Hey folks I’ve been a Fedora workstation user for some time now and love the experience. I should have switched from Windows to Linux sooner. I have a small question today. I bought a Steam deck a while back for gaming on the go. Nice device that gives me tons of fun. I would like to use the little handheld as a backup device for urgent work matters. I know the Steam Deck isn’t suitable for that, but I’d like to get a bit more out of the device than just gaming.
I was thinking of flashing a USB drive with a Tails OS install and using that as a backup workstation when I don’t have my laptop with me. I wanted to ask if it would be possible to use Tails OS on the Steam deck. Or if any of you know of another alternative for what I’m looking for.
Many thanks in advance.
Looks like this has already been answered, but I’m curious about why you’ve chosen Tails for this task? Is there something about your work/other tasks that requires the extra security and anonymity?
Kali (while known for pen-testing) is an excellent option here. Much more feature packed than Tails, with the built-in ability to create persistence on a live drive, too. I carry one of these with me all the time.
Or, you could fully install a distro to a USB drive. Then you could take Fedora with you, and have an environment you’re familiar with.
I say all this as a huge fan of Tails (I also keep a USB of Tails always ready). Just offering some other options that may not have crossed your mind.
While I’m a fan of Kali, some work environments see anything Kali related and go full “zomg! WTF!” Mode. Even in less restrictive environments, it’s often easier to just go with the flow and avoid making life harder for the security folks, without a good reason.
I can’t imagine why . . . .
Absolutely agreed, which is another reason they may not like Tails, either. It doesn’t exactly have the friendliest reputation among businesses.
Horseremoved. Your security team is full of idoits if they dont like TAILS. Its built to be secure
It has a bit of a reputation not for being insecure but for being used by some unscrupulous people.
Like cancer patients? Or people looking at cat pictures?
Seriously most Tor traffic is people browsing Facebook.
Weeeeeellll that and all the pedos, and people using the markets (which tbh I think isn’t that big a deal, the markets I mean of course), but yeah sure it’s the facebook lol.
It mostly is Facebook. That’s the point. You’re parroting misinformation.
Please do not recommend kali
Seriously though, you remind me of the reddit sub masterhacker
Why not?
It’s a well-maintained, Debian-based distro with several DEs to choose from and live USB persistence available out of the box.
Seems to fit OP’s needs pretty spot on.
Because there are plenty of other options? Its used for pen testing and that’s just about it. You would be better with MXlinux if your looking for distros for Live usb
Yes, there are plenty of other options. No one is going to dispute that.
But Kali is a fine distro, even for regular users.
- Rolling release keeps things up to date
- Popular means plenty of troubleshooting info
- Documentation is excellent
- Debian-based means the core is stable and well-tested
- Designed specifically with USB-based use in mind (for OP)
Don’t discount it just because “edgy haxor distro xD”. It’s a solid Linux and popular for a reason.
MX linux gave me problems from Fedora, the MX installer wants to use a different version of luks than my Fedora install has, so it can’t encrypt the drive. I’m sure I could just download luks1 and have luks1 and luks2 on my fedora install just so that I could make the MX drive, OR I could find a distro that doesn’t require it, like Parrot, Slax, puppy, or yes, Kali. Out of those, Slax and puppy are fine or whatever, but Parrot and Kali are honestly better and easier for the task. Also depends on what you’re doing with it. Just writing emails and browsing? Use anything.
There isn’t really a reason other than security (sometimes works requires me to go to places where the security is not the best, the steam deck comes with me just to play during the boring times, normally I don’t use it for anything else then that but lately I have been thinking that I can do some important related minor things with the device. Just for the fun of it and see how much I can get out of it). I want something that i can keep a little protected for on the go. Seeing that i am not always around my main workstation. But when I was thinking about my options, the first thing that pop it up in my mind was Tails. But I’m going to look into Kali for doing this. Seems another good option.
But yeah, I could always just move from steam OS and use Bazitte. That one also have a better option.
+1 Kali is the live USB that I carry in my laptop bag at all times. It just has so many tools preinstalled they its great when you need to do a recovery when you have issues getting online
You can use veracrypt on steam os to create an encrypted container and unlock it when you need it in desktop mode.
How can that be done ? I have been trying to install veracrypt. But it seems to be more complicated to do then how it was to install it on Fedora.
Steam OS is immutable so installation of stuff is different. Still its best to go into desktop mode and open the KDE store. That should be easy sailing.
Yeah. That is the problem it doesn’t appear in the KDE store.
I wanted to ask if it would be possible to use Tails OS on the Steam deck. Or if any of you know of another alternative for what I’m looking for.
According to a handful of users on Reddit, it works out of the box on Steam Deck, just like you’d usually run Tails off a USB thumbstick.
According to a few others, they ran into some hiccups.
I don’t see why it wouldn’t be possible, as the Steam Deck is a fully featured PC just in a console packaging.
I’ve not tried Tails OS myself on my Steam Deck, however I’ve run a Windows To Go USB on the Steam Deck and it works pretty well, you just need a high-speed USB thumbdrive.
I’ve had good luck with these from Samsung: https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-Type-CTM-Transfers-Compatible-Waterproof/dp/B09WB2RPS4/
Oh, this is good to hear. I was thinking first to change the OS to Bazzite a use full disk encryption (SteamOS doesn’t have it). But if Tails work out of the box then I could use it as my backup work related station. If the deck gets stolen then I don’t lose any work related or important related data. Thank you.
In case you’re unaware, the way to boot from a different drive is to do the “smartphone recovery boot” of pressing the power button and volume down button at the same time while the Steam Deck is off. It will boot to a drive selection screen which you can choose which drive to boot from.
In other words, you should just be able to plug in the Tails OS USB and boot from it using that button-combination. Cheers, and I hope it works out for you!
EDIT: Also, since your username is “Qual” here is an obligatory James Quall animated gif:
If you need to connect to work stuff via tor, then it’s great. If not, it’s probably not what you’re looking for, installing fedora to a usb drive is probably a better bet like another person mentioned
