How Internal SSDs Are Handled

User Support General
,
1

I have an IcyDock that can handle four extra, hot-swapable SATA SSD drives. I unplugged them to install Qubes, then plugged them back in after all was running.

They are not seen in any file manager, except the one found at ‘start’>'settings>Other>Thunar File Manager (It is labeled as dom0), and the listing that pops up under Qubes Devices in the taskbar.

No matter what I do, I cannot seem to mount them under any other VM. Therefore, I cannot even open my password safe in Vault since the database is on one of those drives…

Where is the GUI for making them available in other VMs?

Thank you.

2

Did you try to use Qubes Devices widget to attach these drives as block devices to your qubes?

3

Yes.

4

Did you have an error when you tried to attach the block device to the qube?
Or what didn’t work for you?

5

Attaching device to personal. Device as been removed.

6

Those are the two windows that pop up during the process. I must assume that PersonalVM immediately removes it after attachment for some unknown reason.

7

Run this command in dom0 and personal qube terminal:

sudo journalctl -f -n0

And try to attach the block device to personal qube again.
Check the log output when it fails to attach.

8

Jun 26 11:07:29 personal kernel: blkfront: xvdi: flush diskcache: enabled; persistent grants: enabled; indirect descriptors: enabled; bounce buffer: enabled
Jun 26 11:07:29 personal qubes.StartApp+xfce4-file-manager-dom0[1313]:
Jun 26 11:07:29 personal qubes.StartApp+xfce4-file-manager-dom0[1313]: (thunar-volman:1430): Gdk-CRITICAL **: 11:07:29.409: gdk_atom_intern: assertion ‘atom_name != NULL’ failed
Jun 26 11:07:29 personal qubes.StartApp+xfce4-file-manager-dom0[1313]:
Jun 26 11:07:29 personal qubes.StartApp+xfce4-file-manager-dom0[1313]: (thunar-volman:1430): Gdk-CRITICAL **: 11:07:29.410: gdk_atom_intern: assertion ‘atom_name != NULL’ failed

9

I also found that the Qubes Devices shows it attached to both dom0 and personal.

10

What’s the output of this command in personal qube after you try to attach the block device to it?

sudo fdisk -l /dev/xvd[i-z]

Also do you have any errors in sudo journalctl -f -n0 log in dom0 when you try to attach the block device to personal qube?

11

Sorry; I was away for a while.

Disk /dev/xvdi: 57.36 GiB, 61592305664 bytes, 120297472 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

It remains a real pain in the rear when the Qubes Devices fails to use the same designations as the command line. I only got ~xvdi, so which one is that and where’s there rest?

Since QD shows all drives and I wanted to detach from personal and try again, I detached (unmounted?) from personal. Something happened and I may have deleted it from the list all together. It is no longer there, but still shows in dom0. Is there a way to refresh the list?

Here is a screen shot of the VM File Managers.

12

Well, I was trying to get a screenshot, but I guess it doesn’t know which desktop. Bizarre.

13

Obviously, I am having a bit of trouble learning to navigate and/or use this new environment. There is enough difference from normal distros to cause this confusion. I’m afraid that I need to step back and start over with this issue.

1 Like
14

screenshots are done in dom0 using xfce4-screenshot software

it will create a file in ~/Pictures/, if I remember correctly you can use the command qvm-copy-to-vm to copy the file to a qube.

1 Like
15

What is always confusing is that dom0 is not on the start menu list, but its programs are under settings>other.

File_Managers_VMs_in_Qubes
File_Managers_VMs_in_Qubes1360×768 156 KB

16

Please note that one drive (partition?) got attached to personal.

17

You can attach the whole disk or just separate disk partitions to the qube.
For example, you have disk /dev/sda in dom0 with partitions /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2.
If you attach the whole /dev/sda to the qube then it’ll be seen in the qube as /dev/xvdi with partitions /dev/xvdi1 and /dev/xvdi2.
If you attach a single /dev/sda2 partition to the qube then it’ll be seen in the qube as /dev/xvdi without any partitions.
Each new attached block device to the qube will have name in alphabet e.g. /dev/xvdi, /dev/xvdj, /dev/xvdk etc.

It seems that you’ve attached a single partition of the disk to your qube. If you want to access other partitions then attach them to the qube as well. Or attach the whole disk to the qube.

18

Sorry everyone but the forum would not let me post. I had to go thru a time-out period.

@solene Thanks for the tip. :+1:

After adding them all to work, only one shows up.:

Attached-all-drives-to-work
Attached-all-drives-to-work1360×768 149 KB

19

What’s the output of this command in work qube to which you’ve connected all your block devices but only see one of them?

sudo fdisk -l /dev/xvd[i-z]
20

fdisk: cannot open /dev/xvd[i-z]: No such file or directory