Hi, I’ve recently managed to install Qubes to a USB but now have no internet access. Neither my wifi adapter or the external USB ethernet adaptor work. My wifi adaptor is an internal wifi card a Realtek RTL8821CE802.11ac PCIe adaptor and the external USB ethernet card is an A-LINK NA1GU(b) Gigabit USB 2.0 Ethernet adapter. I’m hoping somebody might be able to help please.
Regards
Nick
Which Qubes version is currently installed?
Do you see the PCI device attached in the “sys-net” settings (Devices tab)?
That is a rather troublesome wireless adapter for the Linux kernel, unfortunately.
You might try kernel-latest, but you’ll need to get some network access, somehow. I’ve not tried a USB network adapter, but I assume you’ll need to start your sys-usb VM (create one per the instructions if you didn’t have one created), and assign the USB NIC to sys-net, then configure it with the network icon up in the taskbar.
These two things cannot go together. Your USB devices are in dom0. You cannot create a combined sys-usb/sys-net qube, since you are booted from the USB already, unless you have more than one USB controller.
Hi, thanks for getting back to me. I’m not entirely sure what that means? Does it mean that if my USB devices are already in dom0 then if it was a compatible USB Ethernet card it would be automatically detected by Qubes. Does that mean that I have to buy a USB Ethernet card that is compatible with Qubes and if so I don’t suppose you would happen to know what that might be?
Regards
Nick
Hi, and thanks for taking the time to respond to my problem. I think I managed to create the sys-usb VM according to the instructions that I read somewhere. Although it seems that I broke my installation and I’m having to start again. But when I hopefully get to the same point how would I assign the USB NIC to sys-net and configure it with the network icon up in the taskbar. If you can let me know I greatly appreciate it.
Regards
Nick
Hi, thanks for getting back to me. I’m not entirely sure what that means? Does it mean that if my USB devices are already in dom0 then if it was a compatible USB Ethernet card it would be automatically detected by Qubes. Does that mean that I have to buy a USB Ethernet card that is compatible with Qubes and if so I don’t suppose you would happen to know what that might be?
Regards
Nick
Sorry I was just thinking about your response. So if an installation of Qubes to USB and an external USB ethernet card don’t go together. How can I get internet access?
Regards
Nick
Hi, thanks for the response. At the moment I think I broke my installation and I’m having to reinstall. So not quite sure about version or anything to do with the sys-net settings. So I’ll probably have to get back to you on that one once my installation reinstalls itself.
Regards
Nick
The same way you assign any other USB device to a Qube.
Plug it in with your sys-usb running, and you should see it pop up. Select it in “Devices” icon, assign to sys-net, and you should be able to configure it.
sys-usb is a VM that isolates all USB devices from dom0 and provides a nice interface for you to use them. You can’t create sys-usb if you are booted from USB: in such case, you would cut yourself off from your booting medium.
@glosnick Sorry that I was unclear. Installation to a USB stick is recommended just for testing your hardware. You can’t securely use your USB devices with such installation. (PCI devices should work, but as @Syonyk mentioned, your WiFi adapter is problematic on Linux. Perhaps elsewhere you could find guides how to use it on other Linux systems and use those guides here.)
So essentially you are saying there isn’t really anything I can do? My wireless adapter is problematic and I can’t run my USB Ethernet adapter?
Other Linux systems detect my wireless adaptor automatically so I’m unsure how I could manually install install it in Qubes. It seems I am unable to use my USB Ethernet adapter as it is isoloated from dom0 so I can’t use the repositories to install a driver for my device. So I’m am not entirely sure how to proceed. Do you have any ideas?
Regards
Nick
Hi, having now reinstalled Qubes my version of Qubes is 4.1.2(R4.1). I’m not sure what you mean by the “sys-net” settings (Devices tab) but I found something which appears to be [Dom0] Settings: sys-net and in it there is a selected controller which is my wireless network adapter. Not sure what this means though?
I was also thinking about upgrading my laptop so I was wondering if you would happen to recommend a system that would avoid these problems please?
This is an important point. I expect that in such case, you should be able to use it on Qubes, too. Your WiFi card is managed by sys-net virtual machine. Which templateVM is it based on? You can try to change the template to Fedora-38 or Debian-12 and see if it helps. I am not sufficiently knowledgeable to suggest some troubleshooting here; I hope someone else could chime in. In genereal, Linux-specific troubleshooting should work. See also: https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/pci-troubleshooting/#broadcom-bcm43602-wi-fi-card-causes-system-freeze.
Also, if you have more than one USB controller, then you should be able to still create and use the sys-usb. You can find out by creating an HCL report.
Hi, thanks for taking the time to respond to me, it is much appreciated. I’m not entirely sure which template anything is based upon to be honest. When I installed it to USB originally I left the defaults which were Fedora, Debian and Whonix templates, so not entirely sure what is based on what? Should I reinstall it again and just select the templates one at a time and see if that has an effect? To be honest when I said my wifi adapter worked with Linux I had used it with Mint and Ubuntu but not Fedora or Debian so not entirely sure that it would work with these distros.
Originally when I installed Qubes to the USB disk I got the following error after the templates had been installed:
Do you think that could have anything to do with it?
I also noticed that when I boot Qubes sys-net shutsdown and I get the following errors:
Again do you think this is part of the problem?
I managed to create an HCL report but couldn’t even find a file manager to transfer the document to a USB so I could upload, I’m not doing so well with this operating system. So I took a picture of it and I hope that helps:
Not entirely sure if any of this helps as I’m beginning to give up hope, sigh!
Regards
Nick
Do you still have the installation media? If so:
Can you boot from the install media and check if the last option is “install Qubes OS with Kernel Latest”?
If you have the option to install with Kernel Latest, would you be willing to redo the installation (with kernel latest) and see if “kernel latest” will support your WiFi card?
It seems the information about your USB controllers is only in the .yml file, not on the screen.
sys-whonix VM provides Tor connection, so it should not be relevant here.
These seem very relevant. I tried to search for such error on this forum and found this and this. Those threads have some solutions, which hopefully can help you.
I guess this short intro might help you to understand the general idea of Qubes OS.
Open Qube Manager by clicking on Qubes Domains widget in the system tray. You will see the list of all your VMs with the corresponding templates. You can check and change the template for each AppVM right there. You probably don’t have installed Fedora-38. Here is how to install it: Fedora templates | Qubes OS.
If some distros support your WiFi adapter, then it’s likely that other distros support it too.
