New hardware Asus Zenbook UX8402ZE for installation of Qubes OS

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Thank you for instructions.

I let dom0 qube to generate HCL-report in untrusted qube and copy-pasted it in a new topic of HCL-report.

I have an out-of-place question: should I make the title of the topic bold by myself?

Thank you for the list of additional points to report.

Many of them applies and many of them wait for verification. I cannot add them in one reply.

The first issue was the installer of Qubes OS unable to remove volumes of the built-in drive.

I describe what I did for the installation.

  1. I burnt the installer of Qubes OS 4.3.1 to a USB-memory by balenaEtcher on macOS. This is my installer-USB. (This was actually done before Qubes OS 4.3.2 was released.) I used gpg of homebrew for verification of the ISO-image before burning the installer. The image was not corrupt.
  2. I made a Recovery USB of the PC, which is the target of installation of Qubes OS.
  3. I plugged in the installer-USB in the target PC.
  4. I used F2-button to call the screen of the settings (resembling BIOS set-up).
  5. I disabled “Secure boot”.
  6. I change the priority of the booting device.
  7. I used F10-button (save and exit) to proceed.
  8. The installer booted from installer-USB.
  9. I chose to verify the media and install USB. (Verification was successful.)
  10. I changed the settings of keyboard. (Initially, symbols were different from what are typed on the keyboard. This change was kept for the succeeding boot. I am curious about this behaviour.)
  11. I chose “btrfs” and “custom” and then automatic configuration for initialization of the built-in drive. (My intension was to keep three partitions which seems to be reserved for recovery tools.) I also chose to encrypt the volume.
  12. I chose to delete the largest volume in the next screen.
  13. I chose to install.
  14. The installer complained something about EFI-volume.
  15. After turning off the PC, I started the PC again.
  16. I rebooted from the installer USB. (I skipped verification of the media.)
  17. This time, I chose to delete EFI-volume, MSR-volume, main-volume (largest volume), chose btrfs and chose automatic configuration.
  18. The installer complained something. I think it was about failure on allocation of disk space.
  19. I repeated the installation procedure, by changing the volume type from btrfs to LUKS.
  20. In these trials, I always chose to encrypt the volume.
  21. I was curious about the initial action of the PC.
  22. I booted the PC again and disabled “Auto-install app service mechanism”. (This seems to be the updating system for OEM-recovery tools.)
  23. I rebooted from the installer-USB.
  24. I tried custom, deleting EFI-volume, MSR-volume and the main volume, then used automatic configuration. I also kept the checkmark of encryption.
  25. Again, the installer complained about the lack of space.
  26. I concluded the installer of Qubes OS 4.3.1 could not initialize the buitlt-in drive.
  27. I booted from the built-in drive and verified windows11 can still boot.
  28. I also verified the role of volumes by using “Disk Management”.
  29. The volumes are “EFI”, “MSR”, “BitLocker”, Main volume in BitLocker format, Microsoft Recovery, OEM Recovery. One last volume of ISO was not visible.
  30. I tried to boot from the installer-USB.
  31. Accidentally, I chose to verify the media and install Qubes OS.
  32. The verification failed. (Later I found a page of Qubes OS Forum, telling Windows write something to every USB. I realized I should have used USB-memory with write-protect notch. I forgot to save the page and I cannot access that page.)
  33. I tried installation but failed again.
  34. I burned the installer of Q4OS on the same USB-memory by balenaEtcher on macOS.
  35. I booted the target PC from the USB with the installer of Q4OS.
  36. I tried to erase just the largest volume of the built-in drive for installation. This did not work.
  37. I accepted erasing the entire built-in drive for installation.
  38. I booted from the built-in drive and verified Q4OS works normally.
  39. I burned the installer of Qubes OS 4.3.2 on the USB-memory, This is again the installer-USB.
  40. I booted from the installer-USB.
  41. I chose to delete all partitions except the ISO-volume. I chose “btrfs”, “encryption” and asked automatic configuration.
  42. The installation was successful.
  43. The initial screen appeared.
  44. I kept the settings (including Debian template on, Fedra template on, Whonix template on…).
  45. Initial set-up completed and the login screen appeared.
  46. I logged in.
  47. I checked the Xfce terminal and browser n work-template.
  48. Whonix template showed some message. (It seems the settings of WIFI was lost in process of the process of installation.
  49. It took very long before whonix gave up.

I often use computers off line. So, I am scared of possible slow start-up due to whonix template. I decided to reinstall qubes os. I decided to test Qubes OS without debian-template and whonix-template.

Two more issues so far are “Official document not mentioning Windows corrupt the USB-memory” and “Whonix template’s too much effort for connection while off-line use”.

This is already very long but I think the expert needs this record. So, I want a break now.