Kicksecure Default Applications Missing

secretariat · August 10, 2022, 5:51pm

I want to install Kicksecure as a host OS and run Whonix inside KVM. I’ve installed Kicksecure by distromorphing Debian, but none of the default applications (Thunderbird, Hexchat, etc.) install when I do. This seems to be the only problem I have. I followed the directions for distromorphing on the wiki, including onionizing the Debian and derivative repositories.

I have tried a number of times with these options:

-Installing Debian 11 Bullseye with XFCE and then installing kicksecure-cli
-Installing Debian 11 Bullseye with XFCE and then installing kicksecure-xfce
-Installing Debian 11 Bullseye with no GUI and then installing kicksecure-xfce

I have also tried using apt-cache show kicksecure- to display the packages and install the package kicksecure-desktop-applications-recommended, but only the Electrum wallet installs.

I am using osboot and the installation of Debian is encrypted.

Please let me know if you need any more information.

Patrick · August 12, 2022, 10:46am

Short answer:

This will stay non-ideal until there is an ISO. Meanwhile I recommend to just manually install whatever desired packages.

Technical background:

kicksecure-xfce does not depend on kicksecure-desktop-applications-recommended. And it shouldn’t either to keep it compartmentalized.

kicksecure-xfce-host does depend on kicksecure-desktop-applications-recommended. But kicksecure-xfce-host isn’t tested for distro morphing and due to its dependency on kicksecure-network-conf and kicksecure-network-conf-gui are higher “understanding” of the packages is required to avoid breaking networking. This is only possible if networking defaults all all chosen by ISO installation.

kicksecure-desktop-applications-recommended doesn’t Depends: on many default applications at time of writing. See:

github.com

Kicksecure/kicksecure-meta-packages/blob/master/debian/control#L210

      
        
            lxqt-sudo, policykit-1, policykit-1-gnome,
            p7zip-full, zip, unzip, xz-utils, unar, xarchiver,
            thunar, thunar-archive-plugin, thunar-volman, gvfs,
            ${misc:Depends}
            Description: Recommended applications for hardened Xfce desktop GUI
            A metapackage, which installs minimal, yet complete enough
            to contain the very basics, Xfce applications.
            .
            Safe to remove.
            
            
Package: kicksecure-desktop-applications-recommended
            Architecture: all
            Depends: repository-dist-wizard,
            setup-wizard-dist,
            ristretto, tumbler,
            keepassxc,
            electrum | dummy-dependency-electrum,
            monero-gui | dummy-dependency-monero-gui,
            sdwdate-gui,
            firefox-esr | dummy-dependency,
            ${misc:Depends}

hexchat isn’t mentioned in https://github.com/Kicksecure/kicksecure-meta-packages/blob/master/debian/control.

secretariat · August 13, 2022, 11:07am

This makes sense. I was unsure if I had missed a step, but I understand now. I will install the packages manually.

Thank you for the fast reply and for developing Kicksecure.