Hello thanks in advance for your patience and help with me and my questions. I am very new to Linux less than a week and apparently I installed GNOME and then installed VM and whonix. Then after further reading I found that Qubes 3.0 seems to be the optimal OS to run whonix with. How big of a security issue is this?? Running whonix on GNOME instead of Qubes? I in order to run Qubes I would have to install the new OS then reinstall VM and whonix?? Any help would be appreciated? I apologize for my frequent questions.
Also like to add that apparently Qubes is only for quadcores so I don’t even have the hardware to run it, I just was wondering how big an issue it is running whonix on an OS other than Qubes as far as security?
I don’t know if you need quad core. Qubes hardware requirements are best found out using the native Qubes documentation and Qubes support channels.
Saying “running Whonix on GNOME” makes limited sense in this context. It’s mainly about the operating system that hosts Whonix. Such as Debian, Fedora, Qubes, etc.
GNOME is on the level of the desktop environment. You can combine Debian with either GNOME and/or KDE and so forth.
It’s big.
Good day,
if I may add my two cents here, Qubes should be far more efficient than using VirtualBox, as per design, it builds, as a type two Hypervisor, much more directly on your existing hardware. To do this, Qubes uses Xen, which, aside from KVM, is considered to be one of the least “power consuming” ways to virtualize something. I’ll try to find some time and maybe create a wiki page which explains this in depth.
Have a nice day,
Ego
Ego and Patrick thank you for all you do. Your kindness, patience and time dedication is most definitely donation worthy.
So now that I have whonix running smoothly on GNOME and want to switch to Qubes as ths OS, you say that Qubes is much better than running virtual box are you saying that the Qubes OS has its own VM capabilities to run Whonix?? I also recall in the Qubes do’s and don’ts section they said not to run Qubes through a Virtual machine that is completely different than what you are suggesting. I am under the assumption that fact Qubes uses Xen instead of KVM it has it’s own VM to run whonix out of and that don’t I mentioned above was saying not to run Qubes OS from something like virtual box?
As far as whether or not a quadcore is needed to run Qubes OS I am going off of the following link:
Accoding to these links laptop hardware compatibility list the Dell Inspirons 3521 and7520 seem to be compatible for the HVM but not for the Qubes or Zen column. Is HVM all I need from Qubes or based on this list? Or am I correct that I don’t meet the hardware reqs for Qubes?
Also to clarify Patrick I apologize for the lack of sense in my question. I started with Linux Ubuntu then my friend had me run GNOME which as you said is a desktop environment. So I guess the host operating system would be Linux Ubuntu. It sounds like Qubes is optimal for Whonix I guess my question is given I am running Ubuntu how secure does this setup run with whonix?? If Qubes is not an option for me should I switch to Debian for a more secure browsing experience?
Good day,
first of all, I’ve never suggested running Qubes through a VM of any kind. The security concept of Qubes could best be described as “security through separation”. What this means is that, instead of running every program in the same session, Qubes allows you to create as many “virtual sessions” as you desire. Furthermore, things like your LAN-Adapter are completely separate from the rest of the OS, thus it is harder to compromise than other solutions. Now, to allow this, almost everything on Qubes runs in an own, separate “AppVM”. These are based on XEN, which is a very lightweight and efficient virtualizer. You may run Whonix in such an “AppVM”, which would give you enhanced performance, but also safety. However, if you’ve already installed Whonix in VirtualBox, you may keep it that way. This solution exists for a reason as well, after all. Concerning your “How safe is Ubuntu question”, keep in mind that while Ubuntu at its barest core isn’t significantly less secure than Debian (on which Ubuntu is based) it still has a few elements in it, which you may want to deactivate. For further information, take a look at this: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/10/privacy-ubuntu-1210-amazon-ads-and-data-leaks
This is only one of a few aspects, which make Ubuntu less attractive in comparison to alternatives, when it comes to safety.
Have a nice day,
Ego
Thank you so much for your prompt responses and through answers I don’t know where I would be in this learning process without your help and patience. I will look into the link you provided and deactivate what I can on Ubuntu. I wish I knew what else I could do. In all honesty if I could be sure that my laptop hardware was compatible with Qubes I would try installing it, and starting over for the learning process alone. However, based on the hardware compatibility list Hardware compatibility list (HCL) | Qubes OS it appears the Model I have is only compatible with the HVM feature but not Qubes or Xen.