I was thinking, and was trying to determine what my perfect ideal hardware would be for a computer to run QubesOS. I was surprised to find almost no options would fit my requirements
The perfect computer to run QubesOS (for me) would be one that has the following:
• QubesOS compatibility
• Ability to disable Intel Management engine (me_cleaner or simply disabling)
• Dedicated GPU to do GPU passthrough (dedicated port for GPU if laptop)
• Modern-ish hardware
Nice to haves would include:
• Potential high ram upgrade
• Smaller size
• Open source firmware/bios
• Trackpoint (if laptop)
To my surprise, there are no laptops/desktops that I have found which can fit the first requirements. The closest thing I could find would be Purism, but Purism’s laptops do not have dedicated GPUs. The closest thing I could find would be a corebooted thinkpad x230, using a dedicated GPU as seen here however it is very old hardware and will probably be slow to use.
Another solution to meet these requirements would be a custom built computer using the Z690-A motherboard, since this has recently been upstreamed to coreboot however this wouldn’t work well for people who need to move their computer around a lot, since it would be a huge build.
Does anyone know of any extra ideas to fulfill these requirements? I would love somebodies input on my thought process.
Not a lot of laptops can do GPU pass-through. Most laptops that have both internal graphics and GPU have both display devices hard-wired to the same outputs, and they can’t be used at the same time.
You can look for a laptop with optimus hardware, as far as I know it’s your only option if you want to do GPU pass-through on a laptop. Even if you find a laptop that is physically able to do pass-through, it also needs to be supported by qubes.
Once you have checked all the boxes, you end up with a short list.
Even if you get it working, you would still need to carry around a second monitor to do the GPU pass-through.
My computer has all of these requirements. It’s an specked out version of the certified FidelisGuard, but with some higher specs. See this other discussion:
I detail here some of my experiences setting up GPU passthrough
If I may briefly weigh in with a question and thank you very much for the stimulating discussion so far: I recently ordered a laptop from Eurocom with the following configurations, hoping to get GPU passthrough on the marvel. Now I am wondering if this would work as I will have an Intel iGPU and a dedicated NVIDIA one. (I insisted on the MXM module, that’s why only RTX3080).