Using Qubes OS with ADB debugging (installing Lineage OS on phone)

General Discussion
1

I am having trouble getting Qubes OS to recognize the device. I tried with a few cables, ensured USB debugging was on, etc.

Qubes OS recognizes the phone, so I mount the phone to some VM (lets say the Debian 11 template) and try running commands in the terminal such as “adb reboot bootloader” (as well as trying with Odin) but it does not recognize the device.

I am using a Nord N200, I am also having trouble getting the phone itself to boot properly. I can get it to ask if I want to boot into recovery mode, but when I do it just reloads and asks again. Perhaps this is more my issue? I’m not sure, but I was afraid it was another VM thing causing me problems.

Sorry, I’m a first time linux user, and I’m less than a week into learning Qubes. I don’t understand fully how devices work, and I really need to learn how the storage systems work and such… if anyone has tips for any of this, I am just here to learn these things in general. Thanks!

2

To add on to this, I can seemingly get the device to show up when I run “fastboot devices”, it shows the correct Serial Number, but running “adb devices” shows nothing. I guess this may not be from Qubes then…

3

Currently there’s a problem that only the qube with the USB controller (that the phone connects to) attached to it can functionally interact with the phone. So you might want to run adb in sys-usb, or attach one of the usb controllers to your “some VM”.

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4

Thanks! I appreciate the information, despite the question’s ambiguity. I am going to try it here soon and report back for the record.

Regards,
Sly 0bvio

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5

As mentioned by @augsch , I also recommend using the USB VM directly; do not attach the phone to a secondary VM.

The couple of times that I’ve flashed Android phones, I created a clone of my sys-usb and used that directly (after shutting down my sys-usb qube).

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6

Would simply restarting sys-usb cover this particular paranoia–provided of course sys-usb is a disposable (as it is on my system)?

I’m looking to capture photographs taken with my phone…without having to shut it down and pull the micro-sd card, of course. But I’m willing to do that if needed. (Either way the photos would go to offline storage ultimately after passing through nothing but disposables.)

7

I, too, am wondering what the proper procedures are to avoid getting infected, tracked, or fingerprinted. I also don’t know exactly how to detect if something has happened, but I figure just the act of moving to Qubes OS and every security step I take from there will just further decrease the chances of a hack, which is the goal I guess. It’s a lot to learn! And now I learn I will have to get a Ham Radio license as well, so much to learn, ugh!

8

Yes, you get huge benefits just from moving to the default installation!

It’s early for you of couse, but eventually you might be able to make any template that touches the internet a disposable, then (as far as I know) you’ll be nearly bombproof.

9

Restarting the USB qube would be fine. I created a clone because I wanted a slightly more persistent qube with the adb tools and downloads.

10

Sounds to me like you wanted two different templates then, one a basic USB qube and one with the tools. But then, you can still run disposables off of them.

OR…I am completely misunderstanding you. :smiley:

11

No, you’re correct that I’d need a different template for the installed packages to persist.

Technically, the adb qube only persists:

  1. a shell script that downloads and installs the needed dependencies
  2. Some of the downloads (e.g. the images)
  3. Some signing keys

So, whenever I need the qube, I need to quickly update a few lines in the shell script. Then, I run the script to re-install a few of the packages (they’d be lost on qube reboot), but most of the other stuff would be setup by the script.

12

I am happy to report that using the SYS-USB VM worked fine, I am now setting up my OnePlus Nord N200 with Lineage OS and MicroG / Fdroid. Any other suggestion for mobile security?

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