Just recommend me a laptop that works flawless with the latest Qubes?

Hello there! As the title says. make it short and easy. Everything i found on the HCL and threads is pretty outdated. Looking for something to buy that work straight out of the box with max compatibility. With my previous laptops, i always had to deal with some tradeoffs and this time around i want it all to work flawlessly.

Please only recommend laptops you are using yourself or you know for certain that they are fully compatible, thanks.

PS: Please also dont recommend anything on the certified hardware list, its a pain to buy these and shipping times are horrible for me. If they are even available anymore in the first place.
PPS: Please dont recommend older machines, i am looking to buy brand new modern one

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Thinkpad T480 or similar. Work flawlessly. Even suspend. Can get on ebay for $200

Edit: didn’t see multiple PS

You are going to have a harder time with new machine. Go with Intel over amd

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It doesnt have to be like a cutting edge edge new released laptop but not something overly old like those old thinkpads.

Really? Intel over AMD? I was thinking i should pick AMD over intel especially when it comes to gpus.

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Intel CPU over amd CPU for compatibility. I think AMD GPU are more compatible over Nvidia.

Take a look at the HCL for newer T14. Usually seems to be something that doesn’t work (wifi card, suspend, needs a tweak to get working). It depends if you want everything to work or can handle if suspend doesn’t.

An example. Not sure if it’s the machine or the me disable that makes tweaking necessary

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I also read (although not overly through) that lenovo is generally very comptiable? Anyone got some info on that, preferably with some models?

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I still can’t get Qubes OS to work on my Lenovo T14 Gen 3 (with AMD CPU) … so for now I’ll advise against it … :-/

:slight_smile:

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See also:

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Just recommend me a laptop that works flawless with the latest Qubes?

vs.

:thinking:

Anyways, I would say if you are in the US go for Purism, if you are in the EU check out Novacustom.

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You seem to have some knowledge about what you are doing, and therefore what you want.

For those beginners with Qubes, not matter how experienced they are with are with Linux.

I would start by asking several questions.

What is your threat level? Separating out several groups.

Are you trying to avoid getting inundated with advertising?

Which I translate to mean. I don’t mind if those around me know I am shopping for specialized hardware to run Qubes. I feel I am open to others, ISP, those around me knowing I am using Qubes.

Do you have a bit of money, and want to avoid having someone use malware to take money, financial opportunities, information away from you?

Same on your personal safety concerns as before.

Do you want to use Qubes with your company.

I translate to add, you want powerful speedy hardware, as you need to accomplish things quickly. Might indicate you would prefer a tower, as you don’t mind using it from an office location. and the dollar cost is less an issue.

Some who come here. Price is a big factor.
Some are like college students. Some are trying to take Qubes out like, I am thinking of this. but I can’t -directly- start using Qubes for all my online computer things. It i s a minor tryout, I don’t want to spend a lot of my time trying to adapt to a hardware. Or learning stuff. Some of this I think comes from; “I tried Qubes on a computer I already had, and, 'Oh my goodness it was a lot of trouble with the hardware I tried it on was not really compatible. I don’t have the time to read through all the documentation to figure out these not very clear error messages the Installer gives out.”

Maybe the person thinking of using Qubes is trying to escape the interference in their lives of a significant other, who might plant spyware. or former business connection (partner, business rival-opponent). Which of course, you can’t let them actually have access to your physical computer.

If person asking the question is like a Journalist/Lawyer/Human Rights worker. I feel you assume the “Threat level” of the people you might work with. If only they contact you while thinking you do something for those whose lives/health are at extreme risk.

For a lot of newbies, we would answer the question, which computer I want to buy.

It is about “Threat Level.” which is about what they want to accomplish.
Money. How much money they have to spend? Availability, perhaps buying surreptitiously (anonymously) even a rich person in some countries would not want to directly order a computer model mostly linked to Qubes.
Consider: How they are going to connect to the internet? Availability, Risks in that, for them?

The answers one would give to your question, assumes the OP has already, or can go resolve these questions for themselves.

I think some of those answering to the OP, are actually thinking of their own life situations, not the OP. Then again, it my post does not directly answer the question, which is not good forum conduct. but I do it in a “Preponderance of Caution.”

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Clear and explicit request.

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i have a normie lenovo gaming laptop (2022) and it runs very well. Havent gotten gpu passthrough to work yet. There are some weird quarks like waking up from sleep, the screen wont turn on if on discrete gpu mode. Using monitors always require some tinkering on boot. But overall, i am very satisfied with my machine

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I felt some coming across this thread, might be complete newcomers, and they needed to be warned about their threat level. What I meant to refer to in terms of some are thinking of their situations.

I meant their threat level, and therefore which precautions they felt needed. to get online with Qubes. I felt that a complete new comer, who is at some kind of level of threat. that the suggestions of hardware, how to acquire it. how to modify it, must be based upon the threat level.

Also, like I said about a Journalist, they should act upon the threat level of a person in the worst circumstances. Or a Social Worker who works with battered spouses.

Not actually a good reply to the OP. But Qubes can offer better security for a difficult world.

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We have similar goals to buy a laptop for qubes os. I don’t want second hand used and I want to pay with cash. Most users here buy online from qubes-certified laptops or buy old used second hand laptops.

I have put a lot of work into making a list of all possible laptops and it was filtered down to 2 that seem ok. They are not on HCL but the cpus are on HCL and has mixed results, sometimes problems and sometimes no problems.

My plan is to just buy one of those laptops and gamble. If it works with qubesos then great, otherwise I’ll just have to use another linux distro instead with qemu/kvm and configure it to have a similar UX as qubes os as possible. I think I’ll make the puchase next week because i want to prepare a bit more first.

Security and privacy are coupled a lot of the time so I think qubes os also gives privacy not only security. I also don’t understand your point exactly. Do you mean some people don’t need qubes os? That it is unnecessary amount of security and privacy for most people? That most people shouldn’t use qubes os?

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Dell XPS 9570 with i7. Installation works out of the box including Wifi, W10 templates and VMs, Suspend, multi monitor, Bluetooth mouse (I know I know) and even Dell port expander. Swapped one 8G ram for a 32G for a total of 40G of Ram though and have usually anything between 5-8 VMs open without the slightest problem. I seperate everything. 500G disk is plenty for what I do (surfin, email, Crypto, Open Office, Teams for job, ecommerce. Can’t get BT audio to work but that’s probably bcs I’m a noob and don’t have the energy to attend to it.
I also have a 9510 which is newer, but th 9570 has a HDMI port which I prefer for watching movies on a large screen TV, that’s why I decided to use 9570 for Qubes. Could even still get a new original Dell battery for it and it’s a very fine secure machine now.

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I recommend you also do some research and preparation before you buy a laptop. They are expensive and it would be very sad to buy a useless laptop. I have been researching for weeks now and the list of potential computers keep getting smaller.

It’s not only about the specs on the computer, it’s also about who the OEM is. Some OEM like samsung will not give you any choices in their bios. You can’t switch to legacy bios and you can’t disable hyper-threading and you can’t toggle on/off virtualization but the last one doesn’t matter I guess. When it comes to their bios it’s more about what can you even do in the bios because there is almost nothing you can do there. So samsung is probably the worst OEM of them all. It takes a lot of work to do this kind of research because the vendors themselves don’t make this info available. You have to search what their customers are saying online.

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Tiger Lake and beyond may require some patience while the S0ix kinks are worked out. I’m now in the habit of powering down my machine instead of using suspend.

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The 13" framework with the 12th gen intel cpu works well in qubes; wifi, sound, s3 suspend, hdmi output work great. I use it every day.

They don’t sell them assembled anymore but you can buy them new from the shop. You’ll have to buy the mainboard, laptop shell, wifi card, and memory separately and do some very simple assembly.

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Create an HCL report:

Last working Qubes OS version referenced in both available HCL reports was 4.1.

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:thinking:


This is the first time SNACK has posted — let’s welcome them to our community!

Welcome and hello there SNACK.

Sorry to read. Short and easy would be great. Post discoveries please.

Also would like to find max compatibility without tradeoffs :wink: and of course work flawlessly.

Would be happy to but…

and

make that not possible for @Confused .

Interested in what you discover. Please post HCL if you find a gem.
Curious too if you follow whoami’s advice

or pit’s


Is there a clear answer I missed? Thanks!

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@SNACK requested recommendations for laptops currently being used and/or fully compatible with Qubes OS with absolute certainty, so I referenced the Librem 14 and its respective HCL report from me.