• For issues with graphics cards, see our know issues with graphics cards. - To learn what you can do with Tails, refer to our documentation. - For more general questions about Tails, refer to our FAQ.

Problems starting Tails

This section lists known problems with specific hardware. To report a problem with different hardware see our report guidelines when Tails does not start.

Problematic USB sticks

SanDisk

Many SanDisk USB sticks are configured by the manufacturer as a fixed disk, and not as a removable disk. As a consequence, they require removing the live-media=removable boot parameter. See troubleshooting section about Tails not starting entirely on PC or Mac.

• SanDisk Cruzer Edge 8GB
• SanDisk Cruzer Extreme USB 3.0 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB
• SanDisk Cruzer Fit USB 2.0 8GB, 16GB, and 32G
• SanDisk Cruzer Force 8GB
• SanDisk Cruzer Glide 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB
• SanDisk Cruzer Switch USB 2.0 8GB, and 32GB
• SanDisk Cruzer USB 3.0 64GB
• SanDisk Cruzer Blade 4GB, 8GB, and 32GB
• SanDisk Cruzer Facet
• SanDisk Cruzer Orbiter 32GB (hangs at installation time but boots fine afterwards)
• SanDisk Ultra 16GB, 32GB

SanDisk had begun the production of flash drives configured as fixed disk in 2012 to meet new requirements for Windows 8 Certification, and ended it in mid-2014. The flash drives that comply with this certification will have the Windows 8 logo on their packaging. If a flash drive does not have the Windows 8 logo on its packaging, then that drive will function as a removable disk and should work with Tails.

See also #6397.

PNY

When installing Tails, PNY USB sticks have problems with the constant write load and are prone to failure.

Aegis

• Aegis Secure Key USB 2.0

During the boot process, USB is briefly powered off, that causes Aegis hardware-encrypted USB sticks to lock down, and the PIN must be entered again (fast) in order to complete the boot.

• Aegis Secure Key USB 3.0

This USB stick doesn't start Tails at all, the USB 2.0 workaround is not working for that hardware.

Kingston DataTraveler 2000, Kingston DataTraveler 100 G3

Starting Tails from a Kingston DataTraveler 2000 or DataTraveler 100G3 doesn't work.

Other vendors

• Staples Relay USB 2.0 16GB, suffers from the same problem as some SanDisk USB sticks.

Mac

• Any Mac with 32-bit EFI may not succeed in booting Tails USB stick created by Tails Installer. You can check if a given Mac is 32-bit or 64-bit EFI on that list: http://www.everymac.com/mac-answers/snow-leopard-mac-os-x-faq/mac-os-x-snow-leopard-64-bit-macs-64-bit-efi-boot-in-64-bit-mode.html
• MacBook Pro 2016 and 2017: the keyboard, trackpad and Touch Bar do not work.
• MacBook Pro 5,5 does not boot with Tails in UEFI mode.
• MacBook Pro 5,1 17" (Nvidia GeForce 9400M): one must add the nouveau.noaccel=1 boot parameter so that the display works properly.
• MacBook Air 3,2 (A1369 EMC 2392) freezes when booting Tails in UEFI mode.
• Mac Pro Tower and MacBook Pro 4,1 (both from early 2008) fails to boot from a USB stick created by Tails Installer.

PC

Acer Travelmate 8573T-254G50M

Booting from DVD works fine, but does not start from USB sticks created using Tails Installer.

This problem might be corrected in Tails 1.1 and newer: please report your test results back to us.

Acer Aspire 5315-ICL50 and Acer ES-1-331

Does not start on USB sticks created using Tails Installer.

ASUS VivoBook X202E

Legacy support needs to be enabled in order to start Tails. To enable legacy boot support, enable 'Launch CSM' under boot (menu).

This problem might be corrected in Tails 1.1 and newer: please report your test results back to us.

Dell Chromebook LULU

You need to add nomodeset to the startup options to make Tails start successfully.

Dell Inc. Latitude E6430 and E6230

Does not start on USB sticks created using Tails Installer.

With BIOS versions A03 06/03/2012 (and A09, A11, and A12)

Error message: Invalid partition table!

Workaround (at least with BIOS versions A09, A11, and A12): just hit enter and it will continue with the boot.

This problem might be corrected in Tails 1.1 and newer: please report your test results back to us.

Dell XPS L702X/03RG89, Samsung RV520, Samsung Series 7 Chronos

Does not start on USB sticks created using Tails Installer.

We were reported that the legacy BIOS shipped on these systems doesn't know how to deal with the GPT partition scheme installed by Tails Installer.

This problem might be corrected in Tails 1.1 and newer: please report your test results back to us.

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/p/19392884/20010995.aspx

Dell Inspiron 8100

The display panel will have the wrong resolution unless video=LVDS-1:1600x1200 nouveau.noaccel=1 is added to the boot command line. This problem might be corrected in Tails 1.1 and newer: please report your test results back to us.

Dell Dimension 2400

Does not start neither from USB nor from DVD. System crashes with a blank screen and locked up keyboard. This problem might be corrected in newer versions: please report your test results back to us.

Fujitsu Siemens Amilo A 1667G

Does not start on USB sticks created using Tails Installer.

HP Compaq dc5750 Microtower

Does not start Tails 1.2.3 created using Tails Installer.

HP Compaq 615

You need to update the firmware to its latest version in order to start from a device installed using Tails Installer.

HP Compaq CQ60-214DX

Tails 3.3 does not start.

HP Pavilion 15-ab277ca

Tails 3.3 restarts during startup and never starts successfully.

HP Pavilion dv7

Since Tails 1.3, gets stuck at the Boot Loader Menu, whether Tails is installed manually or using Tails Installer.

HP ProBook

With UEFI enabled, when choosing a boot device, select Boot From EFI File and then Filesystem Tails and EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI.

That workaround applied to, at least, the following HP ProBook:

• 4330s
• 6560b

Lenovo IdeaPad Y410p

Does not start Tails 1.1 from USB installed manually in Linux.

Lenovo IdeaPad z585

Goes back continuously to Boot Loader Menu on Tails installed on DVD.

Clevo W258CU, ThinkPad X121e, T420i, T410, T520, W520, T530, T60, E325, and E530

These machines do not start on USB sticks created using Tails Installer due to a firmware limitation.

A workaround for some of these machines is to use the manual installation process. Note, however, that this technique does not allow you to set up a persistent volume.

This problem might be corrected in Tails 1.1 and newer: please report your test results back to us.

Graphics issues

GNOME desktop fails to start with some AMD/ATI Radeon graphic adapters

Some computers cannot start the GNOME desktop.

After the Tails Greeter they freeze, or sometimes fail with the message "Oh no! Something has gone wrong. A problem has occurred and the system can't recover. Please contact a system administrator".

This issue has appeared with the following graphic adapters:

• Mars XTX [Radeon HD 8790M] - Mars XTX [Radeon HD 8790M] (rev ff) - Cedar [Radeon HD 5000/6000 7350/8350 Series] - Broadway PRO [Mobility Radeon HD 5850] - RV730/M96 [Mobility Radeon HD 4650/5165]

For some models, adding radeon.modeset=0 to the startup options fixes the issue.

Tails Greeter fails to start with some AMD/ATI Radeon graphic adapters

Some computers cannot start Tails Greeter. This issue has appeared with the following graphic adapters:

• AMD Radeon R9 390

Adding radeon.dpm=0 to the startup options fixes the issue.

Tails Greeter fails to start on computers with Nvidia Maxwell graphic cards

Some computers cannot start Tails Greeter. This appears with some graphic cards in the Nvidia Maxwell family. This problem has been fixed in Tails 3.2 for some of these graphic cards. If Tails Greeter still does not start for you:

1. Add nouveau.noaccel=1 or nouveau.modeset=0 to the startup options.
2. Report a bug, giving us an email address so we can contact you to debug the problem. Please reference #15116 in your bug report.

Tails Greeter fails to start on computers with Nvidia Pascal graphic cards

Some computers cannot start Tails Greeter. This may appear with the Nvidia Pascal family of graphic adapters.

If Tails Greeter does not start for you:

1. Add nouveau.noaccel=1 or nouveau.modeset=0 to the startup options.
2. Report a bug, giving us an email address so we can contact you to debug the problem. Please reference #15116 in your bug report.

Black screen with switchable graphics computers

Some computers with switchable graphics (such as Optimus) fail to choose a video card and end up on a black screen. This has been reported for MacBook Pro 6,2, MacBook Pro 10,1 Retina, MacBook Pro 15-inch (early 2011) and might affect many others.

There are several possible workarounds for this issue:

• Explicitly select one of the two graphics adapters in the BIOS instead of letting the system choose one automatically. If this does not solve the problem, try selecting the other graphics adapter.

• For the Mac computers, it is possible to use a third-party application, http://gfx.io/, to force integrated graphics only through OS X. Then restart in that special mode that works with Tails.

• Expert Linux users can also do the following:

  1. Add the i915.modeset=0 rootpw=pass option in the Boot Loader Menu.

  2. Create a file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/switchable.conf with the following content:

     Section "Device"
         Identifier "Device0"
         Driver "nouveau"
         BusID "1:0:0"
     EndSection
     

  3. Restart X with the command:

     service gdm3 restart
     

  4. After the GNOME session has started, change again the root password with the command:

     sudo passwd
     

For more details, see our ticket on Video is broken with switchable graphics.

Cannot start GNOME session with switchable graphics computers

On some computers with switchable graphics, Tails 2.10 and later fails to start the GNOME session and keeps returning to Tails Greeter.

Starting in Troubleshooting Mode works, as well as adding the modeprobe.blacklist=nouveau to the startup options.

Laptops with Intel 855GM graphic card

Laptops with graphic card Intel 855GM (as Dell Inspiron 510M) crash after Tails Greeter.

See relevant bug report for more information.

Laptops with Intel GM965/GL960 graphic card

Laptops with graphic card Intel GM965/GL960 crash while running Tails. Add video=SVIDEO-1:d on the boot command line to work around this problem.

See Linux bug #187001 for more information.

Systems with Intel graphic cards

The graphical interface fails to start on some Intel graphics adapters. If this happens to you:

1. Add the xorg-driver=intel option in the boot menu.

2. If this fixes the problem, report to tails-support-private@boum.org the output of the following commands:

     lspci -v
     lspci -mn
   

   … so we get the identifier of your graphics adapter and can have this fix applied automatically in the next Tails release.

3. If this does not fix the problem, try Troubleshooting Mode and report a bug. Include the exact model of your Intel graphics adapter.

Virtual machines with virt-manager, libvirt and QEMU

See the dedicated troubleshooting documentation about graphics issues in Tails running inside a virtual machine with virt-manager.

Virtual machines with VMware

To improve support of Tails running inside a virtual machine with VMware, install the open-vm-tools-desktop software package in Tails.

Wi-Fi issues

Broadcom Wi-Fi network interface needing broadcom-sta-dkms

Some Broadcom Wi-Fi interfaces require the wl driver, provided by the broadcom-sta-dkms Debian package, to work in Tails.

The wl driver is not included in Tails because it is proprietary.

To find out if your Wi-Fi interface requires the wl driver:

1. Execute the following command in a terminal:

   lspci -nn | grep Network
   

2. Verify if your device is in the list of devices supported by the broadcom-sta-dkms package on the corresponding Debian wiki page. If you find your device in the list of supported devices, then it is impossible to use your Wi-Fi card in Tails.

Marvell Avastar 88W8897

On some computers with a Marvell Avastar 88W8897 Wi-Fi adapter, such as some Microsoft Surface Pro models, Tails fails to connect to Wi-Fi networks.

If you experience this problem, you can try to disable MAC address spoofing that sometimes fixes it.

Systems with RTL8723be Wi-Fi adapter

On some computers with a RTL8723be Wi-Fi adapter, Tails may fail to discover Wi-Fi networks, may provide unreliable Wi-Fi connections, or may provide poor Wi-Fi performance.

Most such problems can be solved by adding startup options.

The exact combination of options that will work depends on the computer, so try the following instructions until you find a combination that works for you:

1. Add rtl8723be.fwlps=0 rtl8723be.ips=0 to the startup options.
2. Add rtl8723be.ant_sel=1 to the startup options.
3. Add rtl8723be.ant_sel=2 to the startup options.
4. Add rtl8723be.ant_sel=1 rtl8723be.fwlps=0 rtl8723be.ips=0 to the startup options.
5. Add rtl8723be.ant_sel=2 rtl8723be.fwlps=0 rtl8723be.ips=0 to the startup options.

Security issues

Tails does not erase video memory

Tails doesn't erase the video memory yet. When one uses Tails, then restarts the computer into another operating system, that other operating system can see what has been displayed on the screen within Tails.

Shutting down the computer completely, instead of restarting it, might allow the video memory to empty itself.

See Erase video memory on shutdown.

Tails fails to completely shutdown or restart

When stopping Tails on some hardware, the memory wipe procedure fails to complete: the display gets scrambled, but the computer doesn't completely shutdown or restart. Sometimes the caps-lock button light of the keyboard flashes.

This issue has been reported on the following hardware:

• Apple when booting from a USB stick:
  • MacBook Air 5,1
  • MacBook Air 5,2 (using a device installed with Tails Installer)
  • MacBook Air 6,2
  • MacBook Pro 7,1 13-inch (mid 2010)
  • MacBook Pro 9,2 13-inch (mid 2012)
  • MacBook Pro 8,1 13-inch (late 2011)
  • MacBook Pro 10,2
  • MacBook Pro Retina 11,1 (late 2013)
  • MacBook Pro Retina 13-inch (early 2015)
• Hewlett-Packard HP ENVY x360
• Hewlett-Packard HP Pavilion dv6 Notebook PC
• Hewlett-Packard HP ProBook 450 G0
• Lenovo ThinkPad X61, only on emergency shutdown when pulling out the USB stick
• Lenovo ThinkPad X220
• Toshiba Satellite C855D
• Dell Inc. Studio 1458
• Fujitsu Lifebook AH531/GFO, only on regular shutdown, emergency shutdown works
• Samsung N150P
• Acer Aspire e1-572
• Dell Latitude E6230
• Microsoft Surface Pro 3

Other issues

Chainloading Tails from GRUB

To workaround problems in booting Tails on laptops with UEFI support, it is possible to chainload the syslinux on the ISO image from another boot loader that is already working on the laptop, like GRUB. Be careful not to modify at all the options of syslinux in the process.

The following commands, run from the GRUB shell, might be helpful:

set root=(hd1)
chainloader +1
boot

Boot Loader Menu has display issues

Since Tails 1.1, on some hardware (ThinkPad X230, MacBook Pro 8,1), the Boot Loader Menu is not displayed properly. Tails starts fine, though.

Connecting to FTP servers is not possible

Public FTP servers on the Internet are not reachable using Tails. See Fix FTP support for more details.

Tails fails to connect to certain Wi-Fi networks

This might be related to the introduction of wireless regulation support in Tails 0.13.

The desktop crashes when run with the default QEMU emulated processor

Due to a bug in llvmpipe, when Tails runs in a QEMU virtual machine with the default emulated CPU, the GNOME desktop crashes after login.

To workaround this problem, pass @-cpu host@ on the QEMU command-line. If you use libvirt, choose Copy host CPU configuration in virt-manager's processor configuration screen.

Touchpad configurations

Acer TravelMate B113 - ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad

synclient FingerPress=256;
synclient TapButton3=0;
synclient Clickpad=1;
synclient VertTwoFingerScroll=1;
synclient FingerLow=1;
synclient FingerHigh=1;

Acer C720 - Cypress APA Touchpad

synclient FingerLow=5;
synclient FingerHigh=5;

Bluetooth devices don't work

Bluetooth is not enabled in Tails for security reasons.

Tor Browser is translated in a limited number of languages

Since Tails 1.2, the web browser is based on Tor Browser which is translated in less languages than before. You can see the list of languages available in Tor Browser from the Tor Browser homepage.

Playing WebM videos in the Tor Browser fails on old hardware

On systems that only have one CPU core, WebM videos may fail to play in the Tor Browser, and show the error message: "Video can't be played because the file is corrupt". You can work around this by downloading the video and watching it in the Totem video player.

Tails does not boot after automatic upgrade

Sometimes, after an automatic upgrade, Tails gets blocked when booting, often after the message 'Loading, please wait...'.

To fix this problem, you can update your Tails manually.

Note that your Persistent Volume will be safely preserved.

Persistent folder disappears and persistent feature configurations do not load

Sometimes, the Persistent folder is missing and the configurations for persistent features do not load.

Most likely this means that the persistence.conf file has disappeared. However, the files in the Persistent folder and the persistent feature configurations should still be saved.

If you encounter this problem:

1. Enable your encrypted persistent storage in Tails Greeter when you start Tails.

2. Scegli Applicazioni ▸ Tails ▸ Configure persistent volume.

3. If you are asked to enter a passphrase, enter the same passphrase that you used to unlock your persistent storage.

4. Click Save, then restart Tails.

Your Persistent folder and persistent feature configurations should be restored.

Tails behaves weirdly if an automatic upgrade is only partially applied

Tails might behave weirdly if an automatic upgrade is only partially applied. For example, your keyboard might not respond to key presses or you might be unable to connect to networks.

To fix this problem:

Mount your Tails system partition in another Linux system

1. Start in another Tails or in a Linux system such as Debian or Ubuntu.

2. Open GNOME Disks.

3. Plug in your Tails USB stick that behaves weirdly.

4. If a prompt appears to unlock the persistent volume on your Tails USB stick, click Cancel.

5. Your Tails USB stick should appear in the left pane of GNOME Disks. Click on your Tails USB stick.

6. In the right pane, click on the partition labeled Tails. It should be listed as Partition 1.

7. Click on the button to mount the Tails partition.

8. Click on the link in the right pane to open the Tails partition in the Files browser. The link should look something like /media/username/Tails.

Edit your Tails.module file

1. In the Files browser, open the live folder. Then open the file named Tails.module with a text editor, for example, GNOME Text Editor.

2. Add the line x.x.squashfs to the end of the Tails.module file. Replace x.x with the Tails version you are upgrading to.

   For example, if you are upgrading to version 3.8, you would add 3.8.squashfs to the end of the Tails.module file.

   Your Tails.module file should look something like this, with different version numbers:

   filesystem.squashfs
   3.7.squashfs
   3.7.1.squashfs
   3.8.squashfs
   

3. Save the Tails.module file.

4. In the sidebar of the Files browser, click on the button on the Tails label to unmount the partition. If your persistent volume shows in the sidebar, also click on the button on the persistent volume label.

5. Unplug your Tails USB stick.

Your Tails should now work properly.

Icons and information located on the top right corner of the screen disappeared

Sometimes, some of the icons located on the top right corner of the screen are not displayed entirely, or at all. For example, the icon that allows to change to another keyboard layout may be hidden. Other information, such as the clock, may not be visible.

Press Alt+F2 and type r to restart GNOME Shell, which often solves this problem.

See #10576 for more details.

Some languages do not have the correct keyboard layout set by default

When selecting some languages in the Tails Greeter, the default associated keyboard layout fallbacks to US.

To use the right keyboard layout during a session, set it in the Tails Greeter after having set the language. When the desktop has started, apply the keyboard layout by clicking on the en systray icon.

Affected language codes are AYC, BHB, BRX, CMN, HAK, HNE, LIJ, LZH, MHR, NAN, NHN, QUZ, SGS, SHS, TCY, THE, UNM, WAE and YUE.

The OpenPGP passphrase prompt steals the keyboard and mouse focus

This happens when one has enabled the GnuPG persistence feature before Tails 2.3. To fix this problem, execute the following command in a terminal:

echo "no-grab" >> ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf

Problems when the system clock goes backwards

When connecting to Tor, Tails sets the system time to the current time in the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) timezone. Many operating systems, such as Linux and macOS, write time expressed in UTC to the hardware clock of the computer. But, Windows instead writes time expressed in the local timezone to the hardware clock of the computer. So, if you are east of the United Kingdom (which is in the UTC timezone) on a computer that also runs Windows, Tails will make the system clock go backwards during startup. Unfortunately, this may trigger software errors in Tails.

For example, when this happened in Tails 3.4 the Applications menu sometimes stops working.

To solve this problem permanently on a Windows computer, set the hardware clock of the computer to UTC.

See #15168 for more details.

Lenovo ThinkPad 11e

Tails may be unstable and stop working regularly on some Lenovo ThinkPad 11e laptops, such as the 2015 model.

To fix this problem, add intel_idle.max_cstate=1 to the startup options.

Acer Aspire One

If the sound output does not work on an Acer Aspire One laptop, add snd-hda-intel.model=acer-aspire to the startup options.