How to format a External Flash/SSD Drive

User Support General
1

How to format a External Flash and/or a SSD Drive as i dont see a GUI Disks option and i would much love to use the GUI if possible please?

2

If your external Flash and/or SSD Drive is connected via USB:

  • Install gparted in the TemplateVM you use for sys-usb
  • Add gparted to the list of Applications in App Menu
  • Connect your External Drive to sys-usb
  • Launch GParted and format your drive as you desire
3

Any fedora 40 based appvm should have gparted already installed, start one like default dvm or vault and attach the USB to it. Then in terminal type
gparted

Gui will open

Create new partition table
Add partition, probably fat32, ntfs or ext4

4

How do i know what Template sys-usb uses as when im on Qubes Manager it says; default-dvm instead of a OS?

Also why sys-usb as i use the app qube called Vault for all my usb connected devices as its offline and secure i thought?

5

i checked Fedora-40 TemplateVM - settings - Applications and gparted is not there, i then opened up its Terminal and typed;
$ gparted
and got nothing existing there.

6

If it is the default stock installation, it is usually like this:
sys-usb → default-dvm → fedora-{38|39|40}-xfce

which means you should have GParted already installed according to @corny

You only need to go to sys-usb setting and in Applications tab to add GParted to the menu.
If it is not available, go to fedora-*-xfce template terminal and install the GParted with this command:

sudo dnf install gparted

You then have to restart the system (or appropriate qubes in proper sequence) to have GParted in the the list of sys-usb available applications.

Copying files from/to USB devices is what you usually do with Valult since you need to keep them on your PC. Formatting and partitioning USB storage devices directly in sys-usb could be safer. As it is a volatile (disposable) qube. And it could not even compromise the Vault.

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7

Yes. I also believe it is not installed by default. You have to install it if you want/need a graphical partitioning program. I posted the command in previous post.

8

Really ? Am I losing my mind :rofl: ? I swear it’s there by default. I just checked a new install I have

9

Are you in fedora-40 or fedora-40-xfce ? If the former, I believe it is gnome disks.

Like Alimir said, you can install gparted in the template with

sudo dnf install gparted

10

I re-checked many times and defo not there by default, in any event You are amazing as that CLI command did the trick, i never even had to reboot any qubes, i just refreshed the Applications and it was there, i need to make a log of these commands now somewhere, maybe yet another spreadsheet :scream:
Thank you very much for your time and help

2 Likes
11

fedora-40 and no defo not got it by default at my end, however i do have it now thanks to the alimirjamali
Thanks for your time x

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12

ok i installed gparted and see the application all good inside sys.usb yet how ever many times i click on gparted then nothing seems to happen, i connected my ned SSD to sys.usb yet gparted just wont respond, im i missing something please?

13

Could you open a Terminal for sys-usb (from Qubes Domain Widget) and run gparted from there? Type gparted in Terminal and press enter. Then tell us the errors you see.

14

idk what is a Qubes Domain Widget, however i went to top left Q icon and clicked then hovered over sys-usb then clicked Terminal, it opened and i input the finds below;

(please note that another window also opened up as soon as i typed gparted into CLI and pressed Enter called; (sys-usb) /dev/mmcblko - GParted)
Terminal;
[user@sys-usb ~]$ gparted
localuser:root being added to access control list

(gpartedbin:3435): Gdk-CRITICAL **: 16:30:08.480: gdk_atom_intern: assertion ‘atom_name != NULL’ failed

(gpartedbin:3435): Gdk-CRITICAL **: 16:30:08.481: gdk_atom_intern: assertion ‘atom_name != NULL’ failed
GParted 1.6.0
configuration --enable-libparted-dmraid --enable-online-resize
libparted 3.6

15

OK. Very good. Now we could be sure that you have the GParted installed in your sys-usb and it is running. Didn’t it open a Window like this?

gparted
gparted1366×768 61.9 KB

If yes, you should go to drop-down menu in the right of the window and look for your External Flash/SSD there.

16

yes it sure did so i immediately plugged in the SSD and went top right usb fob icon right clicked and attached the (sda) SSD to sys-usb then i went to GParted window and refreshed it but it just spazzed out on me, then Terminal spazzed out so i closed everything down and started again yet now Terminal refuses to open up on sys-usb so im stuck with no Terminal for some reason…

I have re-tried to open the CLI many many times yet nothing. I also tried clicking on GParted in the Applications menu via settings but no response either.

17

i shut down laptop fully and re-opened and now i can open Terminal, however i think i have an issue with the SSD not connecting to the cube app i use for my other SSDs for some reason, this SSD im trying to connect is a brandnew Samsung T7 2TB and it says it connects yet i also think it then dis-connects…

In addition to this the gparted window which opens now refuses to show me anything, just the bottom blue bar moving similar to the wheel of eternal death! and all gparted task bar options are greyed out as if its searching for any/all drives but never finds them.
However i shut down Terminal and gparted window then went to top left and opened gparted easy not using Terminal and it opened with loads of stuff in there but i not find my new 2TB SSD there so im guessing i have an issue connecting this SSD to the app Qube which suprise me as i have another T7 SSD which i connect no problem to the same app Qube.

Also Terminal doesnt seem to return properly as it does normally, if you look at my read out theres no username at the bottom of Terminal like it wants me to do something else to it idk

18

Refresh the application list in the qube with gparted in the qube’s Settings → Applications tab by pressing on the Refresh application button there.
This should add the GParted app in the left column and you can add it to the right column so you’ll be able to run GParted app in the qube using the QUbes menu.

19

for some reason this new SSD doesnt seem to want to connect to sys-usb or indeed anything else, i think!.. yet idk for sure, however sys-usb sometimes let me open gparted and/or terminal and sometimes doesnt respond at all and always crashes my system and i then need to turn off the PC and back on, ultimatly i just cant get gparted to work and my usb to connect properly i think and now i discovered that in Settings in sys-usb it states under Advanced that it provides Network which confuses me more as i wanted all my usb SSD’s to be 100% offline in a offline Qube which they are yet as they connect via sys-usb which seems to be online then surly this is not good for my privacy/security?
I tried to un-tick the Provides network thingy then couldnt get online and sys-usb became unworkable so i needed to re-select it and shut down and reboot then im working again now.
I do connect to internet via Ethernet adapter which is a USB-C if that helps any.

20

By default the sys-usb qube memory is limited to 384 MB so it could be not enough to run gparted GUI there.
Increase the sys-usb initial memory in its Settings → Advanced tab if you want to run gparted in sys-usb.

Sys-usb is not connected to the network which you can check in its Settings → Basic tab → Net qube. It should be (none) current by default.
The “Provides network” means this:

provides_network

Property type: bool

Should this VM provide network to other VMs. Setting this property to True will allow to set this VM as netvm to other VMs.

https://dev.qubes-os.org/projects/core-admin-client/en/latest/manpages/qvm-prefs.html