Alright, lots to unpack here, but I saw this thread and figured I’d chime in with some details that might help as I see some unmentioned info that may be useful. Please do one topic per thread going forward
First things first Kicksecure isn’t Tails, but it does have a grub-live boot option that’s pretty close. That session runs entirely in RAM, just like Tails. One heads up though. If you mount any external drives, traces can still get left behind, so be careful there. Same risk applies to both Kicksecure and Tails in that regard.
As of right now, the only way to get a “Tails like” setup with Kicksecure is to first burn a bootable media (looks like you did that). You’ll then need a second USB or external SSD, then install it the same way you’d install Debian with the GUI installer onto an internal drive. Just point it at the other USB or external drive instead. Worth noting to my knowledge, Dracut doesn’t support a persistence.conf, as discussed here:
Anyhow after installation, you’d want to make grub-live the default boot option, then lock down the bootloader with a grub password.
When you install software on Tails, you need an admin password for that session, conceptually similar to Kicksecure’s sysmaint mode, though Kicksecure is definitely more locked down and restrictive. On Tails, apps get saved to a persistent partition that’s not in RAM, while the rest of the system is RAM-mounted. With Kicksecure, you install apps via sysmaint (basically like a Tails admin session) whenever you need to save settings or software, then switch back to Live Mode for normal use. If you install onto a USB with LUKS encryption, you get an extra layer of protection on top.
Maybe full support for it will come down the road. More distros are moving toward Dracut anyway (Fedora already uses it). For what it’s worth, Tails itself uses this approach (persistence.conf), and Kali’s docs actually recommend it for setting up custom live USBs, which is pretty close to what you’re trying to do with Kicksecure. But again I haven’t found anything latest on any mailing list about it. Just thought I would mention it so you understand its not available yet but may change in the future.