Idea: Windows 8.x/10 workarround? Run Windows in VMware Workstation on top of a Fedora VM

[p.rasc...@googlemail.com]

Hello,

I would like to use Qubes OS as my primary production OS.
As I am dependend on Windows (Microsoft Gold Partner / Customer Projects) I can't live without Windows also because most of our corporate workflows depend on a windows stack.
We are currently using Windows 8.1 and are currently upgrading to Win 10 (must be finished in June).

As Windows 8.1/10 is currently not (yet) supported in Qubes OS I came up with the idea to setup a Fedora based VM, which has a VMware Workstation installed, which will then run virtual windows 10 VM.

While this is not perfect, it would at least allow me to use the windows apps I need, while still beeing able to use different security domains on one machine.
Before Qubes I've used Windows 10 as main OS with VMware Workstation and several VMs (Win 8.1 / CentOS / Nested vSphere (mobile lab)).

Question:
Will this work (VMware Workstation inside a Fedore VM in Qubes OS)?

- Piit

[Alex]

On 03/16/2016 09:16 PM, p.raschdorff via qubes-users wrote:
> Hello,
> [...]

> Question:
> Will this work (VMware Workstation inside a Fedore VM in Qubes OS)?

A quick google search (which led me here:
https://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-8970) suggests that vmware
products refuse to be guests under "foreign hypervisor", but this can be
overridden in the guest configuration file (i.e., the config file of the
windows "nested guest") as suggested in the very last <h1> element of
the article.

The same article seems to suggest that, in a lot of cases, only 32-bit
nested guests can be run.

Still, I did not test anything first-hand: if you happen to have the
time to do that, please report back to this mailing list =)

--
Alex

[piitb...@gmail.com]

Hello Alex

Am Donnerstag, 17. März 2016 09:08:50 UTC+1 schrieb Alex:

(...) if you happen to have the time to do that, please report back to this mailing list =)

I tried to install VMware Workstation on top of a new built Fedore 23 AppVM but run into issues as VMware Workstation complained about a missing gcc-4.8.3 compiler.
I installed gcc in the recent version 5.x (sudo dnf install @development-tools) but this doesn't helped.
As I didn't found a way to install an older version of gcc-4.8.3, I am now trying another approach with a debian VM.

Unfortunately the Debian VM (which is based on the Qubes OS Debian 8 Template) has Kernel Headers 4.1.13-9.pvops.qubes.x8664.
Vmware Workstation is  complaining that no kernel headers are found.

Where can I get the needed Kernel-Headers? I did a search and could only get 3.16.0-4 Kernel Headers:

user@workstation:~$ apt-cache search linux-headers
linux-headers-3.16.0-4-all - All header files for Linux 3.16 (meta-package)
linux-headers-3.16.0-4-all-amd64 - All header files for Linux 3.16 (meta-package)
linux-headers-3.16.0-4-amd64 - Header files for Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64
linux-headers-3.16.0-4-common - Common header files for Linux 3.16.0-4
linux-headers-amd64 - Header files for Linux amd64 configuration (meta-package)

- Piit

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

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There is no Debian package for kernel 4.1.13-9 headers.

For instruction how to build custom kernel modules, see here:
https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/managing-vm-kernel/
If you're running Qubes 3.1, I recommend the last option ("Using kernel
installed in the VM").

- --
Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
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[Rafał Wojdyła]

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On 2016-03-16 21:16, p.raschdorff via qubes-users wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I would like to use Qubes OS as my primary production OS. As I am
> dependend on Windows (Microsoft Gold Partner / Customer Projects) I
> can't live without Windows also because most of our corporate
> workflows depend on a windows stack. We are currently using Windows
> 8.1 and are currently upgrading to Win 10 (must be finished in
> June).
>
> As Windows 8.1/10 is currently not (yet) supported in Qubes OS I
> came up with the idea to setup a Fedora based VM, which has a
> VMware Workstation installed, which will then run virtual windows
> 10 VM.
>

You can run Windows 8/10 just fine as a HVM without Qubes Tools if you
need to. Adding tools/integration support for these versions is
currently top priority for me and although it turned out to be more
tricky than anticipated, I think that at least a prototype build will
be available before summer.

> While this is not perfect, it would at least allow me to use the
> windows apps I need, while still beeing able to use different
> security domains on one machine. Before Qubes I've used Windows 10
> as main OS with VMware Workstation and several VMs (Win 8.1 /
> CentOS / Nested vSphere (mobile lab)).
>
> Question: Will this work (VMware Workstation inside a Fedore VM in
> Qubes OS)?
>
> - Piit
>

- --
Rafał Wojdyła
Qubes Tools for Windows developer
https://www.qubes-os.org/
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[piitb...@gmail.com]

Hello Rafal,

Am Freitag, 18. März 2016 03:00:57 UTC+1 schrieb omeg:

You can run Windows 8/10 just fine as a HVM without Qubes Tools if you
need to.

 

Do you have a few points what will not work without the Qubes Tools installed.

Adding tools/integration support for these versions is
currently top priority for me and although it turned out to be more
tricky than anticipated, I think that at least a prototype build will
be available before summer.

I volunteer as beta tester.

- Piit 

 

[J. Eppler]

On Friday, March 18, 2016 at 12:08:30 PM UTC-5, piitb...@gmail.com wrote:

Hello Rafal,

Am Freitag, 18. März 2016 03:00:57 UTC+1 schrieb omeg:

You can run Windows 8/10 just fine as a HVM without Qubes Tools if you
need to.

 

Do you have a few points what will not work without the Qubes Tools installed.

- Automatic screen resizing
- Copy-to-VM will not be available in the context menu

and a view other things.

[Iestyn Best]

and a view other things.

Will we be able to attach USB devices as a workaround for copying data to the VM?