Framework Laptop Qubes User: Hardware, updating issue, and alternatate Desktop UI

[CrazyOrca]

Hello, everyone! I have been digging into the forums as well as other forums on the web looking for solutions to the struggles I will list below. I believe a lot of useful information is already out there related to some of these, but I am not able to either understand or apply it correctly yet, as I am very new to Qubes. That said, I do have a solid technical understanding of computing in general so I am hopeful I just need a few pointers.

There are 4 issues I am looking for advice with:

1. I am installing on a Framework Laptop, and I know users have succeeded at this before, but I believe I need a newer kernel in both Dom0 and the TemplateVMs to use some of my hardware. I cannot seem to get the kernels to update, though I have tried everything I can on the documentation for managing the kernels. (Especially the AX210 NIC is unsupported in current kernel)

2.I cannot seem to update Debian nor Fedora VMs in general. I am getting an error that says proxy is unavailable when I try. I understand from my reading that Qubes updates through an internal proxy system, so I think something is not communicating correctly…

3. I am very much trying to change the default desktop environment in Dom0 from XFCE, as the screen resolution is almost unusable on the Framework laptop (SOOOO Small), and I also just like the look of something like Gnome better if it is at all possible. I followed the advice here: https://gist.github.com/code3z/244ea17d306f11fdf1127c8d4ce5296c BUT there seems to be no effect on Dom0 that I can discern after completing those steps. Is anyone using Gnome or even KDE on Qubes?

4. There is a potential question for any Framework users out there. As installed, my sys-USB VM seems to have a constant cycle of “USB device connected” and then “USB device disconnected” in the upper right corner where attached devices are listed in Dom0. I assume that a newer kernel may resolve this as it may just be a compatibility issue (hopefully not a hardware issue as the laptop is brand new), but I want to ask if other Framework users have had that issue as well?

I am running Qubes 4.1 Final release and have updated Dom0 successfully with the latest patches. After running the Official updater for the VMs in Dom0, it will lie and say that the VMs are up to date, when in fact the log shows that they failed to connect due to the proxy error. So I am as up to date as I can be, but am running into those issues. ANY help would be very appreciated. If I can get everything working smoothly, my intention is to do a write-up under the HCL Forum as well as on the Framework forum to help other users who are trying to combine the framework with Qubes. It seems like a logical connection so I bet many are doing that and could use a guide.

[fsflover]

See also: Framework Laptop.

@CrazyOrca

2.I cannot seem to update Debian nor Fedora VMs in general. I am getting an error that says proxy is unavailable when I try. I understand from my reading that Qubes updates through an internal proxy system, so I think something is not communicating correctly…

You should create separate topics for separate problems. It would make it easier to help you and to find a solution for future users.

[EncryptedGiraffe]

@CrazyOrca

I am installing on a Framework Laptop, and I know users have succeeded at this before, but I believe I need a newer kernel in both Dom0 and the TemplateVMs to use some of my hardware. I cannot seem to get the kernels to update, though I have tried everything I can on the documentation for managing the kernels. (Especially the AX210 NIC is unsupported in current kernel)

I’ve installed fine using the ISO, and dom0 worked fine with the bundled kernel, though I now run kernel-latest. VMs starting working a lot better once I switched to kernel-latest-qubes-vm

@CrazyOrca

2.I cannot seem to update Debian nor Fedora VMs in general. I am getting an error that says proxy is unavailable when I try. I understand from my reading that Qubes updates through an internal proxy system, so I think something is not communicating correctly

Do you have networking working? are your qrexec policies correct?

@CrazyOrca

I am very much trying to change the default desktop environment in Dom0 from XFCE, as the screen resolution is almost unusable on the Framework laptop (SOOOO Small), and I also just like the look of something like Gnome better if it is at all possible. I followed the advice here: GNOME on Qubes · GitHub BUT there seems to be no effect on Dom0 that I can discern after completing those steps. Is anyone using Gnome or even KDE on Qubes?

I agree, the screen resolution made readability just dreadful first. I’ve managed to scale everything to get it to be usable in XFCE, link at bottom

@CrazyOrca

There is a potential question for any Framework users out there. As installed, my sys-USB VM seems to have a constant cycle of “USB device connected” and then “USB device disconnected” in the upper right corner where attached devices are listed in Dom0. I assume that a newer kernel may resolve this as it may just be a compatibility issue (hopefully not a hardware issue as the laptop is brand new), but I want to ask if other Framework users have had that issue as well?

This went away for me when I switched to kernel-latest-qubes-vm for sys-usb. Running debian-11-minimal

Here are some of my jot notes from installing:

https://gist.github.com/EncryptedGiraffe/39eea9cc7598d09a98711efe7c7a2c89