Offline Packages Support

[OAKO-UCONN]

It would be nice if there was a version of HiddenVM that has the packages already included, so you don't need an Internet Connection in order to use HiddenVM. It would be perfect for offline only users as it is possible there might not be Internet access, or is to risky to use the Internet. The packages could be in a new folder and copied and installed once HiddenVM is run, instead of doing apt-get over the Internet.

[animik]

That is a great idea. No promise on when, but I support this too. An out-of-the-box offline pre-cached version of HiddenVM for users in certain difficult situations where Tails can never even connect, updated and confirmed to be compatible with each new Tails release. It's also a more private way to start using HiddenVM.

I wonder about copyright / licensing issue of including other people's package files in our own ZIP. We're standard GPLv3 with nothing added. Safe to add anything that's already in Debian / VBox repo? @aforensics, I'm happy to look into that if you want.

[aforensics]

Not bad idea. We could provide fully offline bundles following each Tails release. Definitely doable and something to consider for the (near) future.

[OAKO-UCONN]

For the VirtualBox Software itself it uses GPL Version 2. As for the extension pack we could add in zenity to press ok if you want to include the extension pack and that it is being using it for personal use only. We can include the licence files.

[animik]

Some further thoughts on this: There is the problem of exactly what version(s) of Tails an 'offline installer' of HVM is compatible with. (Tails is constantly updating.)

It's a trade-off between its cache size (containing multiple versions of packages and dependencies it may need to choose from) and the amount of Tails versions it guarantees to be compatible with, correct?

We can't promise Windows levels of out-of-the-box legacy offline installability. Not sure @aforensics wants to build a release guaranteed to work all the way back to Tails 3.16, especially if no one asks for that. But as an idea it's worth offering, for a more private way to install HVM if you desire that.

How about: we make the first offline installer compatible with the current Tails ver. Then over time (not necessarily every month), release updates to the offline installer stating its range of Tails ver compatibility.

What we do is code in an intelligent design that will select the right set of package versions to install from the cache based on detected Tails version. To not bloat the offline installer unnecessarily, only offer the oldest caches of packages necessary to work on the latest Tails as of release, and user's security will be helped by the fact they are supposedly offline anyway. Then, HVM is already hard-coded is prompt for updating if it detects Internet connection.

So if people want compatibility all the way back to 4.9, they can, but the installer file will slowly become bigger in order to guarantee that.