Overview[edit]

Qubes-Whonix ™ is the seamless combination of Qubes OS ^[archive] and Whonix ™ ^[archive] for advanced security and anonymity.

In this configuration Whonix ™ runs on top of Qubes inside virtual machines (VMs), just like any other OS on the same platform (Fedora, Debian, Arch Linux and so on).

The Qubes bare-metal hypervisor is based on Xen ^[archive] and Fedora ^[archive]. Via hardware support like VT-x, VT-d and TXT, Qubes has implemented a strict security-by-isolation architecture. Hardware controllers and multiple user domains (qubes) are isolated using separate VMs that are explicitly assigned different levels of trust, yet the desktop experience is user-friendly and well-integrated.

Whonix ™ is based on Debian ^[archive] and Tor ^[archive]. The design provides a two-VM, split security architecture: an isolated Whonix-Gateway ™ (ProxyVM; sys-whonix) for complete routing of traffic over Tor; and Whonix-Workstation ™ (AppVM; anon-whonix) for all desktop applications, which serves as a tailored OS environment for Tor-based privacy/anonymity.

To use Qubes-Whonix ™, Qubes must first be installed as a hypervisor on the physical host computer, followed by installation of the two separate Whonix ™ TemplateVMs -- whonix-gw-15 and whonix-ws-15 -- on top of Qubes. From this point, the Whonix ™ TemplateVMs can be used for customization and creation of multiple Whonix-Gateway ™ ProxyVMs and Whonix-Workstation ™ AppVMs, enabling enhanced compartmentalization of user activities for better privacy. ^[1]

For a more in-depth consideration of Qubes-Whonix ™ advantages, see: Why use Qubes over other Virtualizers?

Qubes-Whonix Security Disadvantages - Help Wanted! ^[archive]

Figure: Qubes OS Design ^[2]

Guides[edit]

For major TemplateVM and AppVM operations, refer to the following guides:

For improved security and anonymity after installing Qubes-Whonix ™, refer to the following guides:

Advanced:

Support[edit]

Before seeking personal support, please first search for the issue and a possible, documented solution. In many cases the issue can be solved by inspecting the phabricator issues tracker, reading Whonix ™ guides/documentation, conducting web searches, and examining past support requests.

If a search yields no results, support requests should be directed to the most appropriate forum: