Requested by: QubesOS/qubes-issues#4935
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doc | Fedora Minimal Template | /doc/templates/fedora-minimal/ |
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Fedora - minimal
The template only weighs about 600 MB compressed (1.6 GB on disk) and has only the most vital packages installed, including a minimal X and xterm installation. The minimal template, however, can be easily extended to fit your requirements. The sections below contain the instructions on duplicating the template and provide some examples for commonly desired use cases.
Important
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The Fedora minimal template is intended only for advanced users. If you encounter problems with the Fedora minimal template, we recommend that you use the default Fedora template instead.
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If something works with the default Fedora template but not the minimal template, this is most likely due to user error (e.g., a missing package or misconfiguration) rather than a bug. In such cases, you should write to qubes-users to ask for help rather than filing a bug report, then contribute what you learn to the documentation.
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The Fedora minimal template is intentionally minimal. Do not ask for your favorite package to be added to the minimal template by default.
Installation
The Fedora minimal template can be installed with the following command:
[user@dom0 ~]$ sudo qubes-dom0-update qubes-template-fedora-29-minimal
The download may take a while depending on your connection speed.
Duplication and first steps
It is highly recommended to clone the original template, and make any changes in the clone instead of the original template. The following command clones the template. Replace your-new-clone
with your desired name.
[user@dom0 ~]$ qvm-clone fedora-29-minimal your-new-clone
You must start the template in order to customize it.
Customization
Customizing the template for specific use cases normally only requires installing additional packages. The following table provides an overview of which packages are needed for which purpose.
As expected, the required packages are to be installed in the running template with the following command. Replace "packages` with a space-delimited list of packages to be installed.
[user@your-new-clone ~]$ sudo dnf install packages
Package table for Qubes 3.2
Use case | Description | Required steps |
---|---|---|
Standard utilities | If you need the commonly used utilities | Install the following packages: pciutils vim-minimal less psmisc gnome-keyring |
FirewallVM | You can use the minimal template as a FirewallVM, such as the basis template for sys-firewall |
No extra packages are needed for the template to work as a firewall. |
NetVM | You can use this template as the basis for a NetVM such as sys-net |
Install the following packages: NetworkManager-wifi wireless-tools dejavu-sans-fonts notification-daemon . |
NetVM (extra firmware) | If your network devices need extra packages for the template to work as a network VM | Use the lspci command to identify the devices, then run dnf search firmware (replace firmware with the appropriate device identifier) to find the needed packages and then install them. |
Network utilities | If you need utilities for debugging and analyzing network connections | Install the following packages: tcpdump telnet nmap nmap-ncat |
USB | If you want USB input forwarding to use this template as the basis for a USB qube such as sys-usb |
Install qubes-input-proxy-sender |
VPN | You can use this template as basis for a VPN qube | Use the dnf search "NetworkManager VPN plugin" command to look up the VPN packages you need, based on the VPN technology you'll be using, and install them. Some GNOME related packages may be needed as well. After creation of a machine based on this template, follow the VPN howto to configure it. |
DisposableVM Template | If you want to use this VM as a DisposableVM Template | Install perl-Encode |
Package table for Qubes 4.0
Use case | Description | Required steps |
---|---|---|
Standard utilities | If you need the commonly used utilities | Install the following packages: pciutils vim-minimal less psmisc gnome-keyring |
Audio | If you want sound from your VM | Install pulseaudio-qubes |
FirewallVM | You can use the minimal template as a FirewallVM, such as the basis template for sys-firewall |
Install at least qubes-core-agent-networking and iproute , and also qubes-core-agent-dom0-updates if you want to use it as the updatevm (which is normally sys-firewall). |
NetVM | You can use this template as the basis for a NetVM such as sys-net |
Install the following packages: qubes-core-agent-networking qubes-core-agent-network-manager NetworkManager-wifi network-manager-applet wireless-tools dejavu-sans-fonts notification-daemon gnome-keyring polkit @hardware-support . |
NetVM (extra firmware) | If your network devices need extra packages for the template to work as a network VM | Use the lspci command to identify the devices, then run dnf search firmware (replace firmware with the appropriate device identifier) to find the needed packages and then install them. |
Network utilities | If you need utilities for debugging and analyzing network connections | Install the following packages: tcpdump telnet nmap nmap-ncat |
USB | If you want USB input forwarding to use this template as the basis for a USB qube such as sys-usb |
Install qubes-input-proxy-sender |
VPN | You can use this template as basis for a VPN qube | Use the dnf search "NetworkManager VPN plugin" command to look up the VPN packages you need, based on the VPN technology you'll be using, and install them. Some GNOME related packages may be needed as well. After creation of a machine based on this template, follow the VPN howto to configure it. |
A comprehensive guide to customizing the minimal template is available here
Qubes 4.0
In Qubes R4.0 the minimal template is not configured for passwordless root. To update or install packages to it, from a dom0 terminal window:
[user@dom0 ~]$ qvm-run -u root fedora-29-minimal xterm
to open a root terminal in the template, from which you can use dnf without sudo. You will have to do this every time if you choose not to enable passwordless root.
If you want the usual qubes sudo dnf ...
commands, open the root terminal just this once using the above command, and in the root xterm window enter
bash-4.4# dnf install qubes-core-agent-passwordless-root polkit
Optionally check this worked: from the gui open the minimal template's xterm and give the command
[user@fed-min-clone ~]$ sudo -l
which should give you output that includes the NOPASSWD keyword.
In Qubes 4.0, additional packages from the qubes-core-agent
suite may be needed to make the customized minimal template work properly. These packages are:
qubes-core-agent-qrexec
: Qubes qrexec agent. Installed by default.qubes-core-agent-systemd
: Qubes unit files for SystemD init style. Installed by default.qubes-core-agent-passwordless-root
,polkit
: By default the 'fedora-29-minimal' template doesn't have passwordless root. These two packages enable this feature. (Note from R4.0 a design choice was made that passwordless should be optional, so is left out of the minimal templates)qubes-core-agent-nautilus
: This package provides integration with the Nautilus file manager (without it things like "copy to VM/open in disposable VM" will not be shown in Nautilus).qubes-core-agent-sysvinit
: Qubes unit files for SysV init style or upstart.qubes-core-agent-networking
: Networking support. Required for general network access and particularly if the template is to be used for asys-net
orsys-firewall
VM.qubes-core-agent-network-manager
: Integration for NetworkManager. Useful if the template is to be used for asys-net
VM.network-manager-applet
: Useful (together withdejavu-sans-fonts
andnotification-daemon
) to have a system tray icon if the template is to be used for asys-net
VM.qubes-core-agent-dom0-updates
: Script required to handledom0
updates. Any template which the VM responsible for 'dom0' updates (e.g.sys-firewall
) is based on must contain this package.qubes-usb-proxy
: Required if the template is to be used for a USB qube (sys-usb
) or for any destination qube to which USB devices are to be attached (e.gsys-net
if using USB network adapter).pulseaudio-qubes
: Needed to have audio on the template VM.
Logging
The rsyslog
logging service is not installed by default, as all logging is instead being handled by the systemd
journal.
Users requiring the rsyslog
service should install it manually.
To access the journald
log, use the journalctl
command.