Starting Win10 HVM install crashes Qubes, and other bugs
Mindus Amitiel Debsin
I have dived headfirst into Qubes, but it seems like the OS gets more buggy the longer I use it. I have learned a lot, but I have not managed to do anything productive in Qubes yet other than getting my Firefox synced in the Work VM.
If I could get this Windows 10 HVM setup, I would be able to take a break from the other aspects of Qubes for a while, but as it is now, I'm nearing a breaking point where my primary computer no longer is productive and I am thinking of reloading Win10 natively.
There is one problem that I have that is before Qubes starts, and this has not gone away no matter how many settings I have changed. The only thing I haven't tried is to change my SATA mode to IDE or use a different SATA controller, but I doubt those will work. The problem is evidenced by picture IMG_20190328_004611.jpg.
The other issue and the reason for this post is that after reading several guides for Windows HVM installs and trying every option in the Qubes Manager GUI, the Win10 HVM freezes or crashes my entire Qubes install whenever I try to start it. I do not get a window for the HVM, either. I have deleted the HVM many times and tried over again, including via the console, but it has not made a difference. The HVM has 6GB of RAM (out of my 32GB of RAM in the system), 4 VCPUs, and 30GB of space. It is also in debug mode. I am trying to pass through my independent GPU (Qubes is running on another GPU entirely), the HDMI audio through the GPU, and an NVME SSD in a PCI-e slot via an adapter. But even without passing through these devices, the install won't work. I need the 1TB NVME SSD because that is what I plan on installing the Windows 10 system on.
The screenshot of this issue is IMG_20190330_020643.jpg.
I have 2 Windows ISOs, 1 is a Windows 7 SP1 ISO and the 2nd is a Windows 10 ISO from the media creation tool. Both are legit and neither of them work.
I realize it may be slightly offensive to say that Qubes has bugs in it. I have been following the project for about 2 years and I know there is a lot of work put into it. One of the bugs that I have experienced recently is when I insert a NTFS or exFat formatted USB stick, it does not go into the Qubes device manager at the top right of the screen. It did when I first installed Qubes, but after using it for about a week and updating my Qubes, it no longer functions correctly.
Another thing I am having a problem with is finding a GUI for managing my system devices in dom0 and to work with the partitions. If possible I would like to reduce my Qubes install from the 2tb I initially allowed it, to less than 1TB and to clone it via Acronis boot disk to a smaller but faster SSD. Also my Qubes install is encrypted. Can this work?
Thanks for reading, and I hope for some quick replies!
~MAD
awokd
> Hello Qubes community!
Hello again!
> The other issue and the reason for this post is that after reading several guides for Windows HVM installs and trying every option in the Qubes Manager GUI, the Win10 HVM freezes or crashes my entire Qubes install whenever I try to start it. I do not get a window for the HVM, either. I have deleted the HVM many times and tried over again, including via the console, but it has not made a difference. The HVM has 6GB of RAM (out of my 32GB of RAM in the system), 4 VCPUs, and 30GB of space. It is also in debug mode. I am trying to pass through my independent GPU (Qubes is running on another GPU entirely), the HDMI audio through the GPU, and an NVME SSD in a PCI-e slot via an adapter. But even without passing through these devices, the install won't work. I need the 1TB NVME SSD because that is what I plan on installing the Windows 10 system on.
> The screenshot of this issue is IMG_20190330_020643.jpg.
> I have 2 Windows ISOs, 1 is a Windows 7 SP1 ISO and the 2nd is a Windows 10 ISO from the media creation tool. Both are legit and neither of them work.
Are you following the steps at
https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/windows-vm/#qubes-40---windows-vm-installation
exactly? If so, where does it break? Do not attempt to pass anything
through until you've completed all the steps.
> I realize it may be slightly offensive to say that Qubes has bugs in it. I have been following the project for about 2 years and I know there is a lot of work put into it. One of the bugs that I have experienced recently is when I insert a NTFS or exFat formatted USB stick, it does not go into the Qubes device manager at the top right of the screen. It did when I first installed Qubes, but after using it for about a week and updating my Qubes, it no longer functions correctly.
instead.
> Another thing I am having a problem with is finding a GUI for managing my system devices in dom0 and to work with the partitions. If possible I would like to reduce my Qubes install from the 2tb I initially allowed it, to less than 1TB and to clone it via Acronis boot disk to a smaller but faster SSD. Also my Qubes install is encrypted. Can this work?
You might want to consider separate machines. Your intentions are
honourable, but I have yet to hear of anyone on the list successfully
passing through their GPU to a Windows VM in Qubes 4.0. One machine with
a healthy amount of RAM and onboard video for Qubes and your data, the
other for gaming. Dual-boot could also be an option, but that is a pain
to set up and maintain since Windows 10 will break the bootloader every
major update.
Mindus Amitiel Debsin
On Saturday, March 30, 2019 at 9:50:44 AM UTC-7, awokd wrote:
> Windows 7 should work, although I've heard some claim success with 10.
> Are you following the steps at
> https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/windows-vm/#qubes-40---windows-vm-installation
> exactly? If so, where does it break? Do not attempt to pass anything
> through until you've completed all the steps.
I got a Windows 7 HVM to work all the way to the desktop, but I did not install QWT on it just yet. What held me back was that I really wanted to be able to install Windows 7 on a separate, faster hard drive. So on my 2nd Win7 HVM, I passed through the SATA controller on my mobo that has 2 SATA ports to it, and connected an SSD to that SATA controller. After a while of fumbling with connecting USB sticks (blocks) which contain drivers for the SATA controller to my Windows 7 hvm before installation, I just edited the Windows 7 iso and put the drivers in that, and then tried to install Windows 7 again. Unfortunately, when I loaded the drivers in the Windows 7 installation, it crashed the installation. I don't know if that is because of the SeaBIOs that I keep seeing or something else.
Is there any resource I should look at for installing a Windows 7 HVM on a separate hard drive for speed? I am getting much more comfortable with the console commands recently!
> The device widget is still a bit buggy. Try using qvm-usb or qvm-block
> instead.
This was helpful!
> You might want to consider separate machines. Your intentions are
> honourable, but I have yet to hear of anyone on the list successfully
> passing through their GPU to a Windows VM in Qubes 4.0. One machine with
> a healthy amount of RAM and onboard video for Qubes and your data, the
> other for gaming. Dual-boot could also be an option, but that is a pain
> to set up and maintain since Windows 10 will break the bootloader every
> major update.
Thanks, I will keep this in mind.
~MAD
awokd
feel like pursuing it.
> On Saturday, March 30, 2019 at 9:50:44 AM UTC-7, awokd wrote:
>
>> Windows 7 should work, although I've heard some claim success with 10.
>> Are you following the steps at
>> https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/windows-vm/#qubes-40---windows-vm-installation
>> exactly? If so, where does it break? Do not attempt to pass anything
>> through until you've completed all the steps.
>
> I got a Windows 7 HVM to work all the way to the desktop, but I did not install QWT on it just yet. What held me back was that I really wanted to be able to install Windows 7 on a separate, faster hard drive. So on my 2nd Win7 HVM, I passed through the SATA controller on my mobo that has 2 SATA ports to it, and connected an SSD to that SATA controller. After a while of fumbling with connecting USB sticks (blocks) which contain drivers for the SATA controller to my Windows 7 hvm before installation, I just edited the Windows 7 iso and put the drivers in that, and then tried to install Windows 7 again. Unfortunately, when I loaded the drivers in the Windows 7 installation, it crashed the installation. I don't know if that is because of the SeaBIOs that I keep seeing or something else.
making Xen/Qubes ignore it by adding xen-pciback.hide=(0x:0y.z) to the
boot options (where xyz=BDF). It might not like having it surprise
removed when the VM grabs it. Then reboot, assign it to your HVM, and
attempt your custom ISO again.
Part of the challenge of getting pass-through to work correctly is it
depends on lot on how well the entire system and components have been
designed to support it. A lot of consumer hardware is only tested for
Windows compatibility, not advanced functions like that. On top of that,
Qubes blocks writes to some PCI configuration registers for security.
Won't matter on a well-designed peripheral, but some aren't. You can try
experimenting with the options in
https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/pci-devices/#pci-passthrough-issues.
Mindus Amitiel Debsin
> Try finding the BDF of that SATA controller with lspci in dom0, then
> making Xen/Qubes ignore it by adding xen-pciback.hide=(0x:0y.z) to the
> boot options (where xyz=BDF). It might not like having it surprise
> removed when the VM grabs it. Then reboot, assign it to your HVM, and
> attempt your custom ISO again.
I will get to this good advice as soon as I'm done with my current problem.
I was doing a lot of reading on the Qubes-users group and also through the Qubes docs site, and I decided to update my kernel in dom0 using the
sudo qubes-dom0-update kernel-latest
console command. I did this for several reasons, including the fact that I have no sound. While the update was successful, when I restarted the computer, there were several problems.
1) The HDD decrypt password is invisible. It's just a blank screen until you type something, and then it shows a text based prompt for the password.
2) There are huge graphical artifacts in the user password prompt screen.
3) After a successful password entry in the user password prompt screen, it briefly boots into the Qubes desktop and then immediately goes back to the password prompt. It does this repeatedly, with no escape. If you enter the wrong password, it functions correctly and tells you that it is the incorrect password.
I am hoping there is troubleshooting that I can do to change my boot options, or that somebody else has faced this problem as well. Otherwise I will want to roll back the kernel, but I hope that I don't have to.
Here are my computer specifications:
Mobo: Asus Sabertooth x79
CPU: Intel i7 3930k 6 core @ 3.2ghz
RAM: G-skill Ripjaws 4gb x 8 sticks in quad-channel, XMP profile @ 3.2 ghz (I believe)
GPU1: AMD RX 580 8gb [XFX brand]
GPU2: AMD RX 460 4gb [XFX brand]
Boot HDD: Seagate 2TB Firecuda hybrid drive.
Other HDDs: 1TB Toshiba OCZ SATA SSD. 3TB Toshiba Sata HDD.
Thanks!
Jon deps
done anything but the sudo qubes-dom0-update
initially I tried to get win7 working in 3.2 , and it did breifly , till
I did something wrong, then it never was the same, I believe the
windows tools is more like a semi supported feature no one seems
to use of talk about.
qubes is qubes , you can dual boot on a separate HD, otherwise there is
enough to learn without trying to get fancy unless you got the
time and "skillz" IMO
if you don't have sound there are various other reasons have nothing to
do with dom0
welcome
awokd
https://www.mail-archive.com/qubes...@googlegroups.com/msg27786.html
Mindus Amitiel Debsin
Thanks for this. I think the pdf file was very helpful.
I think I will try it out when Qubes gets released next (hopefully the known bugs will be squashed).
I will mark your answer as complete.
~Mindus Debsin
throwaway...@gmail.com
https://github.com/Qubes-Community/Contents/blob/master/docs/customization/windows-gaming-hvm.md