Fast Qubes Confirmed Laptop (Without workarounds) w/ 64 GB+ Ram?

General Discussion
1

I’m hoping someone can help me with a recommendation.

I’ve been looking for couple months now and I’ve had to return 2 laptops thus far as they did not work as expected even with attempted workarounds.

Also, I’ve then been burned by Purism. Afterwards, I strongly considered into System76, but then found out the hard way that their machines have confirmed ethernet problems…

Anyways,

I’m looking for a laptop on the slim side with a sizeable amount of ram (64GB+) that can handle multiple qubes open with tradingview, exchanges, crypto wallet applications, defi apps, etc.

At present, I am using a Lenova Yoga 730 and it has been great, but it is limited (16GB Ram), and now what I I’m doing has expanded and I require more power.

I honestly like the feel of the trackpad/keyboard on this things, but am also aware that it has issues with TPM. (not that much of a problem for me, though)

Can anyone confirm if some of the more powerful Lenovo’s are fully functioning without workarounds? If so, which one?

Also, I am open to any other machine that is a powerhouse and runs this OS well. This OS has been a game changer, and is now my main, and I can’t wait to experience it working as efficiently as possible. Major thanks to the dev’s and the people that support this… Revolutionary…!

1 Like
2

I use lenovo legion with 16gb ram and it’s work prefectly, it can use 64gb ram, many user confirmed this (non qubes user) I think it will work well but I can’t guarantee it.

3

Looking at it, and it looks familiar. I do like that idea.

Would you choose an Intel or AMD version? Does it matter for Qubes?

Also, they have the regular gaming laptops with 64gb ram, then they have one branded as a business / gaming laptop with 2tb SSD.

Are any of these fully confirmed as working on the HCL list?

4

I’ve been very happy with Librem 14 so far. They do offer 64GB RAM and 2 TB SSD.

There were a couple of minor hiccups with firmware, but all of them have been resolved fully after the recent firmware + coreboot update.

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5

i think it’s depend on the situation (i use windows on separate disk so whenever i wanted to do some 3d apps, i change it) and another disk with full encrypted qubes (intel is friendly with linux afaik), and i don’t know if it was matter or not, even it isn’t there will always a way to make them work on qubes.

7

Did you have a look here?

8

I have similar requirements. Also preferred no workaround as I’m trying to onboard some other users who may not be super technical.

Not good that the “community created list of recommended computers” contains a bunch of discontinued CPU’s manufactured 9+ years ago which can’t run a decent sized display due to software rendering.

It seems the Tuxedo Infinitybook 14 is the best option (but the version in the HCL isn’t the same version being sold now - Hardware compatibility list (HCL) | Qubes OS). Ships from Germany.

9

Just seen that new Lenovo X1 Carbons have a 4+ month shipping time for i7s, and you can’t get 32GB of RAM or more on their i5 models.

10

What display configuration are you using on the Yoga 730? I think I could live with 16GB if the performance was good on an HDMI 4K output…

11

@bowtiediguana wrote:

I think I could live with 16GB if the performance was good on an HDMI 4K output…

I am running a ThinkPad T430 with the following specs:

  • i7-3840QM
  • 16 GB RAM
  • 2 TB SSD
  • Full HD (1080p) internal display
  • 4K 32" external monitor (display port, HDMI doesn’t give me the full 4K)

I am writing this not to recommend my config to you, but merely to make clear even with this “old” computer you can get good 4k performance.

As far as what you guys are asking for in this thread:

  • Purism Librem 14 v1
  • ThinkPad P51

… both on the list, both match what you are asking for.

3 Likes
12

Librem 14 has only 1 USB controller so that won’t work for me.
ThinkPad P51 is no longer available new.

The search continues for a laptop I (and others) can be assured to be able to buy over the next 12 months, which is fast and Qubes compatible. Closest so far is Tuxedo Infinitybook 14 if anyone is interested. https://groups.google.com/g/qubes-users/c/E8suaQMxT0g/m/IbuaF-PODQAJ

13

Someone posted a list of manufacturers who made qubes tested laptops. Off the top of my head which had 64/+ ram were tuxedo and star labs

14

Hi 51lieal, the Legion seems great especially because I am looking for something with over 16GB of max memory (that doesn’t break the bank).

I noticed your legion report on HCL was for Qubes 4.1. Have you tried it with 4.0 before? Only asking since I am a newbie (trying to avoid workarounds and stick to the stable 4.0 version).

15

The only problem with 4.0 is default kernel doesn’t have wifi worked, so i need to use ethernet and upgrade kernel then install driver manually.

1 Like
16

I happened to stumble on a post from fieryrajang without looking for anything WiFi related (sheer coincidence). I thought of your reply and figured I should ask… would these be the instructions to get wifi working properly on 4.0? It seems fairly straightforward, but I have no experience with it so I might be mistaken.

fieryrajang

Jan 17

Obtain kernel-latest-qubes-vm package on a usb and you can install just before rebooting on Qubes Install. Ctrl-Alt-F2, mount USB to /mnt/sysimage/mnt
chroot /mnt/sysimage/
cd /mnt
rpm -ivh --nodeps kernel-latest-qubes-vm

Then Ctrl-Alt-F6 to return to installer and reboot.

This way you can have working WiFi without having to require an Ethernet connection first to download the kernel. Note this would set all appVms to latest kernel, you can change default back to stable, and only change sys-net.

17

As long as you can use newer kernel for qubes-vm it’s okay, with kernel 5.10 you don’t need to configure anything, but from my perspective just go with r4.1 with current-security repo, i’ve been testing since early and only got 1 issue (for me) until now (current 4.1rc1 cannot use whonix to download template), and using 4.1 mean that you don’t need to learn again, since 4.0 and 4.1 has slightly different structure.

18

Hi, Welcome to Forum

If you did not find it yet, Repo of latest Qubes ISO.

https://qubes.notset.fr/iso/

19

Sounds like a Razer laptop is perfect for you although I would advice you to check every specific model for 64GB RAM problems.

20

Tuxedo’s Pulse laptops sound interesting, up to 64 GB ram and AMD Ryzen 4800H, the H CPU’s are 45 watt and are faster. They have Intel alternatives as well. Since the components are checked to be compatible with Linux, the chances of them being compatible with Qubes is bigger. And they’re much more powerful than the Librem laptops.
Does anyone know how long they support their machines with BIOS updates? The downloads are not public, you need to login.

21

Continuing the discussion from Short list of laptops/desktops that work well with Qubes OS:

I found the notebooks from Schenker/XMG very suitable as well as mentioned in the discussion linked above (and, in comparison to the Tuxedo, they are manufactured in Germany too and seem in general pretty similar considering their broader philosophy), but just my humble 2 cent…