What would you like to see improved in Qubes OS?

General Discussion
1

Hello,

What are the things you would like to see improved in Qubes OS? It’s not that I’m going to implement them, but I’d be curious to know what drives the users, and what is important to them.

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I’ll start :slight_smile:

  • easy GPU acceleration (would be ever better if this could work without a dedicated GPU, if possible)
  • simpler templates upgrades (from fedora-37 to fedora-38 for instance)
  • notifications shouldn’t steal focus, this is annoying :frowning:
  • more colors for VMs :smiley:
  • a dom0 right-click option in thunar to send a file to a Qube
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  • Working keyboard layout switching, like it was in R4.0.

  • Suspend working properly, at least on S3 with modern laptops that work flawlessly with *ubuntu. Support of S0ix would also save the day for laptop users.

  • Secure GPU acceleration. it is probably planned in some distant future (saw on github) but is definitely not easy to implemented.

  • Working sys-audio out of the box. Unlike sys-gui it is not that much about security but more about finally allowing Qubes OS users to use Bluetooth headphones.

  • Move back to KDE from XFCE in dom0 as a more suitable, more stable and more flexible DE.

  • Improve the usage of Windows qubes to the level up to VirtualBox, it would be amazing. A lot of work has been done with QWT in last 1-2 years, and I really appreciate it, but some things like arbitrary resolutions and hardware acceleration are still not possible. Alt+Tab is also not working properly.

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There is an error with the icons in the taskbar that has existed for a long time. The wrong icon will show and the correct icon will overlay on top of the wrong icon. It is not frequent but it is frustrating.

There should be an automatic way to transfer things in between isolated machines. If I want to try out PopOS in an isolated VM I should be able to transfer things in and out without having to spend hours searching for scripts or attaching physical device. I should also be able to cut and paste inside isolated machines.

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You can transfer files with shared virtual drive (loop device). It takes 3 commands to run in any qube: create big file, make filesystem inside it, losetup it and now you can connect it to any qube as a storage drive, disconnect and connect to another one and etc. No physical drive is required.

About clipboard working inside VM that has no scripts of Qubes OS in it - how would you expected it to be working at all? Virtualbox also requires extensions software to be installed into guest system to make clipboard work.

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Keyboard layout switch is a mess causing massive lags.
Ten years old 3.5GB RAM patch not working

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I’d like to see an ISO option that doesn’t force a certain desktop environment on the user. Letting the user untick XFCE4 with a warning message would be enough.

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Is this documented somewhere? :open_mouth: seems super useful

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Do not know, maybe. I can provide full information including per-command guide, if is really that useful and needed. I am using this approach with Win10 qube all the time.

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Could you write a simple guide in the category “Community Guides”? That would be really useful for many. I’d be happy to proof check your guide to be sure people could reuse it :+1:

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Is this what you think of?

Although I’m not sure what “isolated VM” hasn’t that “non-isolated” already have, except netVM…

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It’s not officially included into Qubes OS, I thought so from your message. Thanks for sharing though, it’s still useful :heart:

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What would sven say:

Wow, that’s like wearing a mask and then making a big fat hole where the nose is to make breathing more convenient.

and then indeed

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The ability to attach a dvd burner to a vm. I am on a desktop computer and nobody else has physical access to my Qubes installation.

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An USB DVD burner may work using sys-usb? :thinking:

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  • GPU acceleration (for Windows qubes too)
  • Memory encryption (and other relevant anti-“spectre”-like measures)
  • Inter-VM file moving which does not rewrite the same amount of data just in a different place (thus wearing SSDs)
  • Option for installation based on minimal templates
  • Option for entirely-in-RAM DispVMs
  • Option to easily (and actually) disable swapping of VM memory for a qube (given enough physical RAM is available)
  • Network monitor panel applet
  • Easier handling of HiDPI displays (and multi-screen multi-DPI setups)
  • Good incremental backup with advanced features (like Bacula)
  • Better documentation (so one can also learn advanced stuff without having to bother others on the forum)
  • No AI. Ever. :slight_smile:
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24 posts were split to a new topic: Backup strategies for Qubes OS

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just a little thing:
In Qube Manager, right click a qube, and have an option to ‘launch terminal in qube’. It just seems like an oversight that its not there.

bigger thing:
a ‘wizard’ or something to simplify the setup of VPNs. One trusted, universal method in one little wizard (or, one for wireguard and one for OpenVPN). But that may not be possible due to, e.g. variations between VPN providers, I guess.

medium-size thing:
drag and drop files between qubes.

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Two more things:

  • phones should easily and reliably connect to qubes. Right now, they usually don’t, in my experience.
  • better video would be nice.
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medium-size thing:
drag and drop files between qubes.

I have thought about this too but it can be quite dangerous without proper protections/warnings/confirmations.

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