Yuraeitha,

Thank you.  That was great detail.

I think I will redirect output to one continuos file to collect all VM info
and use that file to record my progress.

My biggest obstacle is that when the machine boots up, I do not always get
a keyboard (laptop).  Plugging in a USB keyboard and mouse does not always
work

Maybe this is related to the VMs.  My fist install of V4 was with a docking
station attached.  Keyboard and mouse functionality was intermittent but if
the embedded set did not work, I could plug kbd into the laptop USB slots
or docking station.  To fix this, I reinstalled V4 without the docking
station.  The kbd is less predictable/controllable.

In both cases, I have found that repeated reboots sometimes production es a
functioning keyboard.  I have also found that letting the laptop sit for a
while will sometimes provide the keyboard.  This latter feature is what
leads me to consider that service VMs may be at play.

I have "newly" loaded the latest two versions of Debian over 30 times and 3
installs of Qubes-os.  I am open to experimenting.  My challenge with
Debian was getting wireless to work with Xen bridging.

On Nov 24, 2017 4:02 AM, "Yuraeitha" <[email protected]> wrote:

> On Friday, November 24, 2017 at 2:01:18 AM UTC, Ray Joseph wrote:
> > Yuraeitha,
> >
> > Thank you.  All of that was news.  The need to run all VMs as HVM is the
> only one that seems to be a concern.  When I get wifi working, I never lose
> it.
> >     This was a fresh install and I am testing with this machine.
> >
> > I haven't been able to find how to convert existing VMs to HVM.  Please
> suggest where I might find this.  I've been going through docs and have not
> found it.
> >
> > Ray
>
> Good to hear you got stable WiFi :)
>
> Almost all (if not all) the docs are currently out-of-date when it comes
> to Qubes 4, but up-to-date when it comes to Qubes 3.2.
>
> This is why there is currently no doc for changing PV to HVM, or vice
> versa. HVM is prefered for security in Qubes 4, however both modes can give
> different hardware trouble. For example I personally get issues running PV,
> despite having PV working flawlessly back in Qubes 3.2. Others from what I
> can read might have issues with HVM, and need to fall back to PV instead.
>
> That's why you can switch to whichever mode is preferred. But in terms of
> security HVM is better than PV. However HVM is not perfect either, but
> nontheless an improvement over PV. From what I've seen the developers
> discuss, it seems like the plan is to move towards PVH in a future Qubes
> release. This is in turn an improvement over HVM. So PV < HVM < PVH. So you
> want HVM for now, but can change to PVH in a future Qubes release, probably
> with the same command by then.
>
> Unfortunately there is no easy way to print out which VM is in PV or HVM.
> At least, I haven't found it if there is any. The usual 'qvm-ls' command,
> usually used to print VM information like disk usages, network use,
> template use, etc. still appears to be in Qubes 3.2. version. For example a
> PV/HVM print in qvm-ls would seem like something extremely useful to add
> into the qvm-ls tool, so my guess is it's still something that needs
> fixing. Especially when PVH is added to the mix in a future Qubes release.
> the format, for example 'qvm-ls --format-help' doesn't give any PV/HVM
> information either in any of the various flags to print more details of
> different kinds. (btw, the qvm-ls --format disk' command is useful if you
> want to know how much each VM is using disk space, now that the Qubes
> Manager has been removed in Qubes 4. It can be troublesome if one of your
> VM's is eating up a lot of disk space and you can't find which one,
> especially on small SSD drives. That command can help with that.
>
> Anyway, back to the PV/HVM issue. The command to print PV/HVM, if you're
> not familiar with the command already, then it can also give other VM
> information, try type 'qvm-prefs vm-name' on whichever vm you want to check
> VM preferences on. You'll see the virt_mode in here for the PV/HVM, along
> with various other VM specific preferences for that VM.
>
> Optionally; for less terminal spam, you can type in this instead:
> qvm-prefs vm-name virt_mode
>
> If it gives you back PV print in terminal chat, then use keyboard
> arrow-up, so you can re-use the same command again, and then add HVM
> afterwards, so it becomes like this
>
> qvm-prefs vm-name virt_mode HVM
>
> Then repeat, go through all your VM's that might be in a PV state, be it
> TemplateVM's, AappVMs, ServiceVM's, DisposableVM's, etc.
> Probably all your VM's originating from Qubes 4, are already set to HVM,
> but almost certainly, any VM you got from a Qubes 3.2. backup are in PV
> state. As far as I know, the Qubes team made it so the Qubes installer
> might default back to PV if it cannot install with HVM, if true, then there
> is a risk some of your original Qubes 4 VM's are in PV as well. If you want
> to be absolutely sure, spend a few minutes running through all your VM's to
> verify. Technically you don't need to print out, and can just use the
> change command on every VM, but it might be good to know if you corrected
> any, so making a print in chat first before changing, might be informative,
> especially if on a VM that previously has given trouble, or if the VM will
> give you trouble after changed to HVM. So it's a good idea to keep an eye
> out for changes you make instead of just rolling it out on all.
>
> Also if some of the original VM's after install or VM's created in Qubes
> 4, are PV. Then it might be because your hardware doesn't like HVM and
> falls back to PV instead. Might be a good idea to keep in mind, start slow
> and verify if it can run HVM before changing all the other VM's if that's
> the case.
>
> Personally I had to delete some of my AppVM's after changing from PV to
> HVM, as while it was an improvement, it wasn't enough in my situation to
> fix all of the issues. So I transfered my data and files from the few bad
> behaving AppVM's to a new Qubes 4 VM. The only AppVm's that missbehaved,
> were Qubes 3.2. backup AppVm's. Oddly, it was only some of them, and not
> all of them that misbehaved. To this day, I still don't know why that was
> the case. However, now most things works smoothly on my hardware at least.
>
> Hopefully that should fix any issues if you got any :)
>
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