14 DAY TRIAL // Purism, the computer reseller specialized in selling Linux laptops, reports that the latest version of the Qubes OS security-focused desktop operating system can now be installed without any issues or warnings on its Librem laptop series.
Last year, Purism started shipping coreboot-enabled Librem laptops, and it received some interesting feedback from customers who bought them and attempted to install early release candidate images of the Qubes 4.0 operating system, reporting that the Qubes OS installer complained about IOMMU support.
Apparently, IOMMU support wasn't available in Intel's Skylake processors that powered Purism's Librem laptops, but it's supported by the coreboot firmware, formerly known as LinuxBIOS, so the company had to update its laptops to the latest coreboot release, which lets users install Qubes OS 4.0 without any warnings.
"Starting with Qubes 4.0, the installer will warn users if their computers do not support certain CPU features such as IOMMU. While you can ignore the warning and complete the install, certain VMs with PCI devices attached such as sys-net and sys-usb will not start unless you change their virtualization mode from HVM to PV, bypassing the protections IOMMU provides," says Kyle Rankin.
Initial TPM support landed in Purism's Librem laptops
Purism says that it's currently still testing the new coreboot image with IOMMU support for its Librem laptops, and will soon start to offer it with all new laptop shipments. Therefore, if you want to buy a Librem laptop from Purism and want to install Qubes OS 4.0 on it, you should wait a little more for the updated line-up.
Meanwhile, it looks like Purism plans add coreboot support for TPM (Trusted Platform Module) to its Librem laptops, and use the TMP with Heads technology to offer customers tamper-proofing against malware that could compromise the kernel, bootloader, and even the BIOS of their Linux-powered laptops.