I decide to write a list of exotic OSes which I tried install as HVMs with a quick summary of what is working. Don’t know why I have such phase to try new systems on Qubes while on Virtualbox not tried nothing that I don’t need.
Totally Exotic:
TempleOS - infamous work of one man (with diagnosed schizophrenia).
Generally can be installed from the ISO and seems to work (I’m not testing sound which for those who want to hear random tunes from the God himself may be crucial). Have problem with cursor like many HVMs. I also not tested if passing through flash drives works.
ReactOS - Windows NT like open source OS. It’s goal was to be compatible with Windows NT.
Can be installed but there is the bug in the installer that causing boot crash when isntalled with networking. Workaround is to install it without networking and setup network connection later. Works good. Like windows HVM.
SerenityOS - Open source OS with feel of old Windows and Macs (from the 90s). Start as project which helping his creator recover from addiction. Then maintained with growing community. Like in TempleOs many thing are implemented from scratch. Can be build and run in QEMU inside VM. Unfortunately I can’t make it work on Xen. I create disk img with grub installed, and copy it rootimage of freshly created HVM. Grub works but system hangs on boot without any error… I also tried expending size of image to 10GB and create HVM from image with the same effect. Changing qvn gui features also changed nothing.
Plan9 - next generation of unix from the Bell Labs.
Can be installed (use VESA for graphics). Have problems with cursor.
9Front - still maintained (by some strange free speech organization from Germany that run its servers on it) fork of Plan9.
Can be installed. Works good.
Exotic Linux Distros:
PLD - PLD LInux Distribution (formerly Polish Linux Distribution). Hardcore Linux distro from the beginning of millennium. Still maintained. I can’t make it work. I can install it from live cd but is too old to upgrade the system. From the installation cd I can’t figured out dependencies so the installation fails. When trying to convert from (also rather old) virtualbox image it fails to boot (can’t mount hdd - maybe converting virtual drives to scsi will help).
EasyOS - from the creator of Puppy Linux. Concept similar to Qubes but container based. Its container engine is written from scratch. Can’t run it. Best result was booting img using Ventoy, but graphic drivers fails to load.
Skywave Linux - Ubuntu remix concentrated on SDR. Boots normally as Ubuntu. Can’t be installed in normal way since Calamares and Ubiquity are broken for that project. Script to clone it using rsync maintained by its creator seems not work properly.
Pentesting/Forensics/Security:
BlacArch - it is possible to add blackarch repo to archlinux qubes communit template and install all the tools. Some tools not works.
Pentoo - it is possible to add overlay to qubes gentoo template. Unfortunately Gentoo is to nerdy for me and I pass when encountered some funky dependencies problem.
Caine - forensics Ubuntu remix from Italy. Newest version have broken installer. Previous version have less broken installer so it can be installed but it is based on ancient Ubuntu and updates fails on dependencies.
BackBOX - fails to boot.
Tails - can boot using ventoy. It is rather pointless to use it on Qubes.
REMnux - malware analysis ubuntu remix. Morphing qubes ubuntu template fails. It is possible to morph normal Ubuntu HVM. Not tried to convert VM image.
If someone have idea how to progress with one of the OSes which fails I will be grateful for advice.