I suspect another way to ask this would be: what dom0 command do I use to open ‘Firefox’ in the ‘work’ AppVM - if such a command exists, that’s all I need.
By Application I mean an individual application inside of an AppVM. For example, the ‘Firefox’ application inside of the ‘work’ AppVM.
By open I mean launch, from any state. Including the AppVM being shutdown.
By dom0 I mean you can use the keyboard shortcut anywhere, in any window. I’m effectively asking about global keyboard shortcuts.
I have found the following:
System Settings > Keyboard > Application Shortcuts > Add
However I am only able to figure out how to add commands that manipulate dom0. I haven’t gotten any commands to manipulate an application in an AppVM. And at this point, I am unsure whether this is even possible.
Google and this forum are also shockingly silent on this question. So my secondary motivation here is to help others in the future. I can’t be the only person who would like this
But I can’t give you an exact answer currently.
If I remember correctly, you should check out the qvm-run command for this. But I am sure someone more knowledgeable will come around soon.
However I found this, and it does work for most apps:
qvm-run -q fedora-appvm firefox
Based on the discussion about it here it’s unclear to me if I should keep using it long term:
Apps I have installed myself though I’m not able to get working so far. I think the problem is I don’t know what the your-app is called. I’m not even seeing them in /usr/bin under any names I recognize.
I would prefer the qubes.StartApp method because it relies on a limited RPC that only executes existing apps in your appmenu. This is the way Qubes runs apps natively. Using a variation of qvm-run <qube> <command> uses an RPC that executes commands directly in a VM, which is more prone to error. If you’re an advanced user and understand the implications, then by all means use it. But if not, it would be better to stick to the paved route. In the future with sys-gui[-gpu], the latter will not be an option because the GUIVM will not be permitted to run commands directly in qubes. (At least with the current designs. As with everything, this is subject to change.)
Did you install the app in the appropriate template? If so, could you walk me through exactly how you installed it?
Did you install the app in the appropriate template?
Actually, no. The ones I’m trying to get working were all installed in the AppVM.
One of them was installed with these instructions:
The end result of which is:
./start-mullvad-browser.desktop
I have tried start-mullvad-browser and it doesn’t work (nor mullvad-browser)
Mullvad Browser has been registered as a desktop app for this user in ~/.local/share/applications/
And the others are .AppImage files which I dropped into /user, ran chmod on and added a .desktop file in the Template, so they show up in applications. All are added to AppMenu so if Qubes is running some qvm-run to launch them, I should be able to do the same if I can just identify how they are named.
This one is pretty cool, hopefully it helps someone later
To do a disposable VM you just add --dispvm
So now I have a keyboard shortcut to open a disposable Tor browser via this:
qvm-run -q -a --service --dispvm whonix-workstation-17-dvm tor_app_name
tor_app_name is long and might be semi-unique so I did not include mine. You can view it in the Qube Manager application selection menu by hovering over Tor Browser.
That is for the Mullvad VPN - the link I posted is for their browser. That actually did work with the new command and start-mullvad-browser
As for telling me to chmod the .AppImage, I suppose you didn’t read where I said I had done that step and (to me) I said it like I know that very well. And I’m more than a little confused how you think I was getting those to work at all if I had not done that.
… .AppImage files which I dropped into /user, ran chmod on and added a …
Pretty much everything you posted in this thread was flawed and I couldn’t use any of it as you stated it. However it ultimately did lead me to where I needed to go. So for that I’m very grateful.
But bigger picture, I’m not sure that is the best thing to be doing - going around spraying stuff that you clearly do not know that well, to people who might not understand it and just copy paste it, and end up getting themselves rekt.
I do apologize. I haven’t gotten much sleep this past week, and I was very tired when I tried to help. I was trying to help promptly, but you are correct: I should have waited.
You could create a Launcher in the “Taskbar” area… thats what i use to create a deceptive Windows 11 look a like. Then you can take an icon from icon8.com download the icon and switch out the icon from generic launcher to whatever you want to start up.
(Thats what i did with brave. Until i find a workable solution.)
Thanks. I’m quite hooked on doing them with keyboard shortcuts now. Once muscle memory set in for my most used apps, I just lazily open stuff without even really realizing how I’m doing it. It’s very close to commanding stuff to open with my mind lol
