Intel NUC Support - Frost Canyon

User Support Hardware Issues
1

Hi,

I just bought a 10th Generation Intel Core i7-10710U, partly because it seems to have reasonable support for Linux. I’ve got Ubuntu up and running no problem, but can’t get Qubes installed.

Are there known problems with this hardware? There are issues with some video cards, but don’t think the one listed here https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/196448/intel-core-i7-10710u-processor-12m-cache-up-to-4-70-ghz.html

2

Hi @mgifford,

Qubes OS works on NUC10, I daily use a NUC10i7FNK with the same CPU as you.

I don’t know for the specific Frost Canyon, but see my NUC10i7FNK HCL post from mail-archive or google groups, and also the Q/A in the qubes-user mailing-list thread.

3

That’s terrific news! Did you have any trouble with the installation? I can’t get the installation GUI to show up on the page. It stalls as I’ve defined here: https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/6104

Terrible screenshots… but I can’t seem to get to get passed it.

4

My first (stupid) issue was a buggy 4GB USB stick, I switched to a newer and bigger one for the QubesOS 4.0 ISO.

My second and more important issue was the unrecognized network ethernet card. But I used an USB-ethernet adapter for the Qubes-OS installation. Then I updated to a latest kernel (5.6.16) which recognized my ethernet card. Then all rocks :smiley:

Verify the BIOS settings, I think it’s the main problem for you. See my HCL mailing-list post and also the question/answer from/to zhao in my HCL thread.

Are you using a very specific NUC10 or a very common like mine (NUC10i7FNK)? Check the differences between mine and yours.

5

Thanks @ludovic I’ve got a NUC10i7FNH1 so pretty much identical I think.

I’ve been trying two different USB sticks. Neither of them seem to be working.

I don’t know what changes should be made to the BIOS. Where is the HCL mailing list you are referring to? Can you send me a link?

I’m not sure how to update the kernel here.

6

I posted the links in my first post on this thread, I give them again:

My first post on the mailing list explained it (‘qubes-dom0-update kernel-latest’) like the Qubes-OS documentation (kernel upgrade).

But like I didn’t get the errors shown on your camera shots, I think that your BIOS settings is the main problem.
Please read first all this thread (BIOS settings I explained, zhaojx88 questions and my answers). Then if not resolved, ask specific questions here, I will help you.

7

Ok, I got an external USB NIC that I ordered to test this out.

I had to scroll down to your comment in the thread on July 26th where you outlined what needed to be done to the bios.

I had a lot of trouble getting to the Legacy Boot mode, but finally got there with this https://community.intel.com/t5/Intel-NUCs/NUC10-can-t-enable-Legacy-Boot/td-p/602288

Certainly wasn’t obvious.

With that I was able to get to the Qubes OS install. Still seemed pretty rough. I had installed Kubuntu on the NUC’s drive, but will install a bootable Linux USB & just format that.

Anyways, with the BIOS instructions (that I’d missed before), it looks like I am making progress.

8

Ok, I’m having trouble now getting network access through the external USB network device to access the USB NIC.

$ sudo qvm-usb

gives me “BACKEND:DEVID DESCRIPTION USED BY” but nothing else.

I’ve tried to skip ahead to

$ sudo qvm-usb attach sys-net sys-usb:3.3

But that gives me the error of. “qvm-usb: error: no backed vm ‘sys-usb’”. I think that’s because I’m not scanning available USB devices properly…

I assume that I do this right from the terminal of dom0 when it first boots up. This isn’t something to run from the Qube Manager, right?

9

@mgifford
After added the sys-usb VM, below my own archived tutorial for using a USB NIC.

For using a USB NIC:

  1. sys-net/Qube setting : remove all the devices
  2. sys-net/Start
  3. dom0/Terminal: qvm-usb for finding the USB NIC, ex: sys-usb:3.3
  4. dom0/Terminal: qvm-usb attach sys-net sys-usb:3.3
  5. sys-net/Terminal : ‘usb-devices’ display the USB devices of the VM
  6. sys-net/Terminal : ‘ip a’ display the network interface and the current IP
    => sys-net notifies that a new connection is activated, the red network icon displayed in the tray bar

On next boots, with Qubes Devices, set the USB NIC to sys-net. (I noted this in my tutorial but I don’t remember why, so useless or useful you will see)…

If this works for you, the next steps are:

  • update dom0
  • install the kernel-latest
  • sys-net set to using the kernel-latest (Qube settings, Advanced, kernel)
  • set sys-net to use the now detected NUC internal Ethernet card (driver e1000e) : device 00:1f.6 and set the ‘no-strict reset’ option

Good luck :wink:

10

I have read the list for hardware support.
But i could not find the 8th generation i3 intel nuc support.
Dous Qubes OS work on it?
Thanks

11

Hi @Zagroswarri0r,

see the Hardware compatibility list, Qubes OS works on NUC 5, 6, 7.

For NUC 10, see this thread, my HCL report and other posts in the mailing-list.

So I don’t know if Qubes OS works on NUC8, but NUC are very standard hardware and Intel contributes a lot to Linux hardware compatibility. So I think you can try an install on a NUC 8 with following the installation guide.

12

Thanx again, i will buy it :slight_smile:

13

I had a NUC8i7HVK2 running the 4.0.4rc2 quite well.

Tried the final 4.0.4 Qubes OS on a NUC10i3FNK, but it kernel-panics during Xen boot.

Hans

14

Hi @Hans ,
I’m currently using a NUC10i7FNK with the 5.4.83 kernel. Last summer I installed Qubes OS 4.0.3, then I did all the updates. So I’m now with Qubes OS 4.0.4.
First I’ll check the BIOS settings which is a bit tricky for this host, see my above links in this discussion thread.

15

@Ludovic,

Thanks for the hints.

But “USB NIC adapter”?
( found it, earlier in this thread )

Since I already have the 4.0.4rc2 installed on the SSD, it’s probably easier to fix forward. Maybe update the kernel and Xen.efi ?

Or maybe it’s something else: I have vmlinuz-5.4.90-1.qubes.x86_64 installed on Feb 27, probably from the latest upgrade on the NUC8i7HVK2. Should be good enough if you can run the 5.4.83 kernel.

Btw, I run Refind as the boot manager. Easier to manage than the NUC boot menu.

Other OS compatibility issues:
I had Debian/stable (‘Buster’) booting the 4.19.0 kernel with ethernet access. Then installed the 5.10 kernel from ‘backports’, because the Intel video driver is available from Linux 5.2.

So I think anything from Linux 5.2 should work.

16

My installed xen.efi is xen-4.8.5-29.fc25.efi , which is too old, I guess.

My xen.cfg contains kernel options:

  • i915.alpha_support=1
  • rhgb
  • quiet

Enabling i915.alpha_support is good, I guess.
rhgb and quiet are a bad idea if you want to know where it fails.

17

USB Network Interface Controller adapter is a basic USB ethernet card (like this). When I installed Qubes OS on my NUC10, the kernel was too old (4.8.5) and didn’t recognize my internal Intel network card. So I used an USB NIC for getting network access and update Qubes OS to a more recent kernel.

Yes it’s enough.

I use the default installed Qubes OS boot manager, efibootmgr.

And what about your BIOS settings? See the tdog’s report.
If useful I can report my BIOS settings.

18

My BIOS settings :

https://www.mail-archive.com/qubes-users@googlegroups.com/msg34852.html

19

Thanks for BIOS info, but . . . I cannot enable Legacy Boot (and I cannot disable UEFI).

I have a recent BIOS:

BIOS FNCML357.0050.2021.0303.2141 03/03/2021

Not sure whether I’ve missed something,
Well, it seems I am not the only one: NUC10 - can’t enable Legacy Boot ??

BTW, my NUC8i7HVK worked fine with UEFI (and Secure Boot disabled for Qubes-OS).

Hans

20

I’ve backported the relevant patch from Xen 4.14.1.

See On Intel chipsets from Skylake/ApolloLake (e.g. NUC10i3FNK)

. . . but the bad news is, in /var/log/Xorg.0.log I still get:

[    82.322] (EE) AIGLX error: Calling driver entry point failed
[    82.323] (EE) AIGLX: reverting to software rendering