Can't start Whonix VMs after installing them on Kicksecure host

VirtualBox
1

Can’t start Whonix VMs after installing them on Kicksecure host using:

whonix-lxqt-installer-cli

2

need the actual error. virt-manager / virsh start output, or the installer log.

on kicksecure the installer often runs as sysmaint so the vms land in qemu:///system, then you open virt-manager as the normal user (qemu:///session) and they show up broken or wont start.

check:

sudo virsh -c qemu:///system list --all

if theyre shut off there:

sudo virsh -c qemu:///system start Whonix-Gateway

sudo virsh -c qemu:///system start Whonix-Workstation

or in virt-manager: file > add connection > qemu:///system (do that as sysmaint).

if virsh complains about missing disks or permission on /var/lib/libvirt/images, paste that.

3

whonix-lxqt-installer-cli doesn’t install KVM virtual machines, the issue is almost certainly with VirtualBox. Another user reported this issue, so I’m guessing it will be fairly easy to reproduce.

Beyond that, we also use user-session libvirt in KVM, so your answer isn’t applicable to modern Whonix-KVM.

4

Debugged the issue and posted an analysis on the Kicksecure forums:

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