Getting started

1. Write the ISO

1. Download the ISO and verify its SHA-256 before anything else (see Download).
2. Write it to a USB stick. The ISO is hybrid: it is copied to the device as is, without unpacking or "installing" anything. On Linux:

sudo dd if=redderos-ubuntu-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress conv=fsync

Replace /dev/sdX with the USB stick (check with lsblk). Everything on that USB stick is erased.

To try it without a USB stick, in a virtual machine:

qemu-system-x86_64 -m 3G -enable-kvm -cdrom redderos-ubuntu-amd64.iso

It boots with 2 GB of RAM, but the whole system is copied into memory (toram), so with the desktop it is best to allow 3 GB or more.

2. Boot

Boot the computer from the USB stick. RedderOS works on both BIOS and UEFI. The GRUB menu waits 5 seconds and then starts RedderOS, the entry for normal use. The others are explained in Boot menu.

The system is copied to RAM and from then on does not use the computer's internal disk: it neither mounts it nor enables its swap, even if it has one.

3. The login screen

Once boot finishes, the RedderOS login screen appears. It does not show any list of profiles: there is none. There are only two fields, Profile (Perfil) and Passphrase (Frase de paso). The Tor status is shown in the bottom corner.

• Amnesic session: leave Profile empty and press Enter (the button reads "Sesión amnésica"). You log in as the user anon with an empty home folder. Everything lives in RAM and is erased when you log out or shut down. This is the recommended mode if you do not need to keep anything.
• Open a profile: type the profile name and its passphrase. The system searches every connected disk for it and, if found, opens your desktop with your encrypted /home.

From the same screen you can shut down or restart. The interface is in Spanish and the keyboard layout is Spanish, here as well as on the desktop and the console.

4. The desktop

It is a dark Xfce desktop with a single workspace. It comes with three shortcuts:

The network only works through Tor. Until Tor has connected there is no connection: this is expected, not a fault (see Network and Tor).

When you log out you return to the login screen. If it was an amnesic session, its folder is erased; if it was a profile, it is unmounted and the system forgets it ever existed.

5. Create a profile

A profile keeps your encrypted /home between boots, on a separate disk (another USB stick, for example) that RedderOS turns into a vault. It needs at least 257 MB.

1. On the login screen, press Create profile… (Crear perfil…).
2. Choose the disk. If it is the first time, tick "This is a new disk: prepare it as a vault". This erases all its contents and fills it with random data.
3. Type a name (lowercase letters, digits, - and _) and a passphrase of at least 12 characters, twice.
4. The slot (0–7) is chosen at random. Only change it if you share the vault with someone (see below).
5. Tick "I understand that the passphrase cannot be recovered" and press Create and log in.

6. Logging in again

On the next boot, with the vault connected, type the profile name and passphrase. The search takes a few seconds: the key is derived with Argon2id, which is deliberately slow.

If the name does not exist or the passphrase is wrong you will see the same message: "No se ha podido abrir el perfil." ("The profile could not be opened."). This is intentional: it means nobody can check whether a profile exists.

7. Shutting down

Shut down from the login screen or from the desktop. Nothing is left written on the computer's disk.

To also overwrite free RAM before shutting down (against cold boot attacks), run redder-wipe from a terminal (see Commands).