Installation on Dell Latitude E6400 (Libreboot)

User Support
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Hello! I’ve been searching for quite some time for a way to install Qubes on a Dell Latitude E6400, with Libreboot. My device is the variant without an Nvidia card, Intel igpu only. It has a core2 duo, chipset GM45. The Intel ME is removed by libreboot. I modified the laptop to have 8GB of ram and an ssd.

Initially, I would get to the GRUB menu via the USB installation media. After selecting any entry, I’d always get a flashing cursor, then a black screen.

By editing the grub entry for verbose installation, I made some progress. Passing vga=current console=vga to the line for xen, and acpi=off to the vmlinuz line, I get a lot of text output, at some point showing “Welcome to QubesOS 4.2.2” in red color. It eventually goes to reached target basic.target, and then errors with the dracut-initqueue timeout, commonly encountered with poorly formatted usb sticks. I then get an emergency prompt, but no keyboard input is possible.

I assume acpi=off disables keyboard input, and also prevents any more files being loaded from the usb stick, hence the timeout?

Note that I tried the recommended dd method for preparing the USB stick, and I also tried in ISO image mode, using rufus (fat32), and also with the Linux Mint Iso writer. None of these methods worked for me.

I also tried many other arguments, like nouveau.modeset=0, iommu=no_igfx, i915.alpha_support=1, and more, but never reached the graphical installer.

Is there anything I can do to get more information on where things are going wrong? I understand my device is quite old, but it seems to support VT-d and VT-x, and with 8GB ram I’d hope to at least have a chance of installing Qubes.

Any help is much appreciated!

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UPDATE!

I managed to get to the graphical installer, using these settings when editing (press e) the grub entry for verbose/troubleshooting installation:

For the xen line:

console=vga iommu=no-igfx loglvl=all ucode=scan vga=current,keep guest_loglvl=all

For the kernel (vmlinuz) line:

i915.alpha_support=1 nouveau.modeset=0 iommu=no-igfx

Then ctrl+x to boot. :slight_smile:

Edit: Looks like in my initial post I had a typo, it’s no-igfx, not no_igfx. Maybe something to double check for anyone else who has issues.

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Very nice to hear about it. I am typing this from another Dell Latitude E6400 machine (not with Qubes OS but rather with Fedora Rawhide). I believe I will never be able to install Qubes OS on it as it has a problematic Quadro GPU and only 2x2GB SODIMMs. 4GB DDRII modules could not be found at reasonable price anymore.

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Isn’t the CPU so old, that it is missing IOMMU?

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Could be. Intel Ark does not specify VT-d support for my CPU

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I can’t really speak for the Quadro gpu (maybe you can disable it and switch to integrated graphics) but you can actually still find very affordable 2x4GB DDR2 SODIMM ram kits, e.g., from Brainzap (I just bought this kit recently): BS-D2-8GK2-SO-800-N - BRAINZAP 8GB (2x 4GB) DDR2 RAM SO-DIMM PC2-6400S 2Rx8 800 MHz 1.8V CL6 Notebook Laptop Arbeitsspeicher | BRAINZAP Online Store

But whether Qubes will run properly even then… I’ll have to test it.

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The installer said that SLAT and IRQ remapping are missing, nothing else though. I am guessing there would be a warning for VT-d or VT-x if it was not available? Not sure though.

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Yes, I think it is at the first part of the graphical installer, it will tell you if your CPU has all the security features.