Can I install QubesOS in a Qemu KVM Virtual machine?

[Eli]

It would be nested virtualization and I wonder if it works and there is a tutorial?

Virtual box seems doable, although buggy

How to install and use Qubes OS inside VirtualBox

A blatant copy-paste of the walkthrough I wrote and posted here. Why bother? Why not? It’s a fun project. Despite the final effect being an unsupported configuration and lacking essential security features for production use, there are still some cases, besides having fun, like testing out the workflow of this system when no supported hardware is present. Or developing software for Domain-0, which is better suited for testing on a living system, rather than with mocks. Or learning some…

[FranklyFlawless]

Nested virtualization is not supported:

Installation guide

Note: Qubes OS is not meant to be installed inside a virtual machine as a guest hypervisor. In other words, nested virtualization is not supported. In order for a strict compartmentalization to be enforced, Qubes OS needs to be able to manage the hardware directly.

[Eli]

Yeah that’s the answer! I looked into dual boot, it’s not that quick either (the other OS can change Qubes grub entries, as it happened to me).

[alzer89]

@Eli

it’s not that quick either

@Eli, what do you mean by this?

Whilst it is definitely possible to achieve what it is you wish to do, the reason why none of the options come with the standard install ISO is because the security features that require direct hardware access may not work as expected.

Remember that it’ll be in an environment that:

• Your host OS will be able to see (and potentially interfere with) absolutely everything Xen will be doing, including all the virtual machines
• Your level of security will be limited by the integrity of your host OS
• Your host OS might not pass through all of the required components of your hardware, which may lead to Qubes OS crashing, or Qemu causing host OS kernel panics in certain circumstances
• Depending on what else your host OS is doing, race conditions and memory leaks may occur. Best case scenario, they just slow your machine down. Worst case, you leak secrets and things crash.

If you do give this a go, we recommend you do NOT do anything mission-critical on top of that Qubes OS installation, because we cannot guarantee functionality and integrity to the same standard as running on bare metal.

This is actually why it’s a lot less hassle for all of us if we just tell people that’s it’s better not to do it

But, if you understand all of this and still wish to proceed, then by all means, who are we to stop you?

@Eli

I looked into dual boot

If your hardware has multiple physical drives, then dual booting with each OS on its own physical drive is more manageable, as the drives tend to interfere with each other less.

But that opens up a whole other can of worms in terms of security and machine integrity…

[Eli]

@Eli

it works and there is a tutorial?

Virtual box seems doable, although buggy

A blatant copy-paste of the walkthrough I wrote and posted here. Why bother? Why not? It’s a fun project. wink Despite the final

Yeah, it’s for testing. The point is, the users cannot switch completely in one day. They run it alongside something else, and once they are confident that it serves their needs, they switch completely.

I don’t have extra drives now (I had before and Ubuntu used to delete Qubes grub entries). Dual boot on one NVMe is an option , though I’m not sure how well it works.

I understand the can of worms, this is only for transition, nothing security critical for me.

I use it mostly for compartmentalizing my workload. Which is why I missed Qubes and coming back

[alzer89]

@Eli

I had before and Ubuntu used to delete Qubes grub entries). Dual boot on one NVMe is an option , though I’m not sure how well it works.

An option is to manually keep a backup of your Qubes OS grub.cfg in a separate location on your boot partition.

[Eli]

Thanks. Is this the right guide to add Qubes to an existing Ubuntu desktop with UEFI boot, for some fun Christmas project:

Multibooting Qubes

Introduction You should think carefully before dual booting Qubes on your box. Read the guidelines carefully. One problem is that when you dual or multiboot, even if you are using encryption on your Qubes installation, /boot is still unprotected and could be maliciously modified by the other OS, possibly leading to Qubes itself being maliciously modified. The other problem is firmware security - for example the other system could infect the BIOS firmware, which might enable compromise or spyi…

[FranklyFlawless]

That is the correct topic, but you could also create a new one in the Community Guides or High Quality Guides category.

[aronowski]

Can I install QubesOS in a Qemu KVM Virtual machine?

Most likely, yes. Can;'t speak from experience, though.

It would be nested virtualization and I wonder if it works and there is a tutorial?

Virtual box seems doable, although buggy

That VirtualBox-based tutorial was written for the release 4.2.0, and I never updated it to work with newer releases, so no guarantees there. However, with the recent licensing changes, you could just grab a free copy of VMware Workstation, since it’s now free for both personal and commercial usage. Qubes OS works virtualized in it pretty much out of the box.