Hi I'm here to report how Qubes works on my 6-year-old laptop after 1-month of installation. In short, it can take longer time to start-up VMs (inevitable for my 8Gb RAM), but once a VM is on, softwares within it run smoothly. I once received a warning like "not enough memory to start a new VM", but that was when I had 6 other VMs running.
Pre-installation check: This model has Intel VT-d available (checked on intel official specs: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/85212/intel-core-i5-5200u-processor-3m-cache-up-to-2-70-ghz.html). But I wanted to make sure if it was on, as this aspect is not visible on the very restricted factory BIOS. I downloaded the Intel Processor Identification Utility to scan my hardware, and it appears that Intel VT-d is turned off. I could not find a way to turn this feature on without replacing my BIOS, so I figured I'd try the installation anyway. I installed Qubes-R4.0.4-x86_64 through a bootable USB made with Rufus on Windows 10. Booting with UEFI: (didn't work for me) I chose to wipe the disk and did a full install. It all went fine and it said "Installation complete". But then I was unable to boot into Qubes. My BIOS(?) thought its windows OS is corrupted and offered to reinstall/ repair windows, and both options returned error. Booting with legacy: (worked) I then force-close the laptop and try install Qubes in legacy mode, and it went smoothly. Did not meet error with Intel VT-d feature. Qubes management: I chose to install the additional Debian TemplateVM, sys-net, sys-firewall, sys-whonix. They all worked fine. I was unable to update TemplateVMs with the GUI Qubes updater, but with command prompts it worked fine. Other functionalities: 1. wifi connection: OK -a minor bug: when I wake laptop from sleep and wifi network reconnects, system message displayed "Network disconnected", even though I was connected to the wifi) - the time display wasn't accurate at first, but once I got the system on the internet it synchronised automatically 2. i-bus Pinyin input: OK (I installed on TemplateVMs, so when I turned on both fedora and debian VMs, there're two input method icons displayed) 3. fn keyboard shortcuts: OK - no problem to adjust volumn, screen brightness and logout/hibernate options with original keyboard shortcuts 4. USB ports: partial OK - USB 2.0 port, but not USB 3.0 port is usable. The USB 2.0 can be isolated in a VM and then attach to another workspace VM (e.g. personal) 5. Software installation: OK Apart from command prompts, I used Synaptic Package manager for Debian and Software Manager that comes with Fedora. Both worked fine. And yeah, that's all. I am practically a newbie in Linux and there were other bloopers when I tried install Qubes, but the detailed documentation solved most of my problems. Thanks for the teams great work! -- Sent with Tutanota, the secure & ad-free mailbox: https://tutanota.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "qubes-users" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, 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/MYYVlb2--3-2%40tutanota.com.
Qubes-HCL-Acer-Aspire_V3_371.yml
Description: application/yaml
