What's new in 4.19~beta1?

Tails 4.19, scheduled for June 1, will completely change how to connect to the Tor network from Tails. We would like as many people as possible to test this beta version to be able to fix as many problems as possible before we release 4.19 to all users.

Over the years, we have identified many issues in how to connect to the Tor network from Tails, thanks to your feedback. With this beta, we are trying to solve the most important and pressing of these issues:

The lack of feeback while connecting to the Tor network.
The option to use Tor bridges has to be turned on in the Welcome Screen and cannot be changed afterwards.
The lack of default Tor bridges.
The previous configuration screen for Tor bridges wasn't accessible to people who use the screen reader.
The lack of guidance when Tails is not connected to a local network yet.

Download Tails 4.19~beta1

Tails 4.19~beta1 has not been tested at all, as we usually do for new versions of Tails. Only use Tails 4.19~beta1 for testing!

Download and install Tails 4.19~beta1 as usually.

All the data on this USB stick will be lost. Don't install Tails 4.19~beta1 on any USB stick that already has a Persistent Storage.

Direct download

For USB sticks (USB image)
OpenPGP signature
SHA256SUM: b2b2639b90cea642f203826678c685a1f5b09e2e34f3ccc563864b1b10fa9d5e
For DVDs and virtual machines (ISO image)
OpenPGP signature
SHA256SUM: 5f390031a5b33e579a1c60bc06936366663ce7a27ce7bc50398d7074b1013b42

BitTorrent download

For USB sticks (USB image)
For DVDs and virtual machines (ISO image)

What to test in Tails 4.19~beta1?

We know that Tails 4.19~beta11 still has many rough edges. But we still need your help to identify as many new problems as possible!

We're particularly interested in you testing diverse and rare network configurations:

When connecting to Tor without bridges fails.
When Tails is not connected to a local network yet.
When disconnecting from a Wi-Fi network with Internet connectivity and then reconnecting to a different Wi-Fi network without Internet connectivity.
When disconnecting from Wi-Fi network that don't require Tor bridges and the reconnecting to different Wi-Fi network that requires Tor bridges.
When connecting to a Tor bridge that works at first but then stops working.
When connecting to the Internet using a proxy.

Tell us if anything is unclear, confusing, or not working as you would expect.

Please, send your feedback to tails-testers@boum.org (public mailing list).

If you are comfortable with the command line, check our hacking tips. They contain firewall rules that can be used to block access to the Tor network without bridges or simulate a broken bridge.

What's coming next?

Tails 4.19 will be the first release of a series of improvements to connect to Tor. Next, we will work on:

Saving Tor bridges to the Persistent Storage (#5461)
Detecting better when the computer has no supported Wi-Fi hardware (#14534)
Detecting captive portals (#5785)
Helping people fixing their clock when failing to connect to obfs4 bridges (#15548)

The learn more about our plans, read our blueprint on network connection.

Happy testing!