With the Tails 5.9 release, the developers want to eliminate many problems that the pre-Christmas version 5.8 brought with it – among other things, the version with numerous graphics cards did not run. They also update the most important core packages.
Tails: updated anonymization tools
As usual, the most important updates concern the Tor browser, which at the 102.7 level primarily solves some security problems in the Firefox ESR base. The Tor client is at 0.4.7.13. The developers have simplified the Tor Connection Assistant error display for automatic connections. They also fine-tuned the wording of the backup tool for persistent storage. They also threw out a confirmation dialog when starting the Unsafe Browser.
Since the previous version caused problems on numerous graphics cards, the Tails maintainers have updated the kernel to version 6.0.12. This improves the hardware support in general, they write in the version announcement, in addition to graphics cards, for example also for WLAN adapters and the like. The troubleshooting boot mode no longer uses two entries for the boot parameters, namely for improved graphics card support nomodeset such as vga=normal. The developers look forward to feedback on whether the changes will help those affected by the problem.
They also corrected the decryption and encryption of the clipboard in Cleopatra. In some cases, the persistent memory was not activated beforehand. It also stuttered a bit with the supplied password manager KeePassX, so that the developers had to make corrections.
However, the developers are already aware of a few minor problems with Tails 5.9: The Tor Browser lacks buttons for minimizing and maximizing, the welcome screen no longer fits the screen resolution of 800×600 pixels, and the progress bar for the Tor network connection sometimes stays the same 50 percent hanging.
As always, the new version is available as an image for USB sticks and as an ISO image for burning to DVD or for use in virtual machines.
(dmk)
