COMP 3000 2011 Report: Qubes beta 2
Part 1
Background
Quebes is a very new Operating System based off the Linux OS combined with the Xen Hypervisor and X Windows System GUI aimed primarily at people dealing with confidential information but also anybody who is concerned about their computer security. The first beta was released on Apr 11, 2011 and the 2nd beta was released on Sep 19, 2011. It is actively being developed by Invisible Things Lab and it can be downloaded from here weighing in at a hefty 1.59gb for the install dvd.
This OS is designed with the primary goal of being secure. It employs a highly unique and interesting technique to achieve this; it runs some of the system components in a virtual machine and it runs user applications in separate user defined virtual machines. This theoretically isolates applications and their memory contents. This makes it such that if one application misbehaves or is maliciously exploited it is unlikely to have an effect on other applications in a separate VM or the running system.
One of the truly revolutionary parts of this platform is the way that the GUI integrates the multiple VMs in order to make it as seamless as possible for the user to manage. The other majorly revolutionary part of this platform is the fact that it sandboxes parts of the system like networking for extra security.
'Hardware Requirements
Minimum:
4GB of RAM 64-bit Intel or AMD processor (x86_64 aka x64 aka AMD64)
Intel GPU strongly preferred (if you have Nvidia GPU, prepare for some troubleshooting; we haven't tested ATI hardware)
10GB of disk (Note that it is possible to install Qubes on an external USB disk, so that you can try it without sacrificing your current system. Mind, however, that USB disks are usually SLOW!)
Fat SSD disk strongly recommended
Additional criteria
Intel VT-d or AMD IOMMU technology (this is needed for effective isolation of your network VMs)
If you don't meet the additional criteria, you can still install and use Qubes. It still offers significant security improvement over traditional OSes, because things such as GUI isolation, or kernel protection do not require special hardware.
Note: We don't recommend installing Qubes in a virtual machine! Note: There is a problem with supporting keyboard and mouse on Mac, and so Mac hardware is currently unsupported (patches welcomed!)
Installation/Startup
Install is pretty standard and straightforward compraed with other OSs and Linux distros I am installing on a 2011 MacBook pro, I am installing to an external hard drive so unfortunately I will not be able to give a true performance evaluation.
I ran into my first issue very quickly which was that I did not read there release notes for beta 2 and I discovered that the installer does not support my macbook pro keyboard but this was quickly remedied by plugging in a USB keyboard.
I decided to skip the disk check and then I was asked to partion my drive and set a time zone. I chose to encrypt my hard drive because it would feel a little hypocritical not to with such a secure OS.
After that it installed without a hitch and then asked me to reboot into my new system