en	[[!meta title="Install Tails from Debian or Ubuntu using the command line and GnuPG"]]

en	Verify the Tails signing key

en	If you already certified the Tails signing key with your own key, you can skip this step and start [[downloading and verifying the USB image|expert#download]].

en	In this step, you will download and verify the *Tails signing key* which is the OpenPGP key that is used to cryptographically sign the Tails USB image.

en	To follow these instructions you need to have your own OpenPGP key.

en	To learn how to create yourself an OpenPGP key, see Managing OpenPGP Keys by .

en	This verification technique uses the OpenPGP Web of Trust and the certification made by official Debian developers on the Tails signing key.

en	Import the Tails signing key in your GnuPG keyring:

en	Install the Debian keyring. It contains the OpenPGP keys of all Debian developers:

en	Import the OpenPGP key of [[!wikipedia Chris_Lamb_(software_developer) desc="Chris Lamb"]], a former Debian Project Leader, from the Debian keyring into your keyring:

en	Verify the certifications made on the Tails signing key:

en	In the output of this command, look for the following line:

en	Here, `sig!2` means that Chris Lamb verified and certified the Tails signing key with his key and a level 2 check.

en	It is also possible to verify the certifications made by other people. Their name and email address appear in the list of certification if you have their key in your keyring.

en	If the verification of the certification failed, then you might have downloaded a malicious version of the Tails signing key or our instructions might be outdated. Please [[get in touch with us|support/talk]].

en	The line 175 signatures not checked due to missing keys or similar refers to the certifications (also called signatures) made by other public keys that are not in your keyring. This is not a problem.

en	Certify the Tails signing key with your own key:

en	Download Tails

en	Download the USB image:

en	Verify your download

en	In this step, you will verify your download using the Tails signing key.

en	Download the signature of the USB image:

en	Verify that the USB image is signed by the Tails signing key:

en	The output of this command should be the following:

en	Verify in this output that:

en	The date of the signature is the same.

en	The signature is marked as `Good signature` since you certified the Tails signing key with your own key.

en	Install Tails using dd

en	Make sure that the USB stick on which you want to install Tails is unplugged.

en	Execute the following command:

en	It returns a list of the storage devices on the system. For example:

en	Plug in the USB stick on which you want to install Tails.

en	All the data on this USB stick will be lost.

en	Execute again the same command:

en	Your USB stick appears as a new device in the list.

en	Take note of the *device name* of your USB stick.

en	In this example, the device name of the USB stick is `/dev/sdb`. Yours might be different.

en	tails.img with the path to the USB image

en	device with the device name found in step 5

en	dd if=tails.img of=device bs=16M oflag=direct status=progress

en	If no error message is returned, Tails is being copied on the USB stick. The copy takes some time, generally a few minutes.

en	If you get a Permission denied error, try adding sudo at the beginning of the command:

en	sudo dd if=tails.img of=device bs=16M oflag=direct status=progress

en	The installation is complete after the command prompt reappears.