You can help Tails! The first release candidate for the upcoming version 3.6 is out. We are very excited and cannot wait to hear what you think about it :)

  1. What's new in 3.6~rc1?
  2. How to test Tails 3.6~rc1?
  3. Known issues in 3.6~rc1
  4. What's coming up?

What's new in 3.6~rc1?

Significant changes since Tails 3.5 include:

  • Upgrade Tor to 3.2.9.

  • Upgrade Linux kernel to 4.15.0.

  • Upgrade Thunderbird to 52.6.0 and enable its apparmor profile.

  • Upgrade Electrum to 3.0.6.

  • Add support for screen locking, even without administration password.

  • Upgrade tails-additional-softwares, which does not block anymore the opening of the Desktop while installing the packages, and is more robust when botting in offline mode.

  • Upgrade Tails installer to fix bugs when using it in languages different than english.

  • Upgrade OpenPGP Applet, it does not hang anymore when decrypting large text from the clipboard.

Technical details of all the changes are listed in the Changelog.

How to test Tails 3.6~rc1?

Keep in mind that this is a test image. We tested that it is not broken in obvious ways, but it might still contain undiscovered issues.

But test wildly!

If you find anything that is not working as it should, please report to us on tails-testers@boum.org.

Bonus points if you first check if it is a known issue of this release or a longstanding known issue.

Upgrade from 3.5

  1. Start Tails 3.5 on a USB stick installed using Tails Installer and set an administration password.

  2. Run this command in a Terminal to select the "alpha" upgrade channel and start the upgrade:

    echo TAILS_CHANNEL=\"alpha\" | sudo tee -a /etc/os-release && \
     tails-upgrade-frontend-wrapper

    and enter the administration password when asked for the "password for amnesia".

  3. After the upgrade is installed, restart Tails and choose Applications ▸ Tails ▸ About Tails to verify that you are running Tails 3.6~rc1.

Download and install

You can install 3.6~rc1 by following our usual installation instructions, skipping the Download and verify step.

Tails 3.6~rc1 ISO image

Tails 3.6~rc1 torrent

Known issues in 3.6~rc1

We did not discover new issues other than the longstanding ones

What's coming up?

Tails 3.6 is scheduled on March 12.

We need your help and there are many ways to contribute to Tails (donating is only one of them). Come talk to us!