When attempting to install Qubes, I get a black screen with the text: error out of memory

User Support General
1

This is the first time I try to install qubes. I’ve been following the tutorial here How to install QUBES OS on a PC - YouTube
Got my pen drive set with Rufus. Reboot, choose the last option to install with kernel, and I get a black screen only containing the error: out of memory. I have 64gb of memory I think that’s enough according to the specs.

I re-wrote the USB, changed ports, tried different install options…nothing.

Can’t find any similar issues online.

This is my system:

ROG Z790 HERO Maximus
68gbRAM
4TB SSD
13th gen intel core i-9-13900K
RTX4090

Any ideas? Let me know if you need more info.

TY

Oh! I want to install the OS on a partition of 1tb. Don’t know if that matters, I have not even reached that point yet.

2

Hi dwpk20 – and welcome to the forum & Qubes! :slight_smile:

RTX4090 - that’s a Nvidia card .. so did you try to blacklist the Nvidia driver? Eg. hitting edit when you have highlighted the “Install Qubes” line and navigating to quiet and replacing quiet with:

nouveau.modeset=0 rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau video=vesa:off

in the kernel line of GRUB entry? :slight_smile:

:slight_smile:

3

Thanks for replying! IT did not work.

Anyway after a bit of research it seems none of my components are compatible for a Qubes installation. So I am screwed. :slight_smile:

TY anyway!

4

Don’t give up so soon. What exactly is not compatible?

Also nice GPU :stuck_out_tongue: You could use it to run a nice LLM in Qubes.

5

OK, here it is according to Copilot:

:cross_mark: ASUS Z790 Maximus Hero

This board is known to break Xen because:

  • Intel Z790 firmware uses non‑standard ACPI tables

  • IOMMU grouping is incomplete

  • PCIe memory regions are mapped in a way Xen cannot reserve

  • “Above 4G decoding” is present but not fully compliant

  • The board is designed for high‑end gaming, not virtualization

Z790 boards in general are notoriously incompatible with Qubes.
The Maximus line is even worse because ASUS adds extra ACPI layers.

This alone can trigger:

error: out of memory
during Xen boot.

:cross_mark: Intel i9‑13900K (Raptor Lake)

The CPU does support VT‑d, but:

  • Raptor Lake has unstable IOMMU behavior under Xen

  • Intel changed memory‑mapping behavior in 12th/13th gen

  • Qubes 4.2’s Xen version does not fully support Raptor Lake

Many users with 12th/13th gen Intel CPUs cannot boot Qubes at all.

This is your second major incompatibility.

:cross_mark: NVIDIA RTX 4090

This is the final nail in the coffin.

The RTX 4090:

  • Requires GPU firmware Qubes does not ship

  • Uses huge BAR memory regions that Xen cannot map

  • Has no stable passthrough support under Xen

  • Causes early boot crashes on Qubes 4.1 and 4.2

  • Is completely unsupported by Qubes developers

The 4090 alone can cause:

error: out of memory
because Xen cannot allocate the GPU’s memory region.

Even if your motherboard and CPU were perfect, the 4090 would still kill Qubes.

6

Board is known to break xen: that is sad to hear :frowning: New board maybe?

I’m running on a 13900H right now (laptop though) without any issues, but this really isn’t my field of expertise..

If you board has a onboard gpu, then plug your screen into this one, not the 4090 GPU (i’m a bit jealous). You can still use the GPU, its just hacky to get it to work - for example to run LLMs, or if you attach a second monitor even for gaming with a dedicated gpu qube (but this is hacky / will take some effort).

Btw I’m gaming VERY rarely on Qubes using geforce now, which runs lovely on qubes without any issues at all (for me). All you need is a second mouse, bcs the “primary” mouse is used in dom0 and you have to pass the second one to the gaming Qube. Acceptable imho.

7

Hi dwpk20

I don’t really trust things from Copilot/ChatGPT/… - they generate rows of letters that form words/sentences .. but I wouldn’t trust them with a sudo or similar.

Eg. the sentence “Qubes 4.2’s Xen version does not fully support Raptor” vs. Qubes OS 4.2 has reached end of life | Qubes OS – the current version of Qubes OS is 4.3.1 (with a newer version of Xen) ..

Did you try installing with “kernel latest” and blacklisting the Nvidia module?

:slight_smile:

8

You need to give chatgpt to hermes and run it in its own vm. I can recommend that, it saves a TON of time and fucks up rarely :stuck_out_tongue: xD

Did you try installing with “kernel latest” and blacklisting the Nvidia module?

+1, thats often a thing. Don’t give up @dwpk20 , there is OFTEN a way to still get qubes running. Send us pictures from your phone on where it hangs, we might find a way.

9

Hi @dwpk20 ,

It would be great if you could tell Copilot to provide links to forum/blog/whatever for each of its claims.

It all sounds invented, but it could help to have some more info. I hunted a bit, but no success.

While I found nothing about xen + maximus, I did spot a suggestion to decrease the memory allocated to the Intel GPU in the BIOS/Setup… The “out of memory” error is odd, and sounds like it should have a simple solution.

Also, for desktop PC, it can be simpler to remove the Nvidia or other add-on GPU, for installation and first updates. It avoids a lot of messing with driver blacklisting.

10

I encountered the same problem. I was unable to install version 4.3.1, but version 4.3 installed without any issues. After all the updates, you should be getting the same software configuration.

11

I only briefly scanned this output because it immediately gave me a mental allergic reaction but from what I saw, it is confident-sounding bullshit. Maybe parts of it are accurate? Do not trust it, without citations. (Citation that actually back the statements)

12

Even when I could believe this Copilot BS, which I could bet is BS, I would say: classic example of buying hardware before deciding to use Qubes OS. Especially when there are essentially 2 components to check before this: CPU and MB. Anything else is fixable. Those two are not.

And then directly or indirectly, putting the blame on Qubes.

13

I don’t see anything wrong with testing to see if Qubes OS runs on hardware you already own.

14

Of course. I apologize. That statement was general, based on experience so far. It was never insinuated on this topic.

15

Sir, have you solved this problem?

16

Please notice that @Another1 say they found a workaround:

Thank you, @Another1.

@quber2025, @dwpk20 : please tell us if it works for you!

@Another1 , @quber2025 - answer is not required, but it can help others if you can tell - Do you have same motherboards as @dwpk20 :

or same CPU?

17

Asus-z790, intel-13900K,TRX4090

18

What is your computer configuration? Are they the same motherboard, chip and graphics card?
my computer ：Asus-z790, intel-13900K,TRX4090

but I try qubes4.3，the same problem @Another1 @phceac @dwpk20

19

OK, it sounds like the Z790 chipset is involved. A quick search for “fedora installation problems z790” on duckduckgo give this:

Try the solution they found…

Requirement of UEFI boot is quite common problem on modern motherboards.