### GNOME Boxes Testing with Tails 6.2, I couldn't start GNOME Boxes from an USB image. It silently fails in the UI and outputs the following error message on the command line: ``` (gnome-boxes:47993): Boxes-WARNING **: 12:49:09.329: index-page.vala:181: Failed to create installer media for path '/home/sajolida/iso/tails/tails-amd64-6.2.img': Insufficient metadata on installation media ``` ### VirtualBox We dropped support for VirtualBox in #20241. It's possible to start VirtualBox from both: * A physical USB stick, after doing some not-too-complicated magic on the command line: https://www.how2shout.com/how-to/virtualbox-virtual-machine-boot-usb.html#Step_3_Create_VDMK_Raw_file_of_connected_bootable_USB_drive Users can use the Persistent Storage on the physical USB stick out of the box. * A USB image, after converting it to VDI on the command line and increasing its size: ``` $ VBoxManage convertdd eos-eos3.0-amd64-amd64.161024-144409.base.img eos.vdi ``` https://www.pragmaticlinux.com/2020/09/how-to-increase-the-disk-size-in-a-virtualbox-virtual-machine/ When creating a Persistent Storage, I got: ``` Error: Tails is running from non-USB / non-SDIO device. ``` Probably something that could be fixed. In both cases, users also have to remove `live-media=removable`. (#6397) - [ ] Double-check whether we could workaround the need to remove `live-media=removable`. Stats from WhisperBack reports in 2019 and 2020: | | ISO | | VFAT | | |--|-----|--|------|--| | VirtualBox | 24 | 50% | 1 | 2% | | QEMU | 12 | 25% | 11 | 23% | | | | | 48 | | * For QEMU where USB images are already available, half of users choose them despite not being the default download. * Some people already running VirtualBox from a physical or virtual USB stick.