Hey Andrew, Glad I could help.
Yes you can manually enable and disable drives on BIOS, although it is a somewhat cumbersome workflow if you dual boot a lot. Especially if you have BIOS password enabled as well. Windows sees the Qubes drive enabled, initialized but not formatted. It does not touch the drive and does not prompt to format it or anything. Yes, it is there, exposed but again, depending on your threat model this isn’t that big of a deal. I have custom software highest encryption bitlocker enabled on the windows drive as well. You may always encrypt qubes boot partition as well. It’s one more password. There’s docs for that. As far as laptop size goes that’s entirely personal. I’m 95% of the time docked, with a full desktop setup around me, so I favor the portability when on the go. You may consider the dock station + monitors + keyboard mouse combo. You also get a ton of additional I/O, charging, and many perks with this configuration. It’s awesome, and a Single eject away of being untethered. I’ve worked with the precisions before, and to me they are absolute mammoths. But I’d probably go for a bigger laptop if I didn’t have the docking setup. Good luck on your Qubes adventure. Rafael Em qui, 14 de mai de 2020 às 09:13, Andrew Sullivan < andrew.t.sulli...@gmail.com> escreveu: > > > On Monday, 11 May 2020 23:13:21 UTC+1, Rafael Reis wrote: >> >> Hey Andrew! >> >> Sorry for the late reply, haven't checked the mailing list in a while. >> >> I have a 5470 service tag # 5V2GBG2 >> You may see the full original config here >> <https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/servicetag/0-dHBZdFAzUVN4THRPN0NkTzFYWlNWdz090/overview> >> . >> >> Basically it came stock with a quad core i7-6820HQ. Sata drive with the >> tiny sata cable. No m.2 bracket or SSD installed to the NVME ngff slot. >> Nothing installed on the wwan ngff slot, and intel's wifi card installed to >> the ngff wireless slot. >> >> It has 3 ngff slots (M.2 NVME, WIFI, WWAN) keyed differently (Key A, B >> etc) and the sata data+power cable for 1 sata drive. >> >> I've upgraded ram to 2x8GB DDR4, removed the stock sata hdd and replaced >> it with a sata ssd. Since I needed more capacity than performance, I got a >> 512GB Crucial BX500. It was way more affordable than an nvme drive atm, and >> I didn't have the m.2 bracket either, which would mean I would only be able >> to secure the nvme ssd with double sided tape or other improvised solution. >> The BX500 is known to have an exploitable hardware encryption, so be >> advised to use only software encryption on that drive. >> >> That drive became my Windows 10 drive, GPT / UEFI enabled. >> Started using Qubes on a USB 3.0 64GB flash drive, it worked pretty well >> considering the constraints, but decided I needed a drive for Qubes itself. >> >> After some deep research I discovered that the WWAN slot indeed takes a >> SATA M.2 SSD. (source >> <http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/new-latitude-5470.785426/page-9#post-10227440> >> ). >> You'd better go for the shorter ones, otherwise they'll collide with the >> inner plastic frame and won't fit. I believe you can fit 32 and 40mm length >> drives without any trouble. I couldn't find an affordable SATA M.2 with at >> least 256GB for Qubes (that was my personal need), so I ended up getting a >> regular 80mm lenght one. To make it fit, I had to "mod" the inner plastic >> frame, and disassemble 50% of the laptop. I opted simply to break pieces >> of the plastic frame in order to free space for the lengthier drive. Then, >> I isolated the surroundings with tape and secured the ssd (don't remember >> how, if I was able to bolt it in, tape it, or pressure). The SSD I used in >> the WWAN port is https://www.lexar.com/portfolio_page/ssd-nm100/ 256GB >> version >> >> You have to change BIOS settings under drive configuration to enable the >> required sata ports. >> >> Initialized that drive as GPT, and installed Qubes to it. >> >> You are right regarding the "dual boot". I don't have Grub. I use the >> "BIOS" UEFI bootmanager to choose which OS I'd like to boot. All I have to >> do is press F12 after powering up. I've renamed Qubes to Recovery, so it is >> inconspicuous. Default boot drive is the BX500 with windows. >> >> The level of compatibility of the E5470 with Qubes is outstanding. The >> performance is incredible. >> The only thing that didn't work OOB was the SD card reader, which was >> easily fixed by opting to kernel-latest . Docking station works 100%, with >> multiple monitors. Even 2 monitors + laptop monitor works perfectly. I wish >> it was possible to nuke Intel ME on 6th gen laptops and have it fully >> Opensource. It would make a great candidate for certification. >> >> My only concern right now is the decisions for the GUI of Qubes 4.1. I >> wonder if the separation of the GUI and dom0 would result in >> incompatibility with E5470 or even a big decrease in performance. This >> thing is perfect for Qubes if your threat model isn't government agencies >> high. >> >> Hope I could help, and let me know if you have further questions. >> Em quarta-feira, 6 de maio de 2020 20:51:29 UTC-3, andrew....@gmail.com >> escreveu: >>> >>> Hi Rafael >>> >>> Interested to see you got an SSD drive to work in the WWAN slot in your >>> E5470. Could you tell me what drive you used, and the spec for your laptop. >>> Am I right in thinking that you have Windows installed on one drive and >>> Qubes on the other, and that you actually choose which drive to boot from >>> at power up? So it's not "dual-boot" in the usual sense (ie multiple OSs on >>> the same drive)? >>> >>> Thanks >>> >> > Hi Rafael > > Very many thanks for your comprehensive reply, lots of good information > there. What I hope to end up with is pretty similar to what you have - a > large(ish) drive with Windws and Linux Mint in a conventional dual boot > setup, and a drive in the WWAN slot to run Qubes. I think it is possible > to inactivate drives individually on Dell laptops so if I feel it necessary > I could switch off the W/LM drive when using Qubes and vice versa. I think > this would largely get around the potential risk of the Qubes /boot > partition getting compromised when using one of the other OSs? Depends how > paranoid I feel! > > Regarding choice of laptop, I am torn between the E5470 and the M4800. I > now know that the E5470 will work, but I do like the bigger screen (would > FHD, not QHD) and the separate number pad on the M4800; I also like the > number of storage drives it can accomodate. It's a bit of a big old thing, > but portabity isn't really an issue for me. Pricewise there's not much in > it on the Dell Outlet site (UK). > > I agree it would be good if the ME could be dealt with on the newer > machines - maybe someone will find a way... I'm not up to speed on the > GUI/dom(0) issue; hopefully Brendan is right that it will be an option, so > it won't matter. > > Thanks again > > Andrew > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the > Google Groups "qubes-users" group. > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/topic/qubes-users/6nmAX9cfgGQ/unsubscribe. > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to > qubes-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/qubes-users/56f2f158-844b-457f-86f7-3d354023e1bc%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/qubes-users/56f2f158-844b-457f-86f7-3d354023e1bc%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "qubes-users" group. 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