Librem Server v2 with Qubes

General Discussion
1

Does anyone have experience using Librem Server v2 with Qubes 4.2? If so, did Qubes install correctly? What is your impression/experience with using this combination and how does it differ from Librem 14 with Qubes 4.2?

2

I haven’t got the spare cash to be able to afford one of those bad boys, unfortunately…

I have installed Qubes OS onto an HPE Proliant G8, and whilst the fan noise on that thing drove me insane, it functioned as expected. HPE crammed all sorts of proprietary hardware into that thing, which meant that sys-net and dom0 had to have a whole bunch of extra firmware and drivers installed into it to get everything to work fully; but it worked as expected.

Qubes OS also does seem to work very well on hardware with multiple CPUs :sunglasses:

Would it be different to installing Qubes OS onto a Librem 14?

In terms of the steps you’d have to follow to install it? Not at all. It’d be the same as installing on any machine. Boot from USB, follow installer, reboot, done.

In terms of whether all the hardware would function properly on Qubes OS? Possibly. It depends on the hardware makeup of the Librem Server v2. Like every machine, it all depends on the hardware of the board, and how they’re all connected together. Once you know that, you’d be able to make sure the software knows where everything is, and how to interact with it properly.

If anyone has access to a Librem Server v2, we’d love to have an entry in the HCL for it :slight_smile:

But it goes back to the age-old question of servers vs. clients, and their intended use cases.

Qubes OS is specifically designed to not allow incoming connections by default, let alone advertise them on a network. Whereas, this is more or less the main function of your average server.

Qubes OS has layer upon layer of obfuscation to not only ensure that only invited connections get let in, but that also if anything nasty gets in, it is not able to get out of wherever it is let into. I suppose you could say that this is what a good server should also do, but a server will generally not refuse unsolicited connections by default.

Massive respect if you plan to use a rackmount server like a workstation. That’s pretty hardcore :slight_smile:

But I’d assume you’d want to use it as something like a hypervisor server, stacking VMs on top of each other. If this is the case, stock xcp-ng would be better suited to your needs (and honestly, would probably give you a lot less headaches, too).

If I’m wrong, and your intention is to use it for something else, please correct me. I’m also a little curious what yo’d want to use a Qubes OS install on a rackmount server for :slight_smile:

But, if you still want to install Qubes OS on one of those, I say go for it.

3

I’ve just had a look at the hardware specs for the Librem Server v2.

Link:

A few things to note about what they say:

  • Purism doesn’t actually specify the CPU. They say that the CPU is an Intel i7 LGA1151 socket CPU, which narrows it down to one of the following:
Model Name Core Count Thread Count Base Clock Turbo Clock L2 Cache L3 Cache TDP
i7-6700 4 8 3.4 GHz 4 GHz 1024 kb 8192 kb 65 W
i7-6700K 4 8 4 GHz 4.2 GHz 1024 kb 8192 kb 91 W
i7-6700T 4 8 2.8 GHz 3.6 GHz 1024 kb 8192 kb 35 W
i7-6700TE 4 8 2.4 GHz 3.4 GHz 1024 kb 8192 kb 35 W
i7-7700 4 8 3.6 GHz 4.2 GHz 1024 kb 8192 kb 65 W
i7-7700K 4 8 4.2 GHz 4.5 GHz 1024 kb 8192 kb 91 W
i7-7700T 4 8 2.9 GHz 3.8 GHz 1024 kb 8192 kb 35 W
i7-8086K 6 12 4 GHz 5 GHz 1536 kb 12288 kb 95 W
i7-8700 6 12 3.2 GHz 4.6 GHz 1536 kb 12288 kb 65 W
i7-8700K 6 12 3.7 GHz 4.7 GHz 1536 kb 12288 kb 95 W
i7-8700T 6 12 2.4 GHz 4 GHz 1536 kb 12288 kb 35 W
i7-9700 8 8 3 GHz 4.7 GHz 2048 kb 12288 kb 65 W
i7-9700E 8 8 2.6 GHz 4.4 GHz 2048 kb 12288 kb 65 W
i7-9700F 8 8 3 GHz 4.7 GHz 2048 kb 12288 kb 65 W
i7-9700K 8 8 3.6 GHz 4.9 GHz 2048 kb 12288 kb 65 W
i7-9700KF 8 8 3.6 GHz 4.9 GHz 2048 kb 12288 kb 95 W
i7-9700T 8 8 2 GHz 4.3 GHz 2048 kb 12288 kb 35 W
i7-9700TE 8 8 1.8 GHz 3.8 GHz 2048 kb 12288 kb 35 W

Yes, it’s highly unlikely that most of these would be used by Purism, but I put them in there for comparison.

In comparison, the Librem 14 uses:

Model Name Core Count Thread Count Base Clock Turbo Clock L2 Cache L3 Cache TDP
i7-10710U 6 12 1.1 GHz 4.7 GHz 1536 kb 12288 kb 15 W

Shouldn’t be much difference here. Xen and Linux know how to drive all of these CPUs pretty well.

  • Networking is the Intel i210 and Realtek RTL8211E, which both have full Linux support, and seem to be ok being passed through to a VM, and won’t crash the machine
    • For comparison, there are some components that most definitely do not like being passed through to a VM… :frowning:
  • The rest of the hardware seems fine to run Qubes OS on.

If I have said anything inaccurate, please correct me :slight_smile: