Whonix KVM 15.0.0.7.1 - Point Release

News
1

Testers Wanted! Seriously. The sooner you report things before I spend time building, the faster you will get a higher quality and functional distro.

This is a point release.

An in-place upgrade is not advised as some changes need to be applied outside the hypervisor.

Notable Changes:

  • fix Whonix-Gateway firewall desktop shortcuts
  • dependencies fix, no longer install pluseaudio by default on Whonix-Gateway
  • apparmor fixes
  • new apparmor profiles: bootclockrandomization, permission lockdown, pam tally2 info
  • apparmor-profile-everything compability
  • Qubes VM boot fix
  • improve output of system.map output
  • fix KVM prepare_release script
  • fix GPU tag in libvirt XML
  • update Tor Browser to 9.0.1

Full difference of all changes:

https://github.com/Whonix/Whonix/compare/15.0.0.6.6-developers-only...15.0.0.7.1-developers-only

This release would not have been possible without the numerous supporters of Whonix!

Please Donate!

Please Contribute!

2 Likes
2

Have been testing this on an up to date Debian Buster host system. One issue regarding the video driver for the Workstation. Default setting is for Virtio, but when I use it, it creates a lot of artifacts on my screen during scrolling or moving a window. This creates usability issues. In an older Whonix KVM 15 release, the video driver was set at QXL. I had no problems with QXL, so I edited the Workstation XML file for 15.0.0.7.1 and switched again to QXL. The artifacts disappeared. Why was the video driver switched from QXL to Virtio? Am I running a security risk using QXL versus Virtio?

No other issues of concern otherwise.

1 Like
3

Strangely my experience is the opposite. Do these artifacts still appear in fullscreen mode? Could be the code is not playing well with your video card.

This device is where all future features, performance and security enhancements will be made. It is designed to bemore secure than QXL already. QXL is essentially abandonware at this point, but I am sure upstream will fix any vulns discovered. However most eyes will be on the default recommendation which is virtio at this point.

4

Yes the artifacts appear in fullscreen mode.

Using intel processor with intel integrated graphics.

I’ll switch back to Virtio though since it will be the way forward and more secure.