qubes-doc/HCL.md
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Added link to qubes-users discussion on finding VT-d capable notebooks
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Hardware Compatibility List for Qubes OS

The following is a list of systems that have been tested and seem to work fine with Qubes OS

General system 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)
  • At least 32GB of disk
  • Fast SSD disk strongly recommended

Additional requirements:

  • Intel VT-x or AMD-v technology (this is needed to run HVM domains only, such as Windows-based AppVMs)
  • Intel VT-d or AMD IOMMU technology (this is needed for effective isolation of your network VMs)
  • TPM with proper BIOS support if you want to use option Anti Evil Maid

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 also that:

  • You can install Qubes onto a USB pendrive or external disk. A fast USB3 pendrive is recommended for this (be sure it is at least 32GB in size), and Qubes works very nice out of it. Just plug in your pendrive before booting into installer, and choose it as a target installation disk. It works nicely, and you can later just plug it to some other computer to boot Qubes elsewhere.
  • We don't recommend installing Qubes in a virtual machine!
  • There is a problem with supporting keyboard and mouse on Mac, and so Mac hardware is currently unsupported (patches welcomed!)
  • How to find a VT-d capable notebook -- see here.

Hardware Compatibility List

Device

Qubes R1

Qubes R2 Beta2

Reported by

Standard feautures

VT-d

Remarks

Standard features

VT-x (HVM)

VT-d

Remarks

Lenovo Thinkpad T420

OK

OK

Qubes core developers

Lenovo Thinkpad T420s (Intel HD graphics; Sandy Bridge; i5-2520M)

OK

OK

OK

OK

OK

Requires kernel 3.2.30 to support S3 sleep (the default kernel S3 sleep causes system reboot)

Qubes core developers

Lenovo Thinkpad T61 (Nvidia Quadro NVS 140M)

OK

X

Qubes core developers

Samsung X460

OK

X

Qubes core developers

Sony Vaio Z 12 (2010 edition)

OK

OK

read more

OK

OK

OK

read more

Qubes core developers

Dell Latitude E6420 (Intel HD graphics; Sandy Bridge; i5-2520M)

OK

OK

needs kernel 3.4.17+

OK

OK

OK

Suspend doesn't work on 3.7.6 kernel, but work on 3.7.4

Qubes core developers

Apple MacBookPro (i7 M620)

?

?

X

OK

X

read more

Alex Dubois

Apple MacBookPro (Intel HD Graphics, Ivy Bridge, i5-3210M)

?

?

X

OK

OK

read more

ph145h

ASUS UX-31

*

?

Stephen Boyd

ASUS X55A

X

X

read more

X

X

X

read more

Zrubi

Dell Latitude E4300 (Intel GMA 4500M; Mobile 4 Series Chipset; Core2 Duo P9600)

X

OK

OK

read more

Pablo Costa

Dell Latitude 5520

OK

OK

read more

Erik Edin

Dell Latitude E6320 (Intel HD graphics; Sandy Bridge; i5-2540M; BIOS: A06)

OK

OK

OK

read more

Alex

Dell Latitude E6430 (Intel HD graphics; Ivy Bridge; i5-3340M, BIOS: A11)

OK

OK

OK

Zrubi

Dell Latitude E6520

OK

OK

read more

Steven Collins

Dell PowerEdge T110 II (onboard Matrox; Xeon E3-1230)

OK

OK

Geoff

Dell Precision M4600 (i7-2860QM; NVIDIA Quadro 1000M)

OK

OK

nqe

Dell XPS 13 (i5; intel HD; sandy bridge; BIOS A03)

OK

?

OK

?

?

read more

j

Fujitsu S751 (HD3000; QM67; i5-2520M; BIOS 1.18)

OK

OK

OK

OK

OK

needs kernel downgrade to 3.7.4

Zrubi

HP Pavilion Sleekbook 14-B030TU (Ivy Bridge; Intel HD Graphics; i5-3317; BIOS F.06)

?

?

OK

OK

OK

Stephen Boyd

Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E130 (Ivy Bridge; HD Graphics i3-3217U; BIOS: 2.05)

?

?

OK

OK

OK

Danny Cautaert

Lenovo Thinkpad T430 (Ivy Bridge; HD Graphics; i5-3360M; BIOS: 2.51)

?

?

OK

OK

OK

read more

Alex Dubois

Lenovo Thinkpad T430U (Ivy Bridge; HD Graphics +GT 620M; i7-3517M; BIOS: 2.08)

?

?

OK

OK

OK

read more

tigerbeard

Lenovo Thinkpad W510 (nVidia; i7-Q820)

OK

OK

read more

Sebastian Hültenschmidt

Lenovo Thinkpad x220 (HD?000; i5-?)

OK

OK

Stefan Boresch

Lenovo Thinkpad x230 (Ivy Bridge; HD Graphics; i5-3320M; BIOS:2.51)

*

OK

read more

*

OK

OK

read more

Chris mgflax

Toshiba Tecra S11

OK

OK

read more

Jan Beerden

Toshiba Tecra A11-15X (i7-M620)

OK

OK

PirBoazo

Toshiba M780 S7240 (BIOS latest)

OK

OK

Franz

Samsung Series 7 Chronos NP700Z5C (nVidia Optimus; i7-3635QM; BIOS P04ABJ)

OK

?

read more

OK

OK

X

read more

Outback Dingo

Sony Vaio Z2 (2011 edition)

OK

OK

read more

Danny Fullerton

Zareason Ultra Lap 420 (Ivy Bridge; HD Graphics; i5-3317U)

OK

OK

Ant

ASRock Z77 Pro4 (Ivy Bridge; Xeon E3-1200 Graphics; i7-3770; BIOS: P1.40)

OK

OK

OK

read more

gorka

Dell Precision T3400 Workstation (NVIDIA Quadro NVS 290; Intel Q6600; BIOS: A09)

?

?

OK

OK

X

Andrew Sorensen

GA-fxa990-ud3 (rev 3.0) (AMD FX-8350; GTX 470)

?

?

OK

OK

X

m astroj

MSI Big Bang (i7-950; Radeon HD 6770)

?

?

OK

?

?

read more

Andrew Sorensen

Supermicro X10SAE (Haswell; Radeon HD 5700; Xeon E3-1245; BIOS: 1.0)

X

X

read more

OK

OK

X

read more

Qubes Fan

Submitting new results

If you want to submit any new data please run 'qubes-hcl-report' script (in dom0) and send the results ('HCL Info' - contets of the .txt file) to the mailing list with the following details included:

  • Subject: HCL - <your machine model name>

And of course include any useful information about the mentioned Qubes features.

If you have problems with your hardware, please send the 'HCL Support Files' as well (the .cpio.gz file)

Note: The 'HCL Support Files' are contains many details about your hardware - including serial numbers.