Sharing experience /Solutions / Question about VPN

[Ken Fooy]

Dear community,

First, Shootout and big thanks to the Qubes team for their hard work and dedication, also to all the volunteers and the community too.

Don't want to waste your time (also linux noob here).
So I divided this post into 5 sections:

1) Intro my Qubes-os experience: for Linux noobs

2) Problem/solution1: Correctly enabling the disabled virtualization in a ASRock UEFI (BIOS).

3) Problem/solution2: Some (or all) VM that won't boot (start) up in version Qubes release 4.0:

4) Hardware Specs for people looking to build a PC

5) My question about moving an ovpn file to the computer from the documents (sys-vpn).

1 Intro

Due to an event (breach), Security and Privacy became an important topic IRL and digital.

I fell into the rabbit hole of privacy, security (paranoia much) and IIRC, I watched a couple youtube videos of the Hated One and that got me interested in Linux.
A Month after "the event" I'd learned how to build a PC and installed Qubes-OS release 4.0.
Learned about the different distros and how to navigate with commands and install programs basically how to use it as a daily driver.

I managed to get VPN, Bluetooth, webcam, Kodi, Windows Vista and 10, Kali Linux and Blackarch working with the available information on github, mailing-group and reddit and didn't ask for help until now.

Currently I'm studying to become a full-stack developer and have a background in Sales.

So when I started on this journey I was a real noob.

What I'm saying is, if you're new to Linux and Qubes-OS and interested in security, privacy and want more control over your digital life than this is it. It has a learning curve but definitely worth it.

Could save a lot of time by just asking questions in forums but then I wouldn't have learned so much, hate to say it but the frustration is well worth it.

Sheer will, Focus and Commitment will get you there and there is no shame to ask for help.

2) Problem 1:
Installing version Qubes release 4.1 (probably also version 4.0) and correctly enabling the disabled virtualization in a ASRock UEFI (BIOS).

Solution 1: You need to enable 3 settings to have virtualization enabled.

Setting 1: Advanced / CPU configuration / SVM mode --> enabled

Setting 2: Advanced / Onboard Devices configuration / SR-IOV support --> enabled

Setting 3: Advanced / AMD CBS /NBIO common options / IOMMU ---> enabled

3) Problem 2:
Some (or all) VM that won't boot (start) up in version Qubes release 4.0:

I was working with Qubes release 4.0 and days before the VM didn't boot anymore I'd received messages like:
failed due unsupported Hardware Detected. Missing features: IOMMU/VT-d/AMD-Vi and Unsupported Hardware Detected. Missing features: IOMMU/VT-d/AMD-Vi

Solution 2: In Dom0 open the setting of the VM that won't boot and go to Advanced there you can change under Virtualization the mode IIRC to HVM or to PVH.

In my case I did get the VM up and running again but qubes was lagging and I didn't trust the solution but the only thing I wanted was my data and reinstall. Made a backup and installed version Qubes release 4.1(love it)

4) AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Processor

Samsung 970 EVO Interne Solid State 1TB

Gskill F4-3200C16D-16GVKB Memory D4 3200 16GB (x2 32GB total)

MB ASRock B450 Pro4 AM4 ATX D-Sub/HDMI/DP DDR4

Following these steps https://github.com/tasket/Qubes-vpn-support except installing ovpn in the Debian template, which I found here https://github.com/Qubes-Community/Contents/blob/master/docs/configuration/vpn.md

5) I'm currently configuring a freshly installed Qubes release 4.1 and I've some issues getting the VPN up and running, I feel silly because before I didn't have any issues with setting VPN last time.

Step 1) I installed it in the Debian template with the command sudo apt-get install openvpn.

Step 2) I created a Qube type APPVM on the Debian template and the Qube named sys-vpn.

Step 3) provide network is selected, under the tab services added vpn-handler-ovpn by first selecting custom and then clicking the green plus sign and adding the service vpn-handler-ovpn.

Step 4) In sys-vpn I've made the folders with

sudo mkdir -p /rw/config/vpn

cd /rw/config/vpn

Step 5) downloaded the OVPN files from VPN provider in a other APPVM and moved it to sys-vpn Qubes and now the OVPN file reside in my documents and I don't have permission to move the files.

Can someone help me out at and help me point out at which step I went wrong?

Best Regards,

Ken

[Ken Fooy]

I don't need help anymore, I've manged to solve the problem, so I don't need help answering the question.

I forgot the sudo command (facepalm) it was a long day and it's been a while working with Qubes.
I'll leave this post up maybe it is useful for someone else.

Thank you for your time and have a nice day.

Best regards,

Ken

Op woensdag 1 december 2021 om 19:15:09 UTC-5 schreef Ken Fooy: