Unable to connect to WiFi and use USB keyboard after Qubes OS install

User Support
1

Hello :wave:

Was able to successfully install Qubes OS as documented in this thread

During installation, I opted to use the built-in keyboard since one USB port was holding the Qubes OS image and the other was for my mouse (this made navigation of the installation menu easier)

Upon a first boot, when I clicked on the Network icon, I only see the Ethernet and VPN options. I tried searching on the forum but the guides I saw were referring to an older OS version and the affected hardware didn’t match what I have.

Also despite enabling the correct options for USB keyboard, the OS didn’t seem to detect its keystrokes, only those of the built-in keyboard.

Thanks in advance :pray:

2

Do you have sys-usb in your system?
What’s the output of this command in dom0 terminal?

lspci -nn

You can copy just the WiFi Network controller line.

3

Yes I do. I remember checking the box to enable USB keyboard and mouse. Not sure why it didn’t take effect :thinking: But for now it seems to work on a reboot of the computer. Not sure that it will work before I’ve logged in.

I’m typing this on mobile :upside_down_face: so manually writing it out

02:00 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Technologies, Inc QCNFA765 Wireless Network Adapter [17cb:1103] (rev 01)
4

Does it work now?
Just FYI, you can allow the USB keyboard/mouse in Qubes OS Global Settings → USB Devices.

It seems that this wireless controller is not working in Qubes OS:

5

So I’m going through the thread and my default template is Fedora (forgot the version number but I just kept the settings from the installer).

Let me try searching for the NIC and error messages for Fedora to see if that helps.

6

I think you’ll have the same issue with this wireless controller as other users reported on this forum.
The OP of the topic that I’ve linked tried the latest kernel and latest firmware and it still didn’t work.
I don’t know what else to try with it.
Maybe someone else can suggest something.

7

For me this returns both the Wireless Network Adapter and the Ethernet Controller so maybe going through the thread is worth trying.

8

You can try, maybe it was fixed in the newer kernel or firmware versions.
You can try to use kernel-latest/kernel-latest-qubes-vm from Qubes OS testing repository and the firmware from kernel.org.

9

So it looks like I can use USB tethering to my phone to get Internet as a temporary solution. From what I can see, enabling USB tethering on the phone allows the OS to pick up the connection as Wired Connection 1

However the sys-whonix qube doesn’t seem to pick it up. Is there a way to get it to do so?

10

Did you connect the USB device to sys-whonix directly or what do you mean?
In this default setup:
sys-net (with attached USB tethering device) ↔ sys-firewall ↔ sys-whonix
The sys-whonix should work if the Tor is not blocked by your ISP.

1 Like
11

Attached it to sys-net and wasn’t sure how the connection flow should work. It works now :relieved:

12

In what order should I try this?

I ran uname -a in the sys-net terminal and got the following:

$ uname -a
Linux personal 6.6.21-1.qubes.fc37.x86_64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Thu Mar  7 17:28:27 GMT 2024 x86_64 GNU/Linux

so although the template says Fedora 39, it seems the kernel itself is from Fedora 37? :thinking:

I found this thread which suggests that I could update the kernel and then be left with a system that I can’t unlock. How can I safely install kernel 6.8.9 in dom0? (I assume that sys-net will automatically pick it up once done)

13

Doesn’t matter.

Dom0 has fedora-37 and by default the qubes use the kernel provided by dom0.

You can install the latest kernel from testing repository like this:
sudo qubes-dom0-update --enablerepo=qubes-dom0-current-testing kernel-latest kernel-latest-qubes-vm
Since it’s a testing repository and not a stable one then something could break.