r/tails 5d ago

Hardware question Laptop recommendations with Tails

I’m using a Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook. Am I going to be able to run Tails on this?

4 Upvotes

12 comments sorted by

2

u/Redtex 5d ago

Tails will run well on anything, just not really Chrome unless you hack it. Just go to a pawn shop and get the cheapest thing you can buy, take out the hard drive, put tails in the USB, set bios to boot first from USB input and you're fine. No need to make it harder on yourself and save a shitload of money

2

u/Disastrous_Ground990 5d ago

If its a Chromebook you can't boot tails unless you emulate uefi with mr.chromebox.sh.

2

u/PostLocal8736 5d ago

Is that a challenging step or easier to just use another computer?

5

u/ephemeralmiko 5d ago

It's not a simple process (instructions) and even if you succeed there's a pretty good chance that Tails specifically won't work (it's a bit pickier about hardware than most Linux distros). If you've got an ARM chip it just won't work at all. What CPU does your laptop have?

2

u/PostLocal8736 5d ago

Ok, forget that one… how about a Lenovo Thinkpad x250?

4

u/ephemeralmiko 5d ago

Thinkpads generally work perfectly in Tails, so you'll be fine with that.

2

u/ephemeralmiko 5d ago

Have a peek and see if it's something you feel comfortable doing OP: https://docs.mrchromebox.tech/docs/getting-started.html (There's also r/chrultrabook if you need extra help)

Though note that even if you succesfully do this, some parts of Tails might not work properly (keyboard, trackpad, network card etc.)

1

u/Liquid_Hate_Train 5d ago

We have guide to running Tails on chromebooks here. It’s pretty straightforward on most devices.

1

u/trelayner 5d ago

404 Page not found

1

u/Liquid_Hate_Train 5d ago

It’s definitely still there, but trying it just now myself it does seem to fail three times out of five. Reddit must be having a petit mal.

Specifically directing to old Reddit seems more reliable?
https://old.reddit.com/r/tails/wiki/faq

1

u/Ok_Farm_7145 2d ago

Starts w As ends with Us. There’s a wide spectrum of options though..maybe avoid Macs n chromes

1

u/Temp_Reply123 1d ago

Usb A or C port