How to use COLDCARD devices on Tails

Requirements

• Tails USB flash drive or SD card
• COLDCARD device

Caveats

• When copy/pasting commands that start with $, strip out $ as this character is not part of the command
• When copy/pasting commands that start with cat << "EOF", select all lines at once (from cat << "EOF" to EOF inclusively) as they are part of the same (single) command

Setup guide

Step 1: boot to Tails

Step 2: enable persistence (if not already enabled)

Click “Applications”, then “Favorites”, then “Configure persistent volume”, set passphrase, click “Create”, make sure “Personal Data” is enabled, click “Save” and, finally, click “Restart Now”.

Step 3: boot to Tails, unlock persistent storage and set admin password (required to install dependencies and ckcc and run coldcard.sh)

Heads-up: if keyboard layout of computer isn’t “English (US)”, set “Keyboard Layout”.

Click “+” under “Additional Settings”, then “Administration Password”, set password, click “Add” and, finally, click “Start Tails”.

Step 4: install dependencies

$ sudo apt update

$ sudo apt install -y python3-pip python3-setuptools

Step 5: install ckcc

Heads-up: ignore “Failed building wheel for pyaes” error (if present).

$ torsocks pip3 install --user 'ckcc-protocol[cli]'

Step 6: copy ckcc to persistent storage

$ mkdir -p /home/amnesia/Persistent/.local

$ cp -r /home/amnesia/.local/{bin,lib} /home/amnesia/Persistent/.local/

Step 7: download 51-coinkite.rules

$ torsocks curl --output /home/amnesia/Persistent/51-coinkite.rules https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Coldcard/ckcc-protocol/master/51-coinkite.rules

Step 8: create coldcard.sh script

$ cat << "EOF" > /home/amnesia/Persistent/coldcard.sh
#! /bin/bash

set -e

if [ "$(id -u)" -ne 0 ]; then
  echo 'Please run as root'
  exit
fi

sudo cp /home/amnesia/Persistent/51-coinkite.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
sudo -u amnesia cp -r /home/amnesia/Persistent/.local /home/amnesia/

echo 'export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.local/bin' >> /home/amnesia/.bashrc
EOF

$ chmod +x /home/amnesia/Persistent/coldcard.sh

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Usage guide

Step 1: boot to Tails, unlock persistent storage and set admin password (required to run coldcard.sh)

Heads-up: if keyboard layout of computer isn’t “English (US)”, set “Keyboard Layout”.

Click “+” under “Additional Settings”, then “Administration Password”, set password, click “Add” and, finally, click “Start Tails”.

Step 2: run coldcard.sh

$ sudo /home/amnesia/Persistent/coldcard.sh

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