有些情況下可以不必每次都得啟動電腦才能執行 Tails ,可透過 virtual machines方式。

With virtual machines, it is possible to run Tails inside a host operating system (Linux, Windows, or macOS). A virtual machine emulates a real computer and its operating system, called a guest, which appears in a window on the host operating system.

When running Tails in a virtual machine, you can use most features of Tails from your usual operating system, and you can use both Tails and your usual operating system in parallel, without the need to restart the computer.

This is how Tails looks when run in a virtual machine on Debian using GNOME Boxes:

We do not currently provide a solution for running a virtual machine inside a Tails host.

Security considerations

用虛擬器運行 Tails 有不同的安全顧慮。依主機作業系統環境和用戶本身的安全需要狀況,在虛擬器上運行 Tails 可能有危險。

  • 原機作業系統和 虛擬化軟體 都可以監控 Tails 底下的活動。

    如果作業系統受到軟體、鍵盤側錄器或 其它惡意軟體的入侵,它可能會破壞 Tails 的安全功能。

    若要在虛擬器下執行 Tails,必須先確認 可以信任原機作業系統和虛擬器軟體。

  • Tails 期間的記錄很可能留在本地機器的硬碟上。例如原機作業系統通常會使用 swapping (or paging) 其會複製部份的 RAM 到硬碟上。

    在虛擬器下執行 Tails 會在硬碟中留下 追踪記錄也沒關係。

這是當在虛擬器下執行Tails 會收到警告的原因。

The Tails virtual machine does not modify the behaviour of the host operating system and the network traffic of the host is not anonymized. The MAC address of the computer is not modified by the MAC address anonymization feature of Tails when run in a virtual machine.

Virtualization solutions

To run Tails inside a virtual machine, you need to have virtualization software installed on the host operating system. Different virtualization software exists for Linux, Windows, and macOS.

The following list includes only free software as we believe that this is a necessary condition for the software to be trustworthy. See the previous warning and our statement about free software and public scrutiny.

商用的虛擬軟體方式有VMWare,但這裏就特意 不予介紹了。

  • VirtualBox is available on Linux, Windows, and Mac. Its free software version does not include support for USB devices and does not allow use of a Persistent Storage.

    請參考對應的文件

  • GNOME Boxes is available on Linux. It has a simple user interface but does not allow use of a Persistent Storage.

    請參考對應的文件

  • virt-manager is available on Linux. It has a more complex user interface and allows use of a Persistent Storage, either by:

    • Starting Tails from a USB stick.
    • 建立一個虛擬的 USB 儲存磁區,並將其存成原機作業系統下的一支單獨檔案。

    請參考對應的文件