ANN: open URL / file in another qube

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Qubes: open URL / file in another qube

This is a very simple desktop file to let you associate certain URLs or file types so they will always launch in another VM. It is very legal and very cool — and it will make your life so much easier if you have qubes where you don’t allow your browser to have networking!

This is based on https://github.com/Qubes-Community/Contents/blob/master/docs/common-tasks/opening-urls-in-vms.md#configuring-srcvm .

How to use this program

First, install it (see below).

Now you can associate files with this program, or you can associate URLs. Here are details:

How set URLs to open in a separate VM

Launch the app qube where you intend to use this.

Open the GNOME control center in the app qube (for reference, the command to launch it is gnome-control-center). It may take a little while for that settings app window to show up.

Go to the section of the app named Default applications.

Select Open in another Qube as the Web default.

Presto — now clicking on URLs in other applications will launch a window asking you to select a VM to open the URL into.

Installation instructions

  • Build the package by checking out the source and issuing make rpm.
  • Copy the noarch.rpm file to your template qube.
  • Install it in your template qube using your package manager (or rpm -ivh <name of the package>).

Power off the template qube, then power off any qubes based on that template.

You are ready to use it.

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