What are the big known gaps in 4.1 functionality vs 4.0 right now? Are there major things missing? If someone was putting it on a new (non critical) machine what would you warn are likely major issues?
I skimmed the GitHub issues (I skimmed all 300+) but they did not convey to me a sense of the overall state of things for an average user. Clearly one should expect some bugs and that things will change. But what are the big gaps in functionality?
Skimming this group it seems like there is a lot of change but some people seem (?) to maybe get all the basics going (network, touchpad, built in screen, usb, webcam, audio, etc). The main issue with using 4.1 seems to be it is churning a lot as it is an alpha. To be expected.
Context: Iām considering putting 4.1 on a new laptop, the make and model have a reputation for strong qubes and Linux compatibility, there is plenty of ram, and itās one of several machines I use so failures are not critical. I would bring over old qubes via a restore.
Anyway thanks for any tips of things to look out for. Iāll probably give it a try and see how install goes, and go back to 4.0 if it seems too glitchy for my skill level / usage patterns.
For me, R4.1 is perfectly working as far as Linux VMs are concerned. QWT, however, is still rather shaky, so Windows support, especially with respect to screen resolution / seamless mode, is rather restricted. Audio may work - which is not the case for R4.0.4 - but sounds rather scratchy.
Well the functionality is certainly there but boy is 4.1 ever slow.
Iām not going to complain about an alpha release I was warned against installing. Im just observing in case others are interested.
I had 4.0 on a 2017 2 core machine with 16gb ram. I now have two identical machines from 2020 with 4 cores and 32gb ram. Gen 5 to gen 8 on the Intel skus. I put 4.0 on one via ssd transplant, was very happy with the zippiness.
Putting 4.1 on the other, I will say, not only is it much slower to launch VMs, and outright fails to launch more than one or two at once if you attempt, it gets progressively slower (at everything, justā¦ running VMs) throughout the day, to the point I have been cursing a bit today. Lol. I know, I was warned.
Anyway hopefully the developers are aware of the performance situation, an artifact perhaps of early unoptimized code. I use 15-25 VMs routinely throughout the day and it seems the more I launch and close them the slower it gets. xentop has not helped much figuring out the culprit. I will try the dom0 xfce task manager a bit more often as dom0 does spike routinely.
Anyway like I said just an observation for others, not a complaint.
THANK YOU! So glad you took the time to write that. With one command line my system is flying.
I assume the thread you reference is this one:
ā¦where people have been working on this for years (and I benefit from it in an instant!).
That was definitely it as (per the thread) xenpm get-cpufreq-para was failing on all cores but worked after loading xen-acpi-processor. Vm launch issues are gone.
For anyone unaccustomed to loading kernel modules (like me), these are the commands:
This is common hardware (esp for Qubes) and worked fine on 4.0 so Iām not sure why it failed on 4.1. Maybe because I transplanted the 4.0 ssd from a different model machine into this model, it had been installed on a different model.
THANK YOU! So glad you took the time to write that. With one command line my system is flying.
Iām just happy that was the problem. I remember beating my head against that particular wall when I started using 4.1. Itās not particularly obvious.
Qubes OS version: R4.0 Affected component(s): intel_pstate acpi-cpufreq xenpm Steps to reproduce the behavior: Tested on: Lenovo T480s Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen. 6 Huawei Matebook X Pro. All with Intel i7-8550U. Latest BIOSā¦
C: Xen P: major T: bug hardware support needs-diagnosis
Thatās the one. For some reason itās in my outgoing email but got striped in the post.
This is common hardware (esp for Qubes) and worked fine on 4.0 so Iām not sure why it failed on 4.1. Maybe because I transplanted the 4.0 ssd from a different model machine into this model, it had been installed on a different model.
I think itās a 4.1 bug. I had it on a clean install on my machine.
I am running an R4.1 machine for a while now, without any severe issues. If you run it, I would recommend:
Before Updating critical components in Dom0:
Check if the changes may effect your particular setup,
check the changes in Qubes components, the Kernel and Xen on Github,
check Github issues and the forum for complaints of other users.
Be enogh familiar with different Linux distributions in general and Qubes in particular to fix or mitigate ālittle thingsā occasionally.
Do daily backups of VMs that are not completely unimportant to you. Have a ready-to-boot Qubes installer USB-Stick laying around, in case something goes completely sideways.
I initially moved to R4.1 because a piece of hardware that I wanted to use, was not supported yet. Since R4.0 was bumped to a newer kernel branch, I would be able to use it on that particular machine. But I guess I did move to R4.0, because I enjoy being a little more āon the edgeā. (And am lazy to move.)
Hi mash. For me, I was able to ascertain success with the command:
May require sudo: sudo xenpm get-cpufreq-para
The command showed my processor cores running at their designed regular speed (not the turbo boost). Previously, the command did not return any information on any of the cores.
sylentprofet