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Figuring out how to download and boot TAILS from OS X |
| | Intro
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< | If, like me, the last time you purchased a laptop occurred prior to the first class you took with Eben, there's a high chance it was an Apple computer. Installing TAILS on a USB from a Mac then booting it on the same computer is not trivial, and it's unlikely that the process described here will go smoothly, especially if you're running Yosemite. I don't know if burning TAILS onto a DVD is significantly easier than installing it on a USB drive via the command line, since I did not do it that way. However, the main difficulty I had was in step 4 of the process, where you restart on the TAILS disk, and there's no reason why the particular type of data-storage device you installed TAILS on would affect the ability of your default boot manager to detect that it is a startup disk. |
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> | If, like me, the last time you purchased a laptop occurred prior to the first class you took with Eben, there's a high chance it was an Apple computer. Installing TAILS on a USB from a Mac then booting it on the same computer is not trivial, and it's unlikely that the process described here will go smoothly, especially if you're running Yosemite. I don't know if burning TAILS onto a DVD is significantly easier than installing it on a USB drive via the command line, since I did not do it that way. However, the main difficulty I had was in step 4 of the process, where you restart on the TAILS disk, and there's no reason why the particular type of data storage device you installed TAILS on would affect the ability of your default boot manager to detect that it is a startup disk. |
| | Steps 1-3
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| | If the USB stick didn't show up when you held down the option/alt key, then you should download rEFInd as suggested here. REFInd is a boot manager that allows you to select a disk or disk partition to boot into using a GUI. Unlike the default boot manager that you go into when you hold down the option key as your computer is starting, this program will recognize all disks whose boot files have a .efi extension regardless of the operating system held by the disk. This means that when you use rEFInd you will be able to boot into TAILS if you followed steps 1-3 correctly. |
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< | Step 4.2.0 (installing rEFInd)
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> | Step 4.2.0 (install rEFInd)
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| | Before you install rEFInd heed this warning. I did not run into any issues, but there's a chance you will. REFInd is in beta, so it might have some problems. |
| | Now that you are in the correct directory, the software might install when you type in the command "./refind-install". If it does, lucky you. You can turn off your computer, turn it back on, select the drive you want to boot into at the new GUI, and then follow steps 5-6. |
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> | Alternatively, a faster way you could do this is to type the path from the root directory to the "refind-install" command. That should look something like "~/Desktop/refind-bin-0.10.2/refind-install" if the folder containing the rEFInd files is on the Desktop. Typing this will allow you to install rEFInd without putting in any cd or pwd commands. |
| | However, if you have been updating your operating system, then you will not be able to install rEFInd, because of System Integrity Protection (SIP), which prevents you from altering certain files on your computer even if you're the root user.
Step 4.2.1 (Getting Around SIP)
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| | Step 4.3
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< | After you have installed rEFInd, turn off your computer, then turn it back on again. This time, do not hold down the option key: rEFInd will run automatically. If you do press and hold down the option key, the default boot loader will appear on the screen, and you will have to repeat the process. |
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> | After you have installed rEFInd, turn off your computer, then turn it back on again. This time, do not hold down the option key: rEFInd will run automatically. If you do press and hold down the option key, the default boot loader will appear on the screen, and you will have to restart your computer again. |
| | Select the drive or dvd containing TAILS using the arrow keys, and everything should run fine. |