Special Mainboard for QubeOS?

General Topics
1

It is possible that Framework Team can create mainboard as certified and specially for QubeOS?

2

Possible? Sure!
Likely? Not in my opinion. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:
Framework doesn’t yet seem to have the spare resources to dedicate to niche alternative mainboards like that.

But if QubeOS desired, they could make a special mainboard.

DeepComputing did it with their RISC-V Mainboard.
frame.work/products/deep-computing-risc-v-mainboard

Just wondering, what would QubeOS even need special for a mainboard?

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3

100% this. QubesOS is just way too niche, and Framework is too small a team to make products with such a limited market. Official QubesOS certification requires open-source firmware, which has long been requested but is unlikely any time soon due to the amount of resources it would require to switch firmware vendors.

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Qubes OS currently targets x86_64 only and requires Intel VT-x/VT-d or AMD-V/AMD-Vi. The RISC-V StarFive JH7110 (SiFive U74 cores) used in the RISC-V Framework 13 mainboard does not have the RISC-V Hypervisor “H” extension, so you don’t get hardware virtualization/IOMMU needed for Xen/Qubes. Xen-on-RISC-V is making progress in upstream, but Qubes hasn’t added a RISC-V port and provides installers only for x86_64. The RISC-V mainboard itself is positioned as a developer board, not a consumer-ready Qubes target.

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They were not suggesting using the RISC-V board for QubesOS, they were suggesting that QubesOS could make their own board, just as DeepComputing did.

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Look at the requirements list for QubesOS certification, it’s clear that Qubes will run through the tests but that they expect submitted devices to be prepared by the submitters making the hardware.

Selling with QubesOS pre-installed seems achievable if the other challenges can be overcome – the worst seems to be:

  • one untrusted USB plus trusted PS/2 keyboard and trackpad for on-device control or dual USB controllers with one trusted and hard-wired to on-device keyboard and trackpad
  • ec-firmware being fully open-source with “(properly authenticated) CPU-vendor-provided blobs for silicon and memory initialization”

K3n.