Cant connect hard drive to appvms?

[Stumpy]

I have a hard drive that i cant seem to connect to any of the appvms yet
I can see and access it via dom0 (not good i know).
I can attach a usb flash drive to my appvms but not the hard drive?

This is on my laptop and i do not have a sys-usb (didnt give me the
option when installing qubes (v4.0.2) but if i can connect a flash then
i cant figure why i cant connect the external hard drive to appvms, esp
if i can use/see the drive via dom0?

Thoughts?

[Stuart Perkins]

Without sys-usb, you may need to overtly assign the device the usb controller is on to a VM.

[brenda...@gmail.com]

That's odd. Is this a SATA or USB hard drive?

SATA: On my primary thinkpad, running qubes R4 current-testing (essentially at least v4.0.2), while *sda* is not available for attachment to devices (as that is the boot disk) all  the other SATA devices are available for attaching: sdb, sdc (and, when the eSATAp and/or dock is attached, sdd and sde) to VMs. Any valid partitions as well.

USB: I generally have not attached USB drives (utilizing the USB IP support via `qvm-usb` aka `qvm-device usb`) to VMs as I find it slow and sometimes buggy.

Instead I attach the PCI device encompassing the USB controller utilizing `qvm-device pci` with an HVM, which may be a luxury that other users don't always have (this laptop has three USB PCI devices, one of which is via expresscard).

Brendan

[awokd]

brenda...@gmail.com:

> USB: I generally have not attached USB drives (utilizing the USB IP support
> via `qvm-usb` aka `qvm-device usb`) to VMs as I find it slow and sometimes
> buggy.

I don't do that either, but using qvm-block to attach USB drives has
been stable for me. More secure too.

[brenda...@gmail.com]

On Thursday, September 5, 2019 at 4:33:31 AM UTC-4, awokd wrote:
> b...r@gmail.com:

Ah yes. I too use qvm-block for my sata devices.

What I neglected to mention was that several of my USB devices implement hardware encryption (that replaces a small read-only volume with the main read-write volume after unlock).

The strategy choice then was a) unlock via sys-usb and utilize qvm-block or b) connect usb chipset to disposable VM and unlock there. I chose the latter.

B

[unman]

It's notable that you dont say what you are doing and what does happen
(if anything). Any chance of a little more information?

[Stumpy]

oops, i replied only to unman by accident.

I am hoping to copy things from the external usb hard drive (sata drive
in a usb dock).

When i connect my external usb drive to the computer i get the popup
that its recognized, both sdc and sdc1.

When i attach it via qubes devices it doesnt say or give any errors.

When i try to access it on the appvm that i connect it to it does not
show up in nautilus like say my flash usb devices, nor does it show as
being mounted when i check for mounted devs via the terminal

yet.

On dom0 i can see the drive, i can access the drive, and modify the
contents but of course this is not a good idea.

I have not tried qvm-usb, qvm-device, or qvm-block as i am not familar
with them but at this point am open to trying them (any docs on how to
use them?)

[awokd]

Stumpy:

> I am hoping to copy things from the external usb hard drive (sata drive
> in a usb dock).
>

https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/block-devices/

[Stumpy]

should it make a difference if the external hard drive is formatted in NTFS?

I tried putting it on another qubes computer that i have (v4.0.1), that
does have a sys-usb, and my sys-usb can access it, but, as with my
notebook I cant mount it in a regular appvm?

In this case, i plug it in, i get a popup indicating its detected, i
then take a look at it via sys-usb, can access the contents, then go to
qubes devices click the appvm to attach it to and nothing.

in dom0 i do qvm-usb list sys-usb and it shows me everything except the
hard drive, that i know is attached because I am looking at its contents
in sys-usb. I really dont know what to make of this. is there like a
drive size limit? (this is a 6tb drive)

[Brendan Hoar]

On Sat, Sep 7, 2019 at 3:04 PM Stumpy <stu...@posteo.net> wrote:

...

Does the template for the VM have the ntfs-3g package installed?

B

[Stumpy]

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Yes, i just double checked and they are installed on the appvm (I even
tried to reinstall them). still no luck.
Thanks though.

[donoban]

On 9/6/19 5:32 PM, Stumpy wrote:
> I am hoping to copy things from the external usb hard drive (sata drive
> in a usb dock).
>
> When i connect my external usb drive to the computer i get the popup
> that its recognized, both sdc and sdc1.
>
> When i attach it via qubes devices it doesnt say or give any errors.
>
> When i try to access it on the appvm that i connect it to it does not
> show up in nautilus like say my flash usb devices, nor does it show as
> being mounted when i check for mounted devs via the terminal
>
> yet.
>
> On dom0 i can see the drive, i can access the drive, and modify the
> contents but of course this is not a good idea.
>
> I have not tried qvm-usb, qvm-device, or qvm-block as i am not familar
> with them but at this point am open to trying them (any docs on how to
> use them?)
>

Could you check 'sudo dmesg' on the AppVM? If you see something like
'/dev/xvdi1' you could try mounting it with:
'sudo mount /dev/xvdi1 /some/place'