Make Qubes images compatible with UNetbootin

[bnvk]

I recently came across this simple GUI app UNetbootin that makes flashing a USB key with a disk image very straightforward, easy, and not require using the command line.

Considering our goal of making Qubes more easy to use (and spread the use of), and that the .rpm is in Fedora packages already, it might be worth our while to add this to the packages that are default installed.

One note: it requires being run as root, but worked quite perfectly inside of my USB VM to repare a disk image on a USB after launching from CLI- which is obviously something to avoid as per the goal.

[marmarek]

While this may be useful for writing some Linux Live image, such tools
are known to break Qubes image - because loads directly linux, without
Xen. So first it would require adding Xen support there (makes sense).

Also I don't see why installing unetbootin by default would be such
useful. Especially when the tool is known for not supporting Qubes Live
image (yet). Installing additional packages from standard repository is
easy. We can't go a way "install everything that may be useful, for
someone, somewhere", for obvious reasons.

Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?

[marmarek]

While this may be useful for writing some Linux Live image, such tools
are known to break Qubes image - because loads directly linux, without
Xen. So first it would require adding Xen support there (makes sense).

Also I don't see why installing unetbootin by default would be such
useful. Especially when the tool is known for not supporting Qubes Live
image (yet). Installing additional packages from standard repository is
easy. We can't go a way "install everything that may be useful, for
someone, somewhere", for obvious reasons.

Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?

[bnvk]

We can't go a way "install everything that may be useful, for someone, somewhere"

Obviously not. I'm thinking specifically of a certain type of user experience / use case (that if we do the rest of our respective jobs really well) will go something like this:

Person 1: Hey, what's that cool looking OS you got there?
Person 2: Oh, this crazy cool, but super secure thing called Qubes OS
Person 1: Is it like Linux or something?
Person 2: Yah, technically I think it uses Linux, but in an unusual sort of way. 
Person 1: Whoa. Like what? 
Person 2: Well, encryption stuff like Tor is built in, but also other cool things for the privacy conscious / those in need of extra security.
Person 1: That sounds awesome. How do I install it on my laptop?
Person 2: Uhh... I'm not really sure. My smart nerd friend came over and did it for me cause she knows how to use the command line.

I think, we would prefer the last line of that dialogue to go something like:

Person 2: If you get me a USB key I can help you do it right now, it takes about an hour

MacOS ships with a tool like UNetbootin included and it makes creating a bootable USB keys for installing an OS much easier. Thus, including this package by default makes sense IMHO if a scenario like the later line is what we are aiming for :-)

My understanding of what we're doing with Qubes is trying to help empower less technical people be more secure in their digital lives. If that's not the goal (or this is wrong tool / too much work to incorporate), I'll take that into account with my future UX suggestions and close this issue!

[bnvk]

We can't go a way "install everything that may be useful, for someone, somewhere"

Obviously not. I'm thinking specifically of a certain type of user experience / use case (that if we do the rest of our respective jobs really well) will go something like this:

Person 1: Hey, what's that cool looking OS you got there?
Person 2: Oh, this crazy cool, but super secure thing called Qubes OS
Person 1: Is it like Linux or something?
Person 2: Yah, technically I think it uses Linux, but in an unusual sort of way. 
Person 1: Whoa. Like what? 
Person 2: Well, encryption stuff like Tor is built in, but also other cool things for the privacy conscious / those in need of extra security.
Person 1: That sounds awesome. How do I install it on my laptop?
Person 2: Uhh... I'm not really sure. My smart nerd friend came over and did it for me cause she knows how to use the command line.

I think, we would prefer the last line of that dialogue to go something like:

Person 2: If you get me a USB key I can help you do it right now, it takes about an hour

MacOS ships with a tool like UNetbootin included and it makes creating a bootable USB keys for installing an OS much easier. Thus, including this package by default makes sense IMHO if a scenario like the later line is what we are aiming for :-)

My understanding of what we're doing with Qubes is trying to help empower less technical people be more secure in their digital lives. If that's not the goal (or this is wrong tool / too much work to incorporate), I'll take that into account with my future UX suggestions and close this issue!

[marmarek]

Ok, so first we would need to make UNetbootin actually work with Qubes
images... Anyone want to help here?

Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?

[marmarek]

Ok, so first we would need to make UNetbootin actually work with Qubes
images... Anyone want to help here?

Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?