custom templates: initial versions for fedora and windows

en/customization/fedora-template.md

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+= FEDORA Packages Recommendations
+
+(starting from a minimal template)
+
+
+== Template installation
+
+[dom0]#qubes-dom0-update qubes-template-fedora-21-minimal
+
+*Note*: the template may not start in qubes R3 when using kernel 3.19 (unstable). In this case, switch the AppVM or TemplateVM to the kernel 3.18.
+
+*Note*: If you have doubts about a set of tool or package you want to install, start installing and testing it in an AppVM. You can then reproduce it later in your TemplateVM if you are satisfied. That the (QubesOS?) template philosophy.
+
+= Standard tools installation
+
+== Administration (documented)
+
+sudo pciutils vim-minimal less tcpdump telnet psmisc nmap nmap-ncat usbutils
+
+Notes: nmap can be used to discover a network (nmap -sP [network]), especially if you are inside a Microsoft network, because your AppVM will be protected/NATted behind Qubes firewall (microsoft / home network are heavily using autodiscovery technologies which require to beint in the same local network (no firewall/no NAT), eg: your printer.
+
+Some recommendation here: check your current network using the Network manager applet (eg: 192.168.1.65). Then run nmap in your current AppVM/TemplateVM to search for the selected printer/equipement: nmap -sP 192.168.1.-. Don't forget to allow temporarily the Qubes Firewall if you are inside a TemplateVM.
+
+== Administration (undocumented)
+
+openssh keepassx openssl gnome-keyring man
+
+Dependency note: keepassx rely on qt which takes ~30MB
+
+== Network VM (documented)
+
+NetworkManager NetworkManager-wifi network-manager-applet wireless-tools dbus-x11 tar tinyproxy
+
+== Network VM (undocumented)
+
+which dconf dconf-editor
+
+Notes: which is required for autostart scripts
+Notes: dconf is required to remember the VM settings that are changed (the gsetting backend will be in memory only if gconf is not installed).
+
+== Network VM (manual operations - documented)
+
+Search for a wireless firmware matching your wireless card (to be launched in network VM)
+lspci; yum search firmware
+
+= ProxyVM/NetworkVM for 3G Modems
+
+ModemManager NetworkManager-wwan usb_modeswitch modem-manager-gui
+
+Dependency note: modem-manager-gui rely on webkit-gtk and is optional (NetworkManager can handle the modem alone)
+
+Source: https://www.codeenigma.com/community/blog/installing-3g-usb-modems-linux
+
+= ProxyVM for VPNs
+
+Search for a VPN package for your particular vpn solution
+yum search NetworkManager [openconnect|openswat|...]
+
+OR
+
+For manual handling of VPN (and because NetworkManager is not available in proxyVMs, check the Qubes-users mail threads on google group
+(cprise started a good one on openvpn: "[qubes-users] OpenVPN Setup, Revisited Again!")
+
+= Printer Setup
+
+system-config-printer system-config-printer-applet cups
+
+Dependency Note: depends on python3 + python3 additionnal libraries which takes more than 40 M once installed. 
+Dependency Note: cups depends on ghostscript and require installing additionnal printing fonts (not documented here), so it can takes several dozen of MB
+
+== Manual operations
+
+- Don't forget to restart your TemplateVM or only the cups service when you installed cups (systemctl start cups)
+
+- First you need to search for your printer. If you don't know its name or IP, search for it using nmap: check your current network using the Network manager applet (eg: 192.168.1.65). Then run nmap in your current AppVM/TemplateVM to search for the selected printer/equipement: nmap -sP 192.168.1.-. Don't forget to allow temporarily the Qubes Firewall if you are inside a TemplateVM.
+
+- Once you identifed your printer, run system-config-printer GUI to install your printer
+
+- You man need to cancel the operation to install more adapted printer drivers (eg: if the driver cannot be found automatically). Use yum search printername to find potential drivers (eg yum search photosmart)
+
+
+= GUI recommendations
+
+== Lightweight packages recommendations
+
+lxterminal dejavu-sans-mono-fonts dejavu-sans-fonts gnome-settings-daemon
+
+*Note*: You need to install sans-mono fonts for the terminal or it will be unreadable (overlapping characters....), while the sans fonts are just to get nicer GUI menus.
+
+*Scite* is a nice notepad that can also highlight scripts with very light dependencies
+ 
+ scite
+ 
+*Meld* allow comparing two text files/ two configuration files easily.
+
+meld
+
+*Thunar* is a light file manager usually used by xfce
+
+thunar thunar-volman ntfs-3g
+
+Dependency Note: xfce4 dependencies (but still quite light ~1.4M downloads)
+
+
+== GUI themes
+
+Managing GUI theme / appearance is often complex because when you do not want to depends on a specific desktop system.
+
+For this reason, we need to customize themes for each GUI framework that our application depends on. This often includes GTK2, GTK3 (which us a different configuration/themes than GTK2), QT.
+
+The apparance of Windows can only be changed in dom0, however, the appearance of all buttons, menus, icons, widgets are specific to each AppVM.
+
+=== Packages
+
+Choose theme packages for each framework. I recommend the following (for several reasons documented here [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!search/appvm$20theme/qubes-users/RyVeDiEZ6D0/YR4ITjgdYX0J]
+
+clearlooks-phenix-gtk2-theme clearlooks-phenix-gtk3-theme
+
+You can search for other themes using yum search theme gtk
+
+You can check your currently installed theme packages (to eventually remove them) using rpm -qa | grep theme
+
+=== Tweaking theme and appearance
+
+First you can get an insight of installed Gtk theme and see how it will appears using lxappearance. I recommend not applying settings using lxappearance (do not click on apply) because it will create multiple configuration files. To remove these files, follow cleanup notes
+
+==== Cleanup notes
+
+rm ~/.gtkrc-2.0
+rm ~/.icons/default/index.theme
+rm ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini
+rm ~/.config/Trolltech.conf
+
+Cleaning the whole dconf settings is also possible by removing the following file. Please note that it will remove all preferences set for gnome application (not only the themes)
+rm ~/.config/dconf/user
+
+Note: lxappearance only have effect on gtk3 theme so it won't work to change gtk2 themes (used by Firefox, Thunderbird ...). However, it is very lightweight and can be used to identify the name and look of themes you are interested in. Once you have the name, you can apply it using gsetting command line or gconf-editor.
+Note: if you really want a GUI theme editor, you can install gnome-tweak-tools, but this tool have a lot of gnome dependencies (~150MB of dependencies). Eventually install it and uninstall it as soon as you changed your theme.
+
+==== Testing notes
+
+The following programs can be used to see if theme has been correctly applied:
+GTK2 program: scite, thunderbird, firefox
+GTK3 program: lxterminal
+QT program: keepassx
+
+Please not that testing in a TemplateVM will not work as expected because gnome-settings-daemon is not started in TemplateVM. Test themes in an AppVM and then update the TemplateVM accordingly.
+
+=== Forcing theme change for all AppVM depending on a TemplateVM
+
+This can be done for gtk themes by creating dconf global settings. I recommend reading these articles:
+[http://www.mattfischer.com/blog/?p=431]
+[https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/dconf/SystemAdministrators]
+
+==== Creating global file
+
+* Setup global config file:
+# mkdir /etc/dconf/db/qubes.d
+Edit/Create the following file: /etc/dconf/db/qubes.d/10-global-theme-settings:
+
+[org/gnome/desktop/interface]
+cursor-theme="Adwaita"
+gtk-theme="Clearlooks-Phenix"
+icon-theme="Adwaita"
+font-name="Cantarell 11"
+monospace-font-name="Monospace 11"
+
+* Generate global config database
+# dconf update
+
+* Configure default user profile
+Edit/Create the following file: /etc/dconf/profile/user:
+
+user-db:user
+system-db:qubes
+
+==== Locking configuration
+
+It should be noted that the user dconf settings stored in ~/.config/dconf/user always takes precedence over the global dconf settings.
+
+User dconf settings can be browsed using dconf-editor GUI.
+
+If you want to force specific settings to be applied for all user (so in our case for all AppVMs depending on the template), you need to create locks:
+# mkdir /etc/dconf/db/qubes.d/locks
+Edit/Create the following file: /etc/dconf/db/qubes.d/locks/theme.lock:
+
+/org/gnome/desktop/interface/gtk-theme
+
+Finally, regenerate the dconf database
+# dconf update
+
+=== Uniform look for QT & GTK
+
+Getting an uniform look for QT & GTK is not acheaved yet. A good source is on the following link [https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Uniform_look_for_Qt_and_GTK_applications]
+
+Two case:
+1/ You installed packages of the theme you selected both for Qt, GTK2 and GTK3 (eg: Adwaita which is the default theme. I did not found another cross framework theme on fedora default packages).
+
+2/ You want to use the GTK theme you selected for Qt but there is no qt package. In this case QGtkStyle will take precedence and convert the style automaticall. You can verify if it is enabled by searching for "style=GTK+" in /etc/xdg/Trolltech.conf. If style is changed to another name, it will be used instead of your GTK theme.
+Note: check that ~/.config/Trolltech.conf in your AppVMs is not defining another "style=" because it will take precedence over your global QT theme.
+

en/customization/windows-template.md

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+= Disable/Uninstall unecessary features/services
+
+== Windows features
+
+Uninstall windows features from Control Panel > Turn windows features On/Off. Generally, it will be required to reboot after features desinstallation. If you do not manage to uninstall some features, it is sometimes necessarry to uninstall them one by one or two by two.
+
+Only keep:
+
+ * Print and Document Service => Internet Printing Client
+ * Print and Document Service => Windows Fax and Scan (apparently it cannot be uninstalled)
+ * Windows search
+
+*Note*: Windows search is recommended because it is a nightmare to find something in menus if it is not enabled (it removes the search bar from the start menu, from the explorer, and from the control panel).
+*Note*: Unselecting windows media, .Net and Internet Explorer will uninstall these components. on a new install it is generally old versions anyway and it will be quicker to install directly the new versions later.
+Services
+
+== Windows services
+
+Disable the following services that are not required or have no sense in a VM context:
+
+ * Base Filtering Engine (only required if your want to use Microsoft IPSEC)
+ * DHCP Client
+ * Function Discovery Provider Host
+    will not work anyway because SSDP discovery uses multicast - need to be on the same network which is not the case because of qubes firewall
+ * Peer Name Resolution Protocol
+ * Peer Netwoking Grouping
+ * Peer Networking Identity Manager
+ * SSDP Discovery
+ * Security Center (is it only notifications ?)
+ * TCP/IP Netbios Help (is Netbios still really used by Windows ? Maybe for discovery only ?)
+ * Themes (if you don't care about theme)
+ * Volume Shadow Copy (see next note in the performance section)
+ * Windows defender
+ * Windows Firewall
+ * Power
+
+*Notes*: IP Helper is required as it is used by Qubes Agent to configure the IP address.
+
+== Windows update
+
+I recommend disabling windows update (Never Check for Update) because checking for updates will start every time you start an AppVM if you don't started your template after some days. Running windows update is also apparently IO hungry.
+
+Of course I recommend starting the template regularly and checking manually for updates.
+
+== System properties
+
+Advanced => Performances:
+
+ * If your don't care about visual effect, in Visual Effect select "Adjust for best performance"
+ * I personnally tweak the page file size to win some place on my root. In Advanced>Performances>Advanced tab, change Virtual memory:
+        # unselect automatically manage paging file size for all drive
+        # click on drive C:
+        # select no paging file
+        # click on set
+        # click on drive d:
+        # select customer size
+        # use an initial size of 500 and a max size of 1000. If the page file is too small, you will notify a low memory pop up when working on windows. In this case, it often means that you should extend your AppVM RAM.
+
+ * System Protection
+    Here you can disable Shadow Folder because it has little sense in case of qubes because we do backup regularly of AppVMs/TemplateVMs and we can revert at least one template change if we break something.
+    Select drives where system protection is enabled and click Configure. "Turn of system protection" "Delete all restore points"
+
+ * Remote
+    Unselect Allow Remote Assistance connetions to this computer.
+
+
+== Task scheduler
+
+Open the task scheduler and *disable* the following tasks. If you remove these tasks they may be recreated automatically by various windows management tools (such as defragmentation)
+
+ * Autochk: All
+ * Application Experience: All
+ * Customer Experience Improvement Program: All
+ * Defrag: All
+ * DiskDiagnosis: All (the disk is virtual anyway so S.M.A.R.T. has no sense)
+ * Maintenance: All
+ * SystemRestore: All
+ * WindowsBackup: All
+
+==  Disable hibernation
+
+and clean hyberfil.sys
+
+ # Ensure that you disabled the Power service (you may need to reboot so that the Power service is effectively stopped).
+
+ # Run a cmd.exe as an administrator:
+    > powercfg -h off
+
+C:\hyberfil.sys should now be deleted
+
+= Manual tasks that can/should be started in the template
+
+ * Disk defragmentation
+ * Windows Update
+ * Windows file cleaning
+    # Run windows drive cleaner as Administrator.
+    # Enable all the task and run the cleaner
+
+ * CCleaner file cleaning
+    # Install CCleaner free
+    # Copy the attached ccleaner configuration file in CCleaner program file folder
+    # Run ccleaner with all option set except "wipe free space" (it will also remove user history and preferences)
+    # Run ccleaner only with the option "wipe free space".
+        It will write zeros in all unused space. This will allow you to strip the root.img file later
+	
+	
+ * TemplateVM stripping:
+    Ensure that you know what you are doing in this section as you may destroy by error your template root.img file.
+ 
+    * If you ran ccleaner with "wipe free space", follow the following procedure:
+        # from dom0, go to /var/lib/templates-vm/yourtemplate
+	# copy root.img using the following command:
+	    cp --sparse=always root.img root.img.clean
+	# if the copy worked, you can move the new root file by running this command
+	    mv root.img.clean root.img
+    
+    * If don't managed to fill the free space with zeroes, you can follow the following *unsafe* undocumented procedure:
+	# from dom0, go to /var/lib/templates-vm/yourtemplate
+	# check the partitionning to identify the filesystem offset of root.img
+	# mount the filesystem
+	# create a file with zeros inside the filesystem until the mounted filesystem is full
+	# remove the file
+        # unmount the partition
+	# make a copy of root.img in sparse mode.
+	
+
+
+Data cleaning tasks (work in progress)
+
+Here is my recommendations on cleaning as much as data as possible. Note that cleaning could delete user history/preferences on some cases.
+
+I did not fully tested all the actions described here in Qubes R3 (I'm still installing / updating my Windows7 templates).
+
+    Run windows drive cleaner as Administrator.
+    Run ccleaner with all option set (it will also remove user history and preferences)
+    Additionnal ccleaner config to remove windows updates uninstallers and WindowsUpdate temporary file (will be attached in next mail)
+    TemplateVM stripping:
+        from dom0 (unsafe): check the partitionning to identify the filesystem offset, mount the filesystem, create a file with zeros until the filesystem is full, remove the file, unmount the partition and make a copy of root.img in sparse mode (automatic with cp) (script will be attached in next mail).
+        from the running TemplateVM: fill the unused space with zeros (I think ccleaner can do that), shutdown the vm, then in dom0, copy root.img in sparse mode (automatic with cp).
+