[[!meta title="Call for testing: 1.7~rc1"]]

[[!meta date="2015-10-27 12:00:00"]]

You can help Tails! The first release candidate for the upcoming version 1.7 is
out. Please test it and see if it works for you.

[[!toc levels=1]]

How to test Tails 1.7~rc1?
==========================

1. **Keep in mind that this is a test image.** We have made sure
   that it is not broken in an obvious way, but it might still contain
   undiscovered issues.

1. Either try the <a href="#automatic_upgrade">automatic upgrade</a>, or
   download the ISO image and its signature:

   <a class="download-file" href="http://dl.amnesia.boum.org/tails/alpha/tails-i386-1.7~rc1/tails-i386-1.7~rc1.iso">Tails 1.7~rc1 ISO image</a>

   <a class="download-signature"
   href="https://tails.boum.org/torrents/files/tails-i386-1.7~rc1.iso.sig">Tails 1.7~rc1 signature</a>

1. Verify the ISO image.

1. Have a look at the list of <a href="#known_issues">known issues of
   this release</a> and the list of
   [[longstanding known issues|support/known_issues]].

1. Test wildly!

If you find anything that is not working as it should, please [[report to
us|doc/first_steps/bug_reporting]]! Bonus points if you first check if it is a
<a href="#known_issues">known issue of this release</a> or a
[[longstanding known issue|support/known_issues]].

<div id="automatic_upgrade"></a>

How to automatically upgrade from 1.6?
========================================

These steps allow you to automatically upgrade a device installed with <span
class="application">Tails Installer</span> from Tails 1.6 to Tails 1.7~rc1.

1. Start Tails 1.6 from a USB stick or SD card (installed by the
   Tails Installer), and
   [[set an administration password|doc/first_steps/startup_options/administration_password]].

1. Run this command in a <span class="application">Root
   Terminal</span> to select the "alpha" upgrade channel
   and start the upgrade:

       echo TAILS_CHANNEL=\"alpha\" >> /etc/os-release && \
            tails-upgrade-frontend-wrapper

1. Once the upgrade has been installed, restart Tails and look at
   <span class="menuchoice">
     <span class="guimenu">Applications</span>&nbsp;▸
     <span class="guisubmenu">Tails</span>&nbsp;▸
     <span class="guimenuitem">About Tails</span>
   </span>
   to confirm that the running system is Tails 1.7~rc1.

What's new since 1.6?
=======================

Changes since Tails 1.6 are:

  * Major new features and changes
    - Add a technology preview of the Icedove Email client (a
      rebranded version of Mozilla Thunderbird), including OpenPGP
      support via the Enigmail add-on, general security and anonymity
      improvements via the Torbirdy add-on, and complete persistence
      support (which will be enabled automatically if you already have
      Claws Mail persistence enabled). Icedove will replace Claws Mail
      as the supported email client in Tails in a future
      release. (Closes: #6151, #9498, #10285)
    - Upgrade Tor to 0.2.7.4-rc-1~d70.wheezy+1+tails1. Among the many
      improvement of this new Tor major release, the new
      KeepAliveIsolateSOCKSAuth option allows us to drop the
      bug15482.patch patch (taken from the Tor Browse bundle) that
      enabled similar (but inferiour) functionality for *all*
      SocksPort:s -- now the same circuit is only kept alive for
      extended periods for the SocksPort used by the Tor
      Browser. (Closes: #10194, #10308)
    - Add an option to Tails Greeter which disables networking
      completely. This is useful when intending to use Tails for
      offline work only. (Closes: #6811)

  * Security fixes
    - Fix CVE-2015-7665, which could lead to a network interface's IP
      address being exposed through wget. (Closes: #10364)

  * Minor improvements
    - Restart Tor if bootstrapping stalls for too long when not using
      pluggable transports. (Closes: #9516)
    - Install firmware-amd-graphics, and firmware-misc-nonfree instead
      of firmware-ralink-nonfree, both from Debian Sid.
    - Update the Tails signing key. (Closes: #10012)

There are numerous other changes that might not be apparent in the
daily operation of a typical user. Technical details of all the
changes are listed in the
[Changelog](https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/plain/debian/changelog?h=testing).

<a id="known_issues"></a>

# Known issues in 1.7~rc1

* [[Longstanding known issues|support/known_issues]]
