This problem is happening on tails 4.8 but has also been happening for the previous versions. Running tails on SanDisk USB stick, on a older HP Pavilion laptop.

It usually takes between 2 and 15 attempst to get Tails to startup successfully. Usually I get to the 'unlock persistant storage/start tails page', enter my password, click 'start tails' and it thinks for a minute, then returns to the 'unlock persistant storage/start tails' page. I enter my passord again and it often just restarts that page. But eventually tails will start. But then when I try to start to the Tor browser, it will say "Tor is not ready. Start Tor browser anyway?" It sometimes says this even after a notification comes up on the home screen saying "Tor is ready." Right now, I'm on Tor browser, after getting this message and starting Tor browser anyway. The little onion icon on the top right of the home screen as the x through it. But I'm on a .onion website! How does that work? (I thought I need Tor to access any .onion sites)? Is Tor really not working?

When I click on the onionx icon on the top right of my screen and 'open onion circuts', it lists various circuts with 'built' or sometimes 'succeeded' as a status. The circuits occasionally change. Does this mean Tor is ready and I'm just getting the 'not ready' notifiaiton and the x throght the onion icon because of some bug?

Should I keep restarting Tails until it starts up and does not warn me that Tor is not ready, and the x is removed from the onion icon? or does being able to access .onion sites mean everything is working fine despite the warnings?

Thanks! :)