qubes-doc/UserDoc/DispVMCustomization.md

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Customization of Disposable VM

It is possible to change the settings of each new Disposable VM (DispVM). This can be done by customizing the DispVM template:

1. Start a terminal in the fedora-18-x64-dvm TemplateVM by running the following command in a dom0 terminal. (By default, this TemplateVM is not shown in Qubes VM Manager. However, it can be shown by selecting "Show/Hide internal VMs.")

   qvm-run -a fedora-18-x64-dvm gnome-terminal
   

2. Change the VM's settings and/or applications, as desired. Note that currently Qubes supports exactly on DispVM template, so any changes you make here will affect all DispVMs. Some examples of changes you may want to make include:

   • Changing Firefox's default startup settings and homepage.
   • Changing Nautilus' default file preview settings.
   • Changing the DispVM's default NetVM. For example, you may wish to set the NetVM to "none." Then, whenever you start a new DispVM, you can choose your desired ProxyVM manually (by changing the newly-started DipsVMs settings). This is useful if you sometimes wish to use a DispVM with a TorVM, for example. It is also useful if you sometimes wish to open untrusted files in a network-disconnected DispVM.

3. Create an empty /home/user/.qubes-dispvm-customized file:

   touch /home/user/.qubes-dispvm-customized
   

4. Shutdown the VM (either by poweroff from VM terminal, or qvm-shutdown from dom0 terminal).

5. Regenerate the DispVM template:

   qvm-create-default-dvm --default-template --default-script
   

Note: All of the above requires at least qubes-core-vm >= 2.1.2 installed in template.