Hi all, I’ve been using qubes as my daily driver for about 7 months now on my Thinkpad T430 and I’m doing much better than expected.
I am reorganizing my AppVMs and am trying hard to create a Disposable VM with “fresh install” Brave installed. Trying to be more clear, my goal would be to be able to provide Brave Disposable with a “minimal” config file containing the settings and that’s it; this is so that it can be used smoothly, without every time I start it automatically opening the “brave://welcome/” page and then having to put in the correct settings. (I hope I have been clear).
The only way I have been able to do it is to create an AppVM, start Brave and then later make it Disposable, by doing this brave creates a lot of unnecessary files and modifies the Local State file with an ID number, the first boot, … (if I understand the file correctly); here, I would like to avoid this, I would like to use Brave without all this crap created by the first startup and that can make the browser more identifiable, I would like something that I open and it is like the first startup but already set up, am I asking too much? 
I’ve spent a lot of time online in the last few days looking for a solution; I understand that to do this I need to create the “Preferences” file in the “~/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/” folder and the “Local State” file in “~/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/”, I tried to create my own “minimal” configuration, (which I will attach below) and put it inside these files (this in the template, but I tried out of desperation also inside the AppVM), and then start Brave… But no success.
I also tried following this guide, which puts as the path to these files “/etc/skel/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/” but… no success. I also tried running this script, but still no success.
(Actually once in one of these trials I was able to provide the settings, but at startup there was always the “brave://welcome/” screen that makes you configure the browser and makes it really slow to start up)
Has anyone been able to do what I would like to do or have any advice?
Thank you very much in advance, I tried to be clear, I hope I was
Preferences file:
{
"session": {
"restore_on_startup": 5
},
"extensions": {
"theme": {
"system_theme": 1
}
},
"bookmark_bar": {
"show_on_all_tabs": true
},
"brave": {
"enable_closing_last_tab": true,
"wayback_machine_enabled": false,
"enable_window_closing_confirm": true,
"autofill_private_windows": false,
"ipfs": {
"resolve_method": 3
},
"wallet": {
"default_solana_wallet": 1,
"default_wallet2": 1,
"show_wallet_icon_on_toolbar": false,
"nft_discovery_enabled": false,
"auto_pin_enabled": false
},
"hangouts_enabled": false,
"webtorrent_enabled": false,
"other_search_engines_enabled": false,
"web_discovery_enabled": false,
"gcm": {
"channel_status": false
},
"google_login_default": false,
"fb_embed_default": false,
"twitter_embed_default": false,
"linkedin_embed_default": false,
"rewards": {
"inline_tip_buttons_enabled": false,
"show_brave_rewards_button_in_location_bar": false
},
"shields": {
"advanced_view_enabled": true,
"stats_badge_visible": false
},
"de_amp": {
"enabled": true
},
"debounce": {
"enabled": true
},
"reduce_language": true,
"no_script_default": false,
"new_tab_page": {
"hide_all_widgets": true,
"show_background_image": true,
"show_branded_background_image": false,
"show_clock": false,
"show_stats": false,
"show_together": false,
"shows_options": 0
},
"show_side_panel_button": false,
"today": {
"should_show_toolbar_button": false
},
"location_bar_is_wide": false,
"omnibox": {
"prevent_url_elisions": false,
"bookmark_suggestions_enabled": true,
"history_suggestions_enabled": true
},
"sidebar": {
"sidebar_show_option": 3
},
"show_side_panel_button": false,
"autocomplete_enabled": true,
"top_site_suggestions_enabled": true,
"tabs_search_show": true,
"tabs": {
"mute_indicator_not_clickable": false,
"vertical_tabs_enabled": false,
"hover_mode": 1
},
"speedreader": {
"enabled": false
},
"mru_cycling_enabled": false
},
"browser": {
"enable_spellchecking": false,
"clear_data": {
"browsing_history_on_exit": true,
"cache_on_exit": true,
"cookies_on_exit": true,
"download_history_on_exit": true,
"form_data_on_exit": true,
"hosted_apps_data_on_exit": true,
"passwords_on_exit": true,
"site_settings_on_exit": false
},
"show_home_button": false,
"custom_chrome_frame": false
},
"ntp": {
"shortcust_visible": false
},
"profile": {
"content_settings": {
"exceptions": {
"fingerprintingV2": {
"*,*": {
"setting": 2
}
},
"cosmeticFiltering": {
"*,*": {
"setting": 2
},
"*,https://firstparty": {
"setting": 2
}
},
"shieldsAds": {
"*,*": {
"setting": 2
}
},
"trackers": {
"*,*": {
"setting": 2
}
}
}
},
"cookie_controls_mode": 1,
"default_content_setting_values": {
"ar": 2,
"automatic_downloads": 1,
"autoplay": 1,
"brave_ethereum": 2,
"brave_google_sign_in": 2,
"brave_solana": 2,
"clipboard": 2,
"file_system_write_guard": 2,
"geolocation": 2,
"hid_guard": 2,
"images": 1,
"local_fonts": 2,
"media_stream_camera": 2,
"media_stream_mic": 2,
"midi_sysex": 2,
"notifications": 2,
"payment_handler": 2,
"popups": 2,
"sensors": 2,
"serial_guard": 2,
"sound": 1,
"usb_guard": 2,
"vr": 2,
"window_placement": 2,
"cookies": 4,
"brave_remember_1p_storage": 2,
"httpsUpgrades": 2
}
},
"webrtc": {
"ip_handling_policy": "disable_non_proxied_udp"
},
"enable_do_not_track": false,
"safebrowsing": {
"enabled": false
},
"https_only_mode_enabled": true,
"custom_handlers": {
"enabled": false
},
"plugins": {
"always_open_pdf_externally": true
},
"webkit": {
"webprefs": {
"encrypted_media_enabled": false
}
},
"default_search_provider": {
"synced_guid": "485bf7d3-0215-45af-87dc-538868000510"
},
"default_search_provider_data": {
"template_url_data": {
"keyword": ":sp",
"prepopulate_id": 510,
"short_name": "Startpage",
"synced_guid": "485bf7d3-0215-45af-87dc-538868000510",
"url": ""
}
},
"search": {
"suggest_enabled": false
},
"signin": {
"allowed": false
},
"media_router": {
"enable_media_router": false
},
"autofill": {
"credit_card_enabled": false,
"profile_enabled": false
},
"credentials_enable_autosignin": false,
"credentials_enable_service": false,
"payments": {
"can_make_payment_enabled": false
},
"translate": {
"enabled": false
},
"download": {
"prompt_for_download": false
},
"download_bubble": {
"partial_view_enabled": true
}
}
Local State file:
{
"browser": {
"first_run_finished": true
},
"background_mode": {
"enabled": false
},
"brave": {
"dont_ask_for_crash_reporting": true,
"ens": {
"resolve_method": 1
},
"sns": {
"resolve_method": 1
},
"unstoppable_domains": {
"resolve_method": 1
},
"widevine_opted_in": false,
"p3a": {
"enabled": false
},
"stats": {
"reporting_enabled": false
},
"ad_block": {
"checked_all_default_regions": true,
"cookie_list_setting_touched": true,
"mobile_notifications_list_setting_touched": true,
"regional_filters": {
"319A754E-065A-465F-B09D-3F2C7BF1E67B": {
"enabled": false
},
"67E792D4-AE03-4D1A-9EDE-80E01C81F9B8": {
"enabled": true
}
}
},
"dark_mode": 1
},
"user_experience_metrics": {
"reporting_enabled": false
},
"dns_over_https": {
"mode": "secure",
"templates": "https://dns.adguard-dns.com/dns-query"
},
"tor": {
"tor_disabled": true
},
"background_mode": {
"enabled": false
},
"hardware_acceleration_mode": {
"enabled": false
},
"performance_tuning": {
"high_efficiency_mode": {
"state": 2
}
}
}