Fedora - minimal

The template only weighs about 600 MB compressed (2 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.

Installation

The Fedora minimal template can be installed with the following command:

[user@dom0 ~]$ sudo qubes-dom0-update qubes-template-fedora-26-minimal

The download may take a while depending on your connection speed.

Duplication and first steps

It is higly 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-26-minimal your-new-clone

You must start the template in order to customize it.

For Qubes R4.0, sudo is not installed by default in the minimal template. To update or install packages, from a dom0 terminal window:

[user@dom0 ~]$ qvm-run -u root fedora-26-minimal xterm

If you would like to skip this step in future, please install the sudo package:

[user@your-new-clone ~]$ dnf install sudo

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

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.
DVM Template	If you want to use this VM as a DVM Template	Install `perl-Encode`

A comprehensive guide to customizing the minimal template is available here

Qubes 4.0

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-26-minimal' template doesn't have passwordless root. These two packages fix the situation.
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. Useful if the template has to be used for a sys-net VM.
qubes-core-agent-network-manager: Integration for NetworkManager. Useful if the template has to be used for a sys-net VM.
qubes-core-agent-dom0-updates: Script required to handle dom0 updates. Any template which the VM respondible for 'dom0' updates is based on must contain this package.
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.

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