Hi Marek,
On 02/08/18 03:13, Marek Marczykowski-Górecki wrote:
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On Wed, Feb 07, 2018 at 02:18:59PM -0800, Yuraeitha wrote:
@Ivan
On Monday, February 5, 2018 at 7:50:30 AM UTC+1, Ivan Mitev wrote:
On 02/04/18 19:26, Yuraeitha wrote:
On Sunday, February 4, 2018 at 6:00:15 PM UTC+1, Ivan Mitev wrote:
Also it seems like some functions "might (maybe)" work as intended, for example
I can copy files between VM's and Win7, on a Win7 that was installed on Qubes 3.2., but
backup restored on Qubes 4. Others seem like they can do this too. Also it seems it's a
common problem not to be internet in the restored Q3.2-Win7, perhaps the code is
different in regards to how it ties networking with Qubes 4? I have no idea about the
rest of the mechanics from a users perspective though, and most certainly not as a
developer as I unfortunately don't have such skills, I wish I could help more.
I just spent a bit of time restoring my windows VM from 3.2, here are a
few notes that might be helpful to work around some bugs that you're
probably hitting too (I haven't filed any issues yet):
- PVH/HVM: in the VM's settings gui, PVH is always displayed whatever
the real pref value. -> use qvm-prefs vmname virt_mode to make sure
you're really in HVM mode.
- Networking: the PV network adapter was stuck at "Identifying" ;
pinging an *ip* works but ping a host fails. tcpdump on sys-firewall
shows that the requests were sent to the gateway's ip and were rejected.
The reason seems to be that in R4.0 VMs are now using the exposed
"/qubes-{primary,secondary}-dns" values, while in R3.2 the DNS server
was the same as "/qubes-gateway" (see [1]). In my setup,
"/qubes-{primary,secondary}-dns" are 10.139.1.{1,2} and /qubes-gateway
is 10.137.0.6. DNS requests are rejected because they're sent to
10.137.0.6 instead of 10.139.1.{1,2}
Yes, exactly. Actually /qubes-primary-dns entry is present on R3.2 too,
but is the same as /qubes-gateway.
workaround 1-> manually set the DNS servers to
/qubes-{primary,secondary}-dns ips. Ping and Internet Explorer worked,
but the PV adapter was still suck at "identifying" and my Amazon Kindle
for PC app complained about finding no network (it seems there's a
windows "connectivity" API/flag that some apps use). However you will
have to do this each time after boot since Qubes tools will reset the
network settings.
workaround 2-> in Program Files/Invisible.../Qubes.../bin/..., rename
network-setup.exe to network-setup.exe.bkp to prevent Qubes tools from
messing with your network settings, and manually set the VM's IP and DNS
servers in the PV adapter network setting. Everything should then work
OK, the only problem being that you'll have to make sure you keep your
network settings synced (esp. the IP when you clone the VM).
- Copying to/from the Win VM: works perfectly - you just have to type
twice the destination VM (once in Windows, once in Qubes/dom0), since
Qubes Tools aren't updated to reflect R4.0 new "way".
I guess this should be easy to fix, just need to skip the first prompt
and provide "$default" as destination name in qrexec call.
Looks this file is relevant:
https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-core-agent-windows/blob/master/core-agent-windows.wxs
Compare "Copy to other VM" and "Edit in DispVM" entries.
note: before finding what was causing the connectivity problem I tried
to update xen's windows PV drivers [2] but it broke the VM (ie. it
wasn't starting anymore) so I had to restore it again. Anyway IIRC R3.2
Qubes Tool's drivers were at the same version as Xen's (8.2), so no need
to fiddle with this.
There is also difference in emulated hardware - in R3.2 we use MiniOS
based stubdomain, with "qemu-traditional" (veeeery old, mostly
unmaintained qemu fork), while in R4.0 we use Linux based stubdomain,
with recent version of upstream qemu (2.10.1 at the moment).
This may cause problems when migrating HVMs between R3.2 and R4.0. There
is a way to switch some VMs on R4.0 to the old qemu, and it is
automatically done when restoring HVMs from R3.2 backup:
qvm-features VMNAME linux-stubdom ''
('' means to _disable_ linux stubdomain...)
When testing new installations, I recommend using new qemu (default
settings when you create VM). You can copy windows tools installation
iso from R3.2, it's in /usr/lib/qubes/qubes-windows-tools.iso.
good to know !
(...)
BTW I assumed there was a single "Qubes Tools" service responsible for
setting the network, launching qubesdb daemon, ..., but I noticed a bit
after my post that each task was handled by a different service. So you
can simply disable the "Qubes Network Setup" service instead of renaming
the .exe
Also,
https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-core-agent-windows/blob/master/src/network-setup/qubes-network-setup.c
indeed shows that qubesGateway (/qubes-gateway) is used for DNS (line
287). The code is easy to understand and adding the new DNS variables, +
setting the servers accordingly (if the variables aren't empty) should
be straightforward. I don't have a Windows build environment to test any
changes though.
For anyone interested, here is instruction how to setup build
environment:
https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-builder-windows/
I know Rafał "Omeg" used Visual Studio for development, but I have no
idea if anything special was needed there. I see vs2012, vs2013, vs2015
etc directories in relevant repositories.
It's also very ensuring to hear that it's safe to copy files between Win7 and
other VM's. I was a bit stressed out over this one due to worry of bit-rot.
Well, it is working but I can't say how safe it is. But I imagine that
R4.0 would disable such copy operations if they were deemed unsafe.
File copy service itself is safe. But if you copy malicious file, it
will still be malicious.
sure !
(...)
A general note about Qubes Windows Tools. This project currently have no
maintainer, which is the main reason why it isn't uploaded to R4.0
repositories. But if anyone want to step in and take care of this
project, even in very basic scope, it would be enough to upload it for
R4.0. The most basic level needed for that, is testing it on R4.0 and
fixing the most basic functionality. I think all problems are already
named in this thread:
- DNS setup
- target VM name prompt on file copy
Both looks like 1-line change, but the most time consuming work here is
testing if that's really enough.
That's all what is needed for including it in R4.0.
Something that would be nice to have, is trying to build it for newer
Windows versions. I'm by no means Windows developer, but here is what
I'd try, in order:
1. Use newer Windows Driver SDK (WDK?) and try building the current code.
2. Update Xen drivers[1] to newer upstream version (connected there as
git submodules). Note that some parts of it[2] will need rebasing
Qubes-specific patches. And try again.
3. If both fails, I guess that's the point where some actual development
is needed, possibly including some Windows API knowledge.
Note that GUI agent will surely not work on newer Windows version,
because Windows Vista is the last version supporting the API we used for
graphics driver (AFAIR that API is called XDDM, and the new one is
WDDM). Rafał has spent about half an year trying to develop a new
driver using WDDM, but apparently there are no longer shortcuts for
simple drivers without real hardware, you need to emulate a lot of stuff
that real GPU is doing...
But even getting the thing working without GUI agent would be something
- - you'll get basic services (file copy etc), network setup and probably
some more.
[1] https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-vmm-xen-windows-pvdrivers
[2] https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-vmm-xen-win-pvdrivers-xeniface
Thanks - there's a lot of helpful information in your post. What about
linking it or copy/pasting the relevant parts to Qubes' official
documentation (maybe as a work in progress) ?
Fixing DNS/network and removing the first arg in copy/move/...
operations seem quite trivial. However I have *0* experience with
building stuff on windows and I'll have to get a hand on an official
Visual Studio (don't want to dl random stuff from internet). I'll see
what I can do as soon as I have a bit more free time (or if anyone has a
dev environment on windows I'll be happy to help coding/testing).
Once (if) enough test is done, is it reasonable to expect one of the
devs or well-known contributors to provide an official build ? The more
paranoid users will undoubtedly think twice before downloading a
"third-party" .exe...
Best,
Ivan
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