Hello!
I spotted something strange with Qubes OS. I think it is a bug, but I don’t have account with GitHub, so I will say it here for whoever interested in fixing it.
After installing a fresh copy of Qubes OS 4.1.1, going to System Tools, Desktop, selecting the Style “None” instead of the default “Zoomed”, and selecting a solid color of blue to mimic the color of old Windows desktop, things go well for a while.
But on a sunny day, after logged in, I was greeted with a red desktop!
And this keeps happening since then regularly, but not always. I have monitored it over a six month period, and I would say 50% of the time it works normally (seeing the blue desktop after login) and 50% of the time it does not (seeing the red desktop after login).
I found out that the desktop settings are stored in file xfce4-desktop.xml, and here is its contents
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<channel name="xfce4-desktop" version="1.0">
<property name="desktop-icons" type="empty">
<property name="icon-size" type="empty"/>
<property name="file-icons" type="empty">
<property name="show-home" type="empty"/>
<property name="show-filesystem" type="empty"/>
<property name="show-trash" type="empty"/>
<property name="show-removable" type="empty"/>
</property>
</property>
<property name="backdrop" type="empty">
<property name="screen0" type="empty">
<property name="monitorLVDS-1" type="empty">
<property name="workspace0" type="empty">
<property name="color-style" type="int" value="0"/>
<property name="image-style" type="int" value="0"/>
<property name="last-image" type="string" value="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/default.png"/>
<property name="rgba1" type="array">
<value type="double" value="0.227451"/>
<value type="double" value="0.431373"/>
<value type="double" value="0.647059"/>
<value type="double" value="1.000000"/>
</property>
</property>
<property name="workspace1" type="empty">
<property name="color-style" type="int" value="0"/>
<property name="image-style" type="int" value="5"/>
<property name="last-image" type="string" value="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/default.png"/>
</property>
<property name="workspace2" type="empty">
<property name="color-style" type="int" value="0"/>
<property name="image-style" type="int" value="5"/>
<property name="last-image" type="string" value="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/default.png"/>
</property>
<property name="workspace3" type="empty">
<property name="color-style" type="int" value="0"/>
<property name="image-style" type="int" value="5"/>
<property name="last-image" type="string" value="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/default.png"/>
</property>
</property>
<property name="monitorLVDS-2" type="empty">
<property name="workspace0" type="empty">
<property name="color-style" type="int" value="0"/>
<property name="image-style" type="int" value="0"/>
<property name="last-image" type="string" value="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/default.png"/>
<property name="rgba1" type="array">
<value type="double" value="0.883333"/>
<value type="double" value="0.306222"/>
<value type="double" value="0.306222"/>
<value type="double" value="1.000000"/>
</property>
</property>
</property>
</property>
</property>
<property name="last" type="empty">
<property name="window-width" type="int" value="801"/>
<property name="window-height" type="int" value="650"/>
</property>
</channel>
The interesting part here is the section containing “monitorLVDS-2” with the color values:
<value type="double" value="0.883333"/>
<value type="double" value="0.306222"/>
<value type="double" value="0.306222"/>
<value type="double" value="1.000000"/>
That is the color of the red desktop, and of course I never, ever, setup that. That somehow entered my system on its own without me changing anything. It is annoying if not alarming.
I confirmed this “bug” by installing Qubes OS 4.1.2 on the same machine, but using a different hard drive. Right after installing, I immediately took a copy of the said XML file, and it looked like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<channel name="xfce4-desktop" version="1.0">
<property name="desktop-icons" type="empty">
<property name="icon-size" type="empty"/>
<property name="file-icons" type="empty">
<property name="show-home" type="empty"/>
<property name="show-filesystem" type="empty"/>
<property name="show-trash" type="empty"/>
<property name="show-removable" type="empty"/>
</property>
</property>
<property name="backdrop" type="empty">
<property name="screen0" type="empty">
<property name="monitorLVDS-1" type="empty">
<property name="workspace0" type="empty">
<property name="color-style" type="int" value="0"/>
<property name="image-style" type="int" value="5"/>
<property name="last-image" type="string" value="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/default.png"/>
</property>
<property name="workspace1" type="empty">
<property name="color-style" type="int" value="0"/>
<property name="image-style" type="int" value="5"/>
<property name="last-image" type="string" value="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/default.png"/>
</property>
<property name="workspace2" type="empty">
<property name="color-style" type="int" value="0"/>
<property name="image-style" type="int" value="5"/>
<property name="last-image" type="string" value="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/default.png"/>
</property>
<property name="workspace3" type="empty">
<property name="color-style" type="int" value="0"/>
<property name="image-style" type="int" value="5"/>
<property name="last-image" type="string" value="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/default.png"/>
</property>
</property>
</property>
</property>
</channel>
You can notive that there is no “monitorLVDS-2” section in the initial XML file.
Then I went on and changed the desktop color to solid blue. Not supprisingly, on the third day of using new Qubes OS, after logged in, I was greeted by the default gray desktop with the Q logo!
Now the XML looks like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<channel name="xfce4-desktop" version="1.0">
<property name="desktop-icons" type="empty">
<property name="icon-size" type="empty"/>
<property name="file-icons" type="empty">
<property name="show-home" type="empty"/>
<property name="show-filesystem" type="empty"/>
<property name="show-trash" type="empty"/>
<property name="show-removable" type="empty"/>
</property>
</property>
<property name="backdrop" type="empty">
<property name="screen0" type="empty">
<property name="monitorLVDS-1" type="empty">
<property name="workspace0" type="empty">
<property name="color-style" type="int" value="0"/>
<property name="image-style" type="int" value="0"/>
<property name="last-image" type="string" value="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/default.png"/>
<property name="rgba1" type="array">
<value type="double" value="0.227451"/>
<value type="double" value="0.431373"/>
<value type="double" value="0.647059"/>
<value type="double" value="1.000000"/>
</property>
</property>
<property name="workspace1" type="empty">
<property name="color-style" type="int" value="0"/>
<property name="image-style" type="int" value="5"/>
<property name="last-image" type="string" value="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/default.png"/>
</property>
<property name="workspace2" type="empty">
<property name="color-style" type="int" value="0"/>
<property name="image-style" type="int" value="5"/>
<property name="last-image" type="string" value="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/default.png"/>
</property>
<property name="workspace3" type="empty">
<property name="color-style" type="int" value="0"/>
<property name="image-style" type="int" value="5"/>
<property name="last-image" type="string" value="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/default.png"/>
</property>
</property>
<property name="monitorLVDS-2" type="empty">
<property name="workspace0" type="empty">
<property name="color-style" type="int" value="0"/>
<property name="image-style" type="int" value="5"/>
<property name="last-image" type="string" value="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/default.png"/>
</property>
</property>
</property>
</property>
<property name="last" type="empty">
<property name="window-width" type="int" value="801"/>
<property name="window-height" type="int" value="650"/>
</property>
</channel>
And you can see that the “monitorLVDS-2” section has been created.
I don’t have 2 monitors. There are 2 graphics card in the computer: one is the built-in Intel Graphics and the other is a NVIDIA discrete card. I did not activate sys-gui in Qubes OS, never.
So my questions to the forum is: Can anyone explain what is going on here? Do you have the same issue? Has my dom0 been compromised?
And to Qubes developers: If the above is the result of dom0 being compromised, it is very serious and needs further investigating that I am not capable of. If it is just a simple malfunction of Qubes itself, can you fix?
Thanks