[Whonix-devel] Extra dialogs on Whonix 15 gateway first(?) start

Fri Jun 28 13:00:00 CEST 2019

Thanks.

Confirmed.

This should now be fixed as in it should be back to previous state (like
in Whonix 14) in next build.

https://github.com/Whonix/whonixsetup/commit/9c6ec0f503c1b381d0e7cd50e465eb491f58447e

Marek Marczykowski-Górecki:
> On Whonix Gateway 15, on first boot I see several extra dialogs. All of
> them, in order (offset in video[1]):

> 1. Anon Connection Wizard (expected, 0:09)

[ACW]

Will stay as expected.

On a sidenote: It was recently concluded [1] [2]:

> It is impossible to Hide Tor and Whonix ™ use from the ISP. It's been
concluded, that this is difficult beyond practicality.

[1] https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Hide_Tor_and_Whonix_from_your_ISP
[2]
https://forums.whonix.org/t/hiding-tor-whonix-is-difficult-beyond-practicality/7408

I am sure, users of Qubes get labeled "extremists" too, anyhow. Same
like readers of Linux Journal and users of Tails. [3]

[3]
https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/nsa-linux-journal-extremist-forum-and-its-readers-get-flagged-extra-surveillance

Not automatically connecting to the public Tor network seems to be an
insufficient attempt. So we can as well consider not automatically
starting ACW and connecting to the public Tor network by default.

> 2. Tor Bootstrap Test (new, 0:32)

This will go away.

> (here "Connected to tor" notification appears)

"Connecting to Tor..."
and
"Connected Tor Tor."

will be there. Should be same state as previously.

"Connecting to Tor..." is counter intuitive because ACW just said
'connected to Tor', which is true. What's actually still waiting is
sdwdate to finish. Once that is done, will say "Connected Tor Tor."

> 3. Checking Tor connection, ... (new, 0:35)

This will go away.

[What it actually did: wait for Tor (done), sdwdate, check for operating
system updates.]

> 4. Whonixcheck output (new?, 0:46)

This will go away.

> Is user supposed to wait until those actions are finished?

Ideally yes, but we don't have the UX to make that work.

> If so, maybe
> it should be part of "Anon Connection Wizard" then?

ACW does one thing. And we don't have any Whonix python GUI developers
at the moment. Not sure where to implement this. Really hard to
implement since there are a lot moving parts. Connection wizard, Tor
connectivity check, waiting for sdwdate to finish, and perhaps blocking
networking until sdwdate succeeded [4], UX.

[4] https://phabricator.whonix.org/T533

> Otherwise, extra
> dialogs looks like intrusive UX, and I think it is a regression (similar
> dialogs were present in some early Whonix-Qubes integration and were
> hidden later).

Yes, this is a regression due to code simplification / refactoring.

> [1] https://openqa.qubes-os.org/tests/2800/file/video.ogv 

Really cool.

Cheers,
Patrick

Marek Marczykowski-Górecki:
> Hi,
>
> On Whonix Gateway 15, on first boot I see several extra dialogs. All of
> them, in order (offset in video[1]):
> 1. Anon Connection Wizard (expected, 0:09)
> 2. Tor Bootstrap Test (new, 0:32)
> (here "Connected to tor" notification appears)
> 3. Checking Tor connection, ... (new, 0:35)
> 4. Whonixcheck output (new?, 0:46)
>
> Is user supposed to wait until those actions are finished? If so, maybe
> it should be part of "Anon Connection Wizard" then? Otherwise, extra
> dialogs looks like intrusive UX, and I think it is a regression (similar
> dialogs were present in some early Whonix-Qubes integration and were
> hidden later).
>
> I think they show only on first Whonix Gateway startup, so it isn't a
> big deal. If they are intended and there is a good reason for them to
> stay, I'll need to adjust OpenQA tests, because those intercepts focus
> and breaks interaction with applications under it...
>
> [1] https://openqa.qubes-os.org/tests/2800/file/video.ogv