[qubes-users] Re: Screensavers : Qubes Questions!
"I understand your position. At this point, I think you should read, learn, and try (i.e., download, install, and use) as much as you can about your viable options to figure out which solution is right for you. While there is a fair amount of code and functionality that is unique to Qubes, knowledge of Linux and Xen would still be very helpful. Really, though, if you just want to try Qubes out, it shouldn't be necessary to learn Linux or Xen at all. If you run into any problems, some basic familiarity with the command-line will help, though." So nothing too crazy advanced then? Alright, when the time comes I'll give it a shot. As it is right now, it seems on all the Distro/VM combinations I've found and looked into I have to figure out how to do the GPU pass through so that I can use the CPU/GPU intensive programs I wish to use off of the windows kernel. Having Xen as a core base just helps me skip a step or two. "Fair warning, though: If you do decide to go with Qubes and attempt to do DIY GPU passthrough, that's likely to be *much* more challenging from a technical perspective (though generous users have provided detailed guides on this list already). You should also be aware that it inherently comes with significant security trade-offs." I would say that goes without saying, as such is one of the eternal struggles of security. When one fights monsters..., yet with out the ability to do my job, hobby, ... I want to say or simply pass the time, yet that would be different... so. If I can't do what I must, why have it? Yet I like the added security, it's a nice feature to have on the side, as security isn't my main deal. What I do isn't exactly a threat unless suddenly I work under a government that is a fan of 1984 Grey on all the things. Oh my. Such a task. I guess once you start doubting you never stop. Well, I suppose if I do come across an error or an issue about GPU pass trough, I'll email "qubes-users" and hopefully be able to come up with a solution. It may be technically over my head, way over in fact currently. Yet Microsoft's actions with 10, that they have also pushed into 8 & 7, just. Ugh. Thank you once again, - Mike Mez On Tue, Dec 20, 2016 at 4:04 AM, Andrew David Wong <a...@qubes-os.org> wrote: > -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA512 > > On 2016-12-19 16:29, Mike Mez wrote: > > Wow! I wasn't actually expecting my "dream" scenario to be so > > possibly ... probably ... maybe in fact viable. I understand that > > since the main focus in Qubes early stages (or perhaps it's far > > more proper to say at whole,) is security that this is what your > > main marketing point would be. Yet with the "windows integration", > > if I understand this properly, is a big deal. I mean shoot, the > > only reason (the only reason?) people use windows now a days is > > its entrenched ubiquitous nature. Shoot, as mentioned the only > > reason I use(d) it is because that is what the programs I use... > > use. So the ability to co-op that... am I over thinking this? It > > just sounds cool to me. > > > > "It depends highly on the individual, but if you're coming from a > > purely Windows background, the biggest thing might be adjusting to > > a Linux environment. In general, the most important qualities will > > be perseverance, a willingness to learn, and the ability to solve > > your own problems. (Of course, the mailing lists are here to help, > > but things generally don't work very well if someone makes no > > effort and expects to be spoon-fed solutions.)" > > > > Alot of this IT stuff is admittedly over my head currently, and > > I'm glad the Qubes Team are working towards a better user > > experience (as mentioned in the interview). I'm just smart enough > > to know how dumb I am, you see, as this sort of thing is not > > particularly the world I come from (Design, Print, Games, > > Artsy...whatever). Overall, the willingness to learn is a given, > > that doesn't help me much - I'm HERE! I'm looking for a direction > > for my amateur mind to move on. What I am curious about is what > > would be required to problem solve. Since Qubes is based on linux, > > does that mean I could experience problems just as in any other > > form of linux, and there for I could get a book, and gather > > information that way. OR. Qubes is so customized that it has its > > own things about it, and therefor Qubes documentation is the go to > > to figure out what is going on. I'm trying to figure out my next > > move here, as Qubes isn't the only alternative OS I've been looking > > in to, and some of the Distros I've looked at have very through and > > beginner friendly documentation. The catch
Re: [qubes-users] Re: Screensavers : Qubes Questions!
"Search for "VFIO NVIDIA Error 43" on your favorite search engine. Pretty much it just shuts off 3D mode and gives you Error 43 in device manager if it detects some hardware virt features, there is a way around it but I wasted hours until I figured out what was going on. It is a gpu only thing, for now." Well. Would you look at that. I've been debating Pascal Titan X or Radeon™ Pro WX 7100, yet this does change the favor of things. "The dangers being malicious corruption of the card firmware or option ROM firmware, or an exploit in the IOMMU GFX related code which is much larger than IOMMU operations that do not involve graphics devices. The best way to do GPU passthrough is with a card that is only used for that VM and use a blob free coreboot platform such as the KGPE-D16 so that you can disallow option rom execution, have some level of DMA protection pre-linux initialization and have no ME/PSP or suspicious binary blobs on your motherboard. If you want to do this I am happy to provide technical assistance, you can play the latest games with no cpu bottleneck on a KGPE-D16 with one of the higher end 16 core opteron 62xx CPU's which you can buy for $20-40 on ebay." I love how KGPE-D16 simply... ROLLS off the tongue. So sure. If you are willing to give some technical assistance to this mad task of mine, I'm certainly willing to give it a look. What ch'a got? Make sure with what ever you have to say, that it's search engine compatible. ;) Thank you, - Mike Mez On Tue, Dec 20, 2016 at 4:37 AM, taii...@gmx.com <taii...@gmx.com> wrote: > On 12/20/2016 04:04 AM, Andrew David Wong wrote: > > -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- >> Hash: SHA512 >> >> On 2016-12-19 16:29, Mike Mez wrote: >> >>> Wow! I wasn't actually expecting my "dream" scenario to be so >>> possibly ... probably ... maybe in fact viable. I understand that >>> since the main focus in Qubes early stages (or perhaps it's far >>> more proper to say at whole,) is security that this is what your >>> main marketing point would be. Yet with the "windows integration", >>> if I understand this properly, is a big deal. I mean shoot, the >>> only reason (the only reason?) people use windows now a days is >>> its entrenched ubiquitous nature. Shoot, as mentioned the only >>> reason I use(d) it is because that is what the programs I use... >>> use. So the ability to co-op that... am I over thinking this? It >>> just sounds cool to me. >>> >>> "It depends highly on the individual, but if you're coming from a >>> purely Windows background, the biggest thing might be adjusting to >>> a Linux environment. In general, the most important qualities will >>> be perseverance, a willingness to learn, and the ability to solve >>> your own problems. (Of course, the mailing lists are here to help, >>> but things generally don't work very well if someone makes no >>> effort and expects to be spoon-fed solutions.)" >>> >>> Alot of this IT stuff is admittedly over my head currently, and >>> I'm glad the Qubes Team are working towards a better user >>> experience (as mentioned in the interview). I'm just smart enough >>> to know how dumb I am, you see, as this sort of thing is not >>> particularly the world I come from (Design, Print, Games, >>> Artsy...whatever). Overall, the willingness to learn is a given, >>> that doesn't help me much - I'm HERE! I'm looking for a direction >>> for my amateur mind to move on. What I am curious about is what >>> would be required to problem solve. Since Qubes is based on linux, >>> does that mean I could experience problems just as in any other >>> form of linux, and there for I could get a book, and gather >>> information that way. OR. Qubes is so customized that it has its >>> own things about it, and therefor Qubes documentation is the go to >>> to figure out what is going on. I'm trying to figure out my next >>> move here, as Qubes isn't the only alternative OS I've been looking >>> in to, and some of the Distros I've looked at have very through and >>> beginner friendly documentation. The catch being I would have to >>> set up and figure out how to implement a VM, most likely KVM, and >>> do all the things I want to do with that. Furthermore I'm basically >>> dabbling in theory right now, trying to figure out if I should go >>> all in or if it would just be easier to bite the bullet, Baremetal >>> Windows 10, and just air gap all the things. >>> >>> I know its not going to be easy, I knew that when I decided to >>> lo
Re: [qubes-users] Re: Screensavers : Qubes Questions!
This is* immensely* helpful. To reiterate... to make sure I understand, with "windows problems" easy is easy and impossible is basically impossible (which I can say with experience is fairly on the money of my experience as well). With Linux, the difficultly curve of problems are kind of inverted when compared to windows. The easy problems are now stubborn, while the really hard programs are now possibly easier courtesy of established documentation. While such might not be true for all cases, of course, generally this is the jest of what to expect, yes? Furthermore, unlike windows, the GUI in Linux is less of an operator then it is in windows. The way to go about things in Linux is the command line interface, which may make problem solving initially a bit more... problematic for those who only know how to move around in a GUI. So I being a windows user might what to look up on that. You also mention "just because PC... doesn't mean it will work", which I am already aware of, but thank you all the same. I'll make sure to look up the Qubes HCL link. Finally, I don't have the available cash to buy multiple variants of particular models or brands of GPUs nor am I able per say to experiment with other models in a process of trial and error, through I would certainly like to give it a shot if I could. Fortunately, what I do have is knowledge of places to purchase parts which have a stellar return policies. So, that may be an option. Honestly the only people I know of that have that kind of capital are the ones that do it for a living on YouTube like LinusTechTips, Bitwit, and Pauls Hardware. Oh so much to do... so little to do it all. :/ Thank you, - Mike Mez On Mon, Dec 19, 2016 at 11:58 PM, Chris Laprise <tas...@openmailbox.org> wrote: > On 12/18/2016 11:49 PM, Andrew David Wong wrote: > >> >> *2. *You mentioned during the interview that you came to Qubes >>> as a lifelong widows user. I am in the situation when it comes to >>> this as a lifelong windows user. What would you say is the learning >>> curve for using Qubes is? How easy would it be for someone who is >>> slightly technical, yet not IT, to problem solve a problem in Qubes? >>> In windows I Ctrl+Alt+Del and go through that rigmarole. >>> >>> It depends highly on the individual, but if you're coming from a purely >> Windows background, the biggest thing might be adjusting to a Linux >> environment. In general, the most important qualities will be >> perseverance, a willingness to learn, and the ability to solve your own >> problems. (Of course, the mailing lists are here to help, but things >> generally don't work very well if someone makes no effort and expects to >> be spoon-fed solutions.) >> > > I find most problems on Windows are either moderately easy, or impossible. > Digging for answers to difficult issues results in few results and they are > usually dead-ends. > > Since Qubes uses Linux, it tends to follow that culture. Easy problems can > be annoyingly fussy to resolve, but really difficult problems usually have > a deep profile of related documentation and discussion spread around > various websites. Its more probable you will make progress on difficult > issues with continued perseverance and curiosity. > > The biggest obstacle over time is probably the over-reliance on the > command-line interface. Relatively little of the configuration matrix is > expressed in the GUI, so the GUI feels more superficial and less able to > control the system at deeper levels than it does on Windows. This makes > users who expect streamlining and integration weary. > > Also, do not expect the rule of "This is a PC, so it'll run this > PC-compatible OS" to hold water. Most PCs are "Windows PCs" and many of the > quirks that certain models have may be OK with Microsoft but untenable with > Linux or Qubes. Business-class computers from top-tier brands are your best > bet. Check out the Qubes HCL link on the download page. > > >> *3. *I understand your OS is security based, and that is super >>> cool. Yet security is useless if there is nothing to protect. "Out of >>> the box" what can Qubes run? >>> >>> It's better to turn this question around: What *can't* Qubes run? It >> sounds like the main problem in your case may be the lack of 3-D support: >> >> https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/user-faq/#can-i-run-application >> s-like-games-which-require-3d-support >> >> To get around this problem, you would have to attempt GPU passthrough, >> which is not supported (but which some users have managed to achieve on >> their own). >> > > I will venture to make a suggestion on this gnarly subject: A desktop
