not for typical internet use. Lots of stuff is blocked. It should be using Tor, not chrome, which has tracking built in.

Yes you are right. I did not update it by myself but by auto update, I did not install anything I don't know how come the chrome thing pop up. I changed couple PC and now another old Dell seems to work. I did not rely on it for normal daily browsing but just for testing and fun use.

Tails only manages a subset of normal browsing. It will connect, and download/upload, but I'd consider myself lucky if it played youtube. If you download, there's nowhere it wants to save to. Frankly, I don't think you need tails.James Bond might need it - hardly your average joe.

This is my 3rd reply of the same thing, I don't know why my messages disappeared after post.


Tails have persistent storage with encryption, I am still figuring how to use it, I save my download to USB drive instead, And it does play Youtube with trial and error, if the site does not load then I restart the browser. It is interesting to see how Internet works, I will see content that normally not available in my region or display by default, and despite using the same Tor browser, running on Tails is much smoother and faster than running on a regular distro.

After a year of use and update the halting problem still not fixed, I thought it was due to the slow flash drive, so I install Tails to SATA SSD via USB adapter the same way I install to USB flash, the SSD booted up but failed at last with error "unable to find a media containing a live file system..." something like that, I tried with different SSD the same problem, what is the cause and the fix ?


Btw you may say I should post the question to the Tails forum instead, I tried but the system keeps forcing me to create some tags before I can post, I did but the system rejected everything, there is no way I can post the question so I put in here, hopefully some know-hows can give me some hints, thanks !

Tails is not a regular distro, but designed to be run from usb or dvd. I would expect pauses as they are slow media

You appear to be trying to use it as a regular distro It's not for that purpose.

I use Mint USB boot as well w/o problem, even Tails is not designed for permanent installation it should still run fine rather than halt in every 30min., regarding the slow flash drive I am testing with SSD to see if the problem fixed.