Hello, as mentioned in the qubes system requirements you will need AMD-V with RVI and AMD-Vi (also known as AMD IOMMU). In terms of generic hardware, you have the recommended amount of RAM, I would look into your configuration for integrated graphics if I were you as Qubes allows the use of GPUs but only with passthrough or advanced tinkering. It will save you a lot of time and effort if you had it. If not your mileage may vary.
As a newbie here I am responding and also asking about this thought:
Can’t a person download and VERIFY the Qubes 4.2.0 ISO, and then write it to a USB to install the software from? Hold on continuing my thoughts/suggestion. Then user grabs another USB with sufficient space WHERE Qubes would be installed as a test. This would be using the computer you ultimately want to use.
If both USB’s are connected to the computer you plan on going Qubes bare metal on wouldn’t the initial “test” install be a valid hardware examination? If the computer in question did NOT throw up flags shouldn’t the computer be good to go?
My machine failed using this “testing method”. Its a Lenovo E530 with 8 gig of Ram. Would there be any reason my “test” would throw up hardware fails if the machine would actually work if I did a REAL install? I don’t think so. ???'s
Qubes has specific system requirements, if I understood correctly you’re flashing Qubes from USB 1 to USB 2. In this case, it would be futile as the USB 2 itself doesn’t have any of the requirements.
Also you mentionned which is barely the minimum requirements.
I wouldn’t advise anyone without prior experience to use a low end device as such to run Qubes from as you would need to know quite well the whole infrastructure. There has been two projects made for minimizing Qubes as much as possible but these are external, non-official and endorced projects.
Thank you. l hope this isn’t splitting a thread but YOUR (or others too) opinion on Intel i9 vs Ryzen 7-9 for a Qubes machine if all the other hardware was the same?
Yes, this is also mentioned in the Installation destination section of the installation guide, where it says, “Installing an operating system onto a USB drive can be a convenient way to try Qubes.”
If you are refering to the Lenovo machine, looking at the specifications for the machine, I highly doubt you could run Qubes as the max RAM is 16 GB DDR3L at 1600 MHz only. I would recommend DDR4 (DDR4L for laptops) as a bare minimum.
From the wikipedia page I found, the available CPUs are as follow Intel Celeron, Sandy Bridge Pentium, 2nd Gen Intel Core, or 3rd Gen Intel Core which would, again, either be improbable to run for a regular user and (from my point of view) really hard to make it work at all even for an experienced hacker (the term hacker refering to someone achieving goals by non-standard means).
Neither of those two CPUs would work under the Lenovo E530 you mentionned. I am once again assuming you are talking about this machine only.
No, I have now left the idea of using that Lenovo completely. So my dilemma is that acquiring a great machine to run Qubes is far from cheap. If I could test drive Qubes for a month or two on a decent machine and Qubes runs and behaves as I expect, then I would have no issues dropping significant coin on a “big boy” machine. However; if I spent the money and then became disappointed with Qubes or my abilities to master it --------------- then I would have a machine much more powerful than I need.
I was asking about the i9 14th gen and Ryzen 9 because for now it appears they may not be supported by Qubes (maybe I read in the wrong places). If I was going to spend a large chunk of coin I would seem to get the latest and greatest to prolong how future proof the computer would be.
I have ten years of many linux flavors (custom installs), virtual machines, and TOR/Whonix under my belt so I do in fact think this should be manageable for me — I hope anyway!
For me this won’t be effective unless Qubes becomes my daily driver 100%.
Someone once said the way to have a new computer that is supported by Qubes is to buy a brand new laptop now. (making sure it has the virtualization, enough RAM) today. Put the unopened box in closet. In two years take it out.
While you said you would not accept a Lenovo: Were you only thinking of a third generation processor? There is an 8th generation processor, that would not cost a lot of money. At least, after a few months you could still likely find a way to get your value out of it. Another OS, or sell it?? Lenovo T480. Make sure you get 8th generation processor, and not the lowest level of screen. Refurbished it would be under four hundred. Not excitingly fast though.
For me if I jump in it will be with a fully certified high end machine and hit the ground running. Communicating with me NitroPC is working on 4.2.0 behind the scenes, and expects to have certified hardware ready to go in a few weeks.
I see. I am am aware of hardware issues for newer processors and hardware in general. What I would recommend would honeslty be a mid-range desktop (since I think that is what you’re looking for) with hardware from recent years. 32G of RAM to have a good peace of mind and not worry about it while running too many qubes. If you do not do any dev. work or you need some CPU intensive tasks then 8 core with 16 threads is great, obviously if you compile a lot of softwares I would recommend more than that. The rest is pretty much up to you liking (it all is) but if you want to test the waters first, a mid-range unit from recent years is maybe overkill. I would rather spend a little bit on a laptop that is capable of running Qubes, test it there (if no other hardware is capable of handling it) and see if you like it or not then proceed to buy something more powerful. It’ll also help you realize how much RAM can limit you in some cases and think of managing ressources under Qubes for your potential new hardware.
All in all, it’s your choice and you have to do the decision making. Hope I could somewhat help.
The cost of going from 32 Gig to 64 Gig DDR5 RAM is not that much, and honestly I don’t know what my future needs will be. I am proceeding slowly and maybe even I overthink as I go. Honestly my Linux systems are running perfectly and matched with my Fiber line I am able to blaze all over the place. LOL!