You can help Tails! The first release candidate for the upcoming version 1.4 is out. Please test it and see if it works for you.

  1. How to test Tails 1.4~rc1?
  2. How to automatically upgrade from 1.3.2?
  3. What's new since 1.3.2?
  4. Known issues in 1.4~rc1

How to test Tails 1.4~rc1?

  1. Keep in mind that this is a test image. We have made sure that it is not broken in an obvious way, but it might still contain undiscovered issues.

  2. Either try the automatic upgrade, or download the ISO image and its signature:

    Tails 1.4~rc1 ISO image

    Tails 1.4~rc1 signature

  3. Verify the ISO image.

  4. Have a look at the list of known issues of this release and the list of longstanding known issues.

  5. Test wildly!

If you find anything that is not working as it should, please report to us! Bonus points if you first check if it is a known issue of this release or a longstanding known issue.

How to automatically upgrade from 1.3.2?

These steps allow you to automatically upgrade a device installed with Tails Installer from Tails 1.3.2 to Tails 1.4~rc1.

  1. Start Tails 1.3.2 from a USB stick or SD card (installed by the Tails Installer), and set an administration password.

  2. Run this command in a Root Terminal to select the "alpha" upgrade channel and start the upgrade:

    echo TAILS_CHANNEL=\"alpha\" >> /etc/os-release && \
     tails-upgrade-frontend-wrapper

  3. Once the upgrade has been installed, restart Tails and look at Applications ▸ Tails ▸ About Tails to confirm that the running system is Tails 1.4~rc1.

What's new since 1.3.2?

Changes since Tails 1.3.2 are:

  • Major new features

    • Upgrade Tor Browser to 4.5, which introduces many major new features for usability, security and privacy. Unfortunately its per-tab circuit view did not make it into Tails yet since it requires exposing more Tor state to the user running the Tor Browser than we are currently comfortable with. (Closes: #9031)
    • Upgrade Tor to 0.2.6.7-1~d70.wheezy+1+tails2. Like in the Tor bundled with the Tor Browser, we patch it so that circuits used for SOCKSAuth streams have their lifetime increased indefinitely while in active use. This currently only affects the Tor Browser in Tails, and should improve the experience on certain websites that otherwise would switch language or log you out every ten minutes or so when Tor switches circuit. (Closes: #7934)

  • Security fixes

    • Upgrade Linux to 3.16.7-ckt9-3.
    • Upgrade curl to 7.26.0-1+wheezy13.
    • Upgrade dpkg to 1.16.16.
    • Upgrade gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad to 0.10.23-7.1+deb7u2.
    • Upgrade libgd2-xpm to 2.0.36~rc1~dfsg-6.1+deb7u1.
    • Upgrade openldap to 2.4.31-2.
    • Upgrade LibreOffice to 1:3.5.4+dfsg2-0+deb7u4.
    • Upgrade libruby1.9.1 to 1.9.3.194-8.1+deb7u5.
    • Upgrade libtasn1-3 to 2.13-2+deb7u2.
    • Upgrade libx11 to 2:1.5.0-1+deb7u2.
    • Upgrade libxml-libxml-perl to 2.0001+dfsg-1+deb7u1.
    • Upgrade libxml2 to 2.8.0+dfsg1-7+wheezy4.
    • Upgrade OpenJDK to 7u79-2.5.5-1~deb7u1.
    • Upgrade ppp to 2.4.5-5.1+deb7u2.

  • Bugfixes

    • Make the Windows 8 browser theme compatible with the Unsafe and I2P browsers. (Closes: #9138)
    • Hide Torbutton's "Tor Network Settings..." context menu entry. (Closes: #7647)
    • Upgrade the syslinux packages to support booting Tails on Chromebook C720-2800. (Closes: #9044)
    • Enable localization in Tails Upgrader. (Closes: #9190)
    • Make sure the system clock isn't before the build date during early boot. Our live-config hook that imports our signing keys depend on that the system clock isn't before the date when the keys where created. (Closes: #9149)
    • Set GNOME's OpenPGP keys via desktop.gnome.crypto.pgp to prevent us from getting GNOME's default keyserver in addition to our own. (Closes: #9233)
    • Prevent Firefox from crashing when Orca is enabled: grant it access to assistive technologies in its Apparmor profile. (Closes: #9261)
    • Add Jessie APT source. (Closes: #9278)
    • Fix set_simple_config_key(). If the key already existed in the config file before the call, all other lines would be removed due to the sed option -n and p combo. (Closes: #9122)

  • Minor improvements

    • Upgrade I2P to 0.9.19-3~deb7u+1. (Closes: #9229)
    • Install Tor Browser's bundled Torbutton instead of custom .deb. As of Torbutton 1.9.1.0 everything we need has been upstreamed.
    • Install Tor Browser's bundled Tor Launcher instead of our in-tree version. With Tor 0.2.6.x our custom patches for the ClientTransportPlugin hacks are not needed any more. (Closes: #7283)
    • Don't install msmtp and mutt. (Closes: #8727)
    • Install fonts-linuxlibertine for improved Vietnamese support in LibreOffice. (Closes: #8996)
    • Remove obsoletete #i2p-help IRC channel from the Pidgin configuration (Closes: #9137)
    • Add Gedit shortcut to gpgApplet's context menu. Thanks to Ivan Bliminse for the patch. (Closes: #9069).
    • Install printer-driver-gutenprint to support more printer models. (Closes: #8994).
    • Install paperkey for off-line OpenPGP key backup. (Closes: #8957)
    • Hide the Tor logo in Tor Launcher. (Closes: #8696)
    • Remove useless log() instance in tails-unblock-network. (Closes: #9034)

Known issues in 1.4~rc1

  • The Windows 8 theme is slightly broken for all browsers: the default Firefox tab bar is used, and the search bar is enabled. (#9326)

  • Tails' Tor Browser still uses Startpage as the default search engine instead of Disconnect.me like upstream Tor Browser, but the Unsafe Browser does use Disconnect.me. (#9309)

  • Longstanding known issues