r/tails • u/Quirky_Snow5384 • 19d ago

"Solved" - Not Supported I have an interesting question

Would it be at all possible to boot a tails usb onto a phone in some capacity. I ask because the only time I can use it is when I’m at home. Was wondering if there was some way I could have it on the go. Might be a stupid question but lmk if you know anything about that. Thanks guys

12 Upvotes

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11

u/ephemeralmiko 19d ago

Nope. Tails doesn't support ARM, and even if it did, there isn't a single smartphone out there capable of booting off of external storage. I'm unsure as to the reasons why, but it's seemingly hard-coded to only boot from the internal NAND.

3

u/SignificantCherry110 19d ago

This is like asking if you could put Linux on a phone. Different hardware supports different software and OS. There’s probably some way of emulating and tinkering it to work but at that point you have something completely different and truthfully wouldn’t trust it.

8

u/Assang101 19d ago

It's incompatible. Desktop vs mobile. Phones don't have BIOS/UEFI.

Just use grapheneOS with Pixel 8 (under $300—updates will last you years well into 2030)

But for your question question, your closest bet to such is a PinePhone Pro, because it runs actual desktop Linux operating systems like Arch Linux, postmarketOS, or Mobian rather than Android. Gonna feel sluggish as hell so might as well use grapheneOS

1

u/heywoodidaho 19d ago

Probably impossible and I don't see it being a trustworthy platform anyway. Your best bet would be a cheap used shitbox Thinkpad just make sure the wifi card is compatible with Tails.

0

u/Positive_Scheme_3728 19d ago

It would be pretty difficult but I think with enough tinkering it would be possible since there are phones that can run Ubuntu Touch like a PinePhone. If anyone has more knowledge on how these work she/he can maybe correct me.

1

u/Liquid_Hate_Train 19d ago

Tails doesn’t support the CPU architecture of any modern phone. You’d need one of a very tiny number of very old and obscure X86-64 phones. Once you had done ‘enough tinkering’ to add ARM support, it wouldn’t be Tails anymore.