I cant get persistence to work

Support Tails
1

I can not create persistent storage in tails.

I am a long term but infrequent user of tails/tor.
I started around version 3.
When persistent storage arrived I set it up and it worked through version 6.6.

Between version 5.18 and 6.6 I was able to use the upgrade option.
When upgrading from 6.6 failed, I tried to install the new version directly
but it also failed.

Since then I can not get tails persistence to work either through upgrades or
new installs.

As each new version came out I tried again - always getting an error when tails
boots or I try to activate persistence. Browsing works though.

I am running Linux MX 23 on a dell INSPIRION 3511 LAPTOP, dell Latitude 6420
and Dell Desktop 790. All fail.

I can install version 4.24, 6.0 and 6.6 as .img and .iso and these work
as expected but anything higher fails.

I’ve even tried reinstalling using windows 10 …

I’ve tried the following USB sticks: Maxell, PNY; Sandisk Cruzer Glide 32 GB,
and two brand new Sandisk Ultra dual drive 32 GB.

I use gparted to delete all partitions on the USB stick, and create a new
fat32 partition.

If I then write the tails .iso using MX live usb maker, and boot tails I do get
the button to turn on persistence which I select.
But when I finish starting tails I get this error.

“Sorry, it is impossible to create Persistent storage on this device”

If I write the tails .img file using disks I can not select the button to turn
on persistence and get the following error upon starting tails.

" Partitioning Error

Errors were detected in the partitioning of your Tails USB stick.
Creation of Persistent storage has been disabled.
We recommend you reinstall Tails from scratch.
If the error persists, reinstall on a new USB stick."

I’ve tried everything I can think of often more than once.
I am getting a little frustrated especially now we are up to version 7.4.

Any thoughts or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

2

Have you tried the official guide with dd? Tails - Install Tails from Debian or Ubuntu using the command line and GnuPG

What is the partition used for?

3

Not enough space on flash drive, more than one partition on the usb stick, the usb drive is read-only.

Try formatting a drive to some other format like exFAT and then flash the image using balenaetcher. (turn off the metrics there though)

Hmm, could your BIOS settings be causing this issue? Like too strict security settings.

4

32GiB is big enough for Tails to create persistence storage imo.

I don’t think BIOS would prevent repartitioning? It’s all userspace activities, not, like, “unsigned kernel modules or images”, after all. If a BIOS would block repartitioning, won’t it blocked so when user tries to create a Tails USB stick?

5

quick and dirty:

.) suppose you have a PC/Laptop… with any flavour of linux

use sudo where necessary

.) wget -- continue -O tails.img https://download.tails.net/tails/stable/tails-amd64-7.4/tails-amd64-7.4.img

if feeling unsecure/paranoid check your download with the usual means

.) ls -l /dev/sd?

.)Now plug in your USB-stick

.) ls -l /dev/sd?

You will find in the listing of s-devices a new device e.g. sdb Substitute sdb with the value that fits your setup

.) dd if=tails.img of=/dev/sdb bs=4M

have a break

When dd has finished, have your stick as boot-device, restart and voilá you will get the normal tails start with the option to create a persistant storage.

6

I thank everyone for the suggestions.
Unfortunately I am still where I started but they helped me go down some
interesting rabbit holes!!!

balenaetcher did not fix it.
ext4 versus fat32 did not fix it.
dd if= … did not fix it.

The tails image is verified.

My USB sticks - mainly sandisk are from Amazon or walmart.
Please suggest a specific manufacturer and model of sticks that work.
I will try anything.

I am attacking this across 3 computers, 2 operating systems and 6-8 USB sticks

all at the same time.

I use both format and gparted to “reset” the partitions on a stick.
Sometimes when I opened gparted it complained that the backup GPT table
is corrupt.

“The backup GPT table is corrupt, but the primary appears OK, so that will
be used”

All I would do is use gparted to delete all partitions - create new fat32, ext4
or even leave the stick unallocated with no partition at all and try again.
That gets rid of the corrupt backup table error but does not solve the problem.

So here is where I am:

Use gparted to wipe the USB - with no partition and unallocated.
Use format to create a fat 32 partition.
Use gparted to see if it complains about backup table. It does not.
Use Disks to write version 7.4 image.
Use gparted to see if it complains about backup table. It does not.
Boot the tails USB stick.
Unable to create persistence - same old, same old - partition error.
Use gparted to see if it complains about backup table. It does
	BACKUP TABLE IS CORRUPT again.

I’ve done this 3 times in a row with the same result.

If I was not a participant in this situation I would call B.S., this is
bogus, this makes no sense, someone is gaslighting.
However, this is not the case and this is my world.

7

P.S. If I ever get this fixed I will post the solution even if it makes me look like an idiot

8

Could you share the exact command you used?

This should not be necessary. If you do it right you will overwrite the partition table anyway.

9

Definitely.

Yes, then you wouldn’t even be able to launch the “unsigned OS“

There has to be an anomaly. Whether it’s the usb sticks, the laptops or the software somewhere…

Did you try using another partition-managing tool other than gparted?

Can the issue be in the sticks? If you have any other drive that’s not being used (like a microsd, if your pc supports inserting one, or an SSD or HDD) - you can probably try installing it there.

I’d say it’s either the partition manager or the USB sticks :smile:, might be wrong though!!!

10

Here is my exact dd commands:

me ~ 505 >cat tailsdd
root@mx23-Inspirion:/home/me/Downloads/Linuxes/tails# dd if=tails-amd64-7.4.img of=/dev/sda bs=16M oflag=direct status=progress
2046820352 bytes (2.0 GB, 1.9 GiB) copied, 76 s, 26.9 MB/s2049966080 bytes (2.0 GB, 1.9 GiB) copied, 76.0527 s, 27.0 MB/s

122+1 records in
122+1 records out
2049966080 bytes (2.0 GB, 1.9 GiB) copied, 76.4233 s, 26.8 MB/s

Upon booting I can not select the persistent storage button

root@mx23-Inspirion:/home/me/Downloads/Linuxes/tails# ^img^iso
dd if=tails-amd64-7.4.iso of=/dev/sda bs=16M oflag=direct status=progress
2030043136 bytes (2.0 GB, 1.9 GiB) copied, 76 s, 26.9 MB/s2039869440 bytes (2.0 GB, 1.9 GiB) copied, 75.5385 s, 27.0 MB/s

121+1 records in
121+1 records out
2039869440 bytes (2.0 GB, 1.9 GiB) copied, 76.2969 s, 26.7 MB/s

Upon booting I can select the persistent storage but after starting tails
I get this message.

Sorry, it is impossible to create a Persistent storage on this device.
11

Some Persistence problem progress.

My mistake was treating tails.img files and tails.iso files interchangeably.
In the following description when I refer to an .img file then I used Disks to
create the tails stick and when I refer to .iso then Live USB maker was used to
create the tails stick. I can not claim I understand why this is the problem
but this is the way things work on my configuration and has been my convention
forever.

The linch pin was my usual tails stick labeled with masking tape as version
5.18 (X’d out) and 6.6 written in.

I decided to try to trace through different versions to see where things went
bad. So I restored from backups all tails files. This was kinda sparse so I
found older .iso versions online.

Every .iso from 6.6 forward failed. So I went to version 5.18 .iso.
This also failed. Then I noticed that tails 6.6 on my working stick was a .img
and I had been testing .iso’s. I was able to find a .img and an .iso of
5.17 version online for testing.

In testing these the .img version worked great but the .iso version failed.
So I swapped the USB sticks and the failure followed the file type and
not the the disk. So there was nothing wrong with the sticks.

Further tests showed that going forward through the versions all worked if
I wrote .img and not .iso.

This worked for version 6.7, 6.8, 6.9, 6.10, 6.11, 6.12 and failed on 6.13.
Right back where I started.

In the release notes for version 6.13 it states as a fixed problem:

Detect partitioning errors also when Tails is started for the first time. (#20797)

This solves some failures when creating the Persistent Storage on a new Tails USB stick.

I don’t know where to go from here.
I am tired and will take a break.
I’ve spent more time trying to fix this than I use tails in a year.
It would be nice to save some bookmarks and add dangerzone.

I will respond to specific suggestions or questions though.

12

https://download.tails.net/tails/stable/tails-amd64-7.4/tails-amd64-7.4.iso

.iso version (source: Tails - Download and verify (ISO image) )

https://download.tails.net/tails/stable/tails-amd64-7.4/tails-amd64-7.4.img

.img version (source: Tails - Download and verify (for USB sticks) )

The .img’s seem to be preferred over the iso’s.

13

My versions 5.18, 6.0, 6.6, 7.0 and 7.4 all came from tails.net and were verified.

For all other versions I took the computer I usually use as my I2P router and installed a blank hardrive.

I then installed a generic, basic and default version of MX linux.

I used this system to burn the unverified test versions onto the sticks.

I pulled the hardrive before booting tails to see the results.

And then I did it all over again.

When this is done I will use DBAN - to boot and nuke that hard drive.

14

I’ve solved my problem of not being able to create persistence in tails.

For my configuration - tails does not play nice with legacy boot.

My main computer uses UEFI and the spare testing computer uses/used legacy.
(Its always been that way and I never took the time to change it.)

I would use Disks to write an .img and then test it on the legacy spare.
Failure, Failure and more Failure.

When I wrote the same image and then tried it on the UEFI computer -
Success, Success and more Success.

I still am not able to write an .iso but at this point …

I have learned more about booting, bios, partitioning, GPT, legacy and UEFI than
it is healthy for any human being to know.

I do not feel like a total idiot after finding the following comment on
tails.net about UEFI.

Legacy BIOS boot support should be left unaffected
(modulo a tiny amount of really crazy firmware bugs, probably)

I thank you all for the help and assistance and when we meet on the dark
interwebs - we will not know it.

15

Great!

@Lind The BIOS settings were affecting the persistent storage after all :sweat_smile:

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