Whonix

Whonix (clearnet link) can be installed on POWER using KVM. These instructions were tested with Whonix 16.

Download Whonix from the Whonix KVM download page (clearnet link).

Extract it:

tar -xvf Whonix*.libvirt.xz

Install the Whonix virtual networks:

sudo virsh -c qemu:///system net-define Whonix_external*.xml
sudo virsh -c qemu:///system net-define Whonix_internal*.xml
sudo virsh -c qemu:///system net-autostart Whonix-External
sudo virsh -c qemu:///system net-start Whonix-External
sudo virsh -c qemu:///system net-autostart Whonix-Internal
sudo virsh -c qemu:///system net-start Whonix-Internal

Then, create two Debian Bullseye or Bookworm ppc64el VM's. (Bookworm is only tested with Workstation.) Set the Video Model in each VM to Virtio (source 1) (source 2). When installing Debian, do not create a separate root password, name the user user, and for desktop environment either pick XFCE or do not install one. Launch a shell in each VM, and follow the below instructions for each VM.

Import the Whonix/Kicksecure signing key (source) (clearnet):

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends curl gpg gpg-agent
curl --tlsv1.3 --proto =https --max-time 180 --output ~/patrick.asc https://www.whonix.org/patrick.asc
sudo cp ~/patrick.asc /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/derivative.asc

Initialize the console group (source) (clearnet):

sudo addgroup --system console
sudo adduser user console

Add the Whonix/Kicksecure package repository (source) (clearnet):

sudo apt-get install apt-transport-tor
echo "deb tor+http://deb.dds6qkxpwdeubwucdiaord2xgbbeyds25rbsgr73tbfpqpt4a6vjwsyd.onion bullseye main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/derivative.list
sudo apt-get update

Upgrade Linux to 5.14 or higher; a bug was fixed between Linux 5.10 and Linux 5.14 that broke ppc64le support in Whonix. If you're using Bullseye, this means using the Debian Bullseye-Backports suite (source) (clearnet):

echo "deb tor+http://2s4yqjx5ul6okpp3f2gaunr2syex5jgbfpfvhxxbbjwnrsvbk5v3qbid.onion/debian bullseye-backports main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/backports.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -t bullseye-backports install linux-image-powerpc64le

If you're using Bookworm, you should already have a sufficiently new Linux version.

If you're using Bookworm (Bullseye is unaffected), run the following to work around a bug in the xserver-xorg-video-qxl package that breaks Whonix (source):

echo "deb [check-valid-until=no] https://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian/20220311/ bookworm main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/qxl.list
sudo apt-get update

Then, run one of the following, depending on whether you want Whonix to use XFCE or CLI-only, and whether you are installing Whonix-Gateway or Whonix-Workstation:

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends non-qubes-whonix-gateway-xfce

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends non-qubes-whonix-workstation-xfce

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends non-qubes-whonix-gateway-cli

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends non-qubes-whonix-workstation-cli

If you get a package conflict error that mentions console-common, run the following and then try again:

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends console-common

If you get prompted about choosing the default display manager during package installation, choose gdm3 (source) (clearnet).

If you get prompted with other questions during package installation, you can choose the defaults.

The Whonix packages will install their own sources.list data in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list. If you're using Bullseye, that means you should clear the sources.list that Debian came with (in order to avoid warnings from apt-get about duplicated repos):

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/backports.list

On Bookworm, the Whonix sources.list is nonfunctional, so you should clear it instead:

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
sudo touch /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list

Run the following to work around a bug that breaks subsequent package updates (source) (clearnet):

sudo mkdir -p /etc/dist-base-files.d/
echo "set +e" | sudo tee /etc/dist-base-files.d/50_user.conf

Run the following to work around a bug in the security-misc package that breaks non-x86 architectures (source, grep for config ARCH_MMAP_RND_BITS_MAX and config COMPAT):

sudo sed -i 's/vm.mmap_rnd_bits=32/vm.mmap_rnd_bits=29/' /etc/sysctl.d/30_security-misc.conf
sudo sed -i 's/vm.mmap_rnd_compat_bits=16//' /etc/sysctl.d/30_security-misc.conf

If you're using Bookworm (Bullseye is unaffected), run the following to work around a seccomp bug in the sdwdate package that breaks PowerPC-based architectures (source 1) (source 2):

sudo sed -i 's/_newselect/_newselect newfstatat pselect6 vfork/' /lib/systemd/system/sdwdate.service.d/20_arch_syscall_whitelist.conf

If you're using Bookworm (Bullseye is unaffected), run the following to work around an AppArmor bug in the sdwdate package (source):

echo "  network inet stream," | sudo tee --append /etc/apparmor.d/abstractions/url_to_unixtime

Shut off the VM.

If you're installing Whonix-Gateway, set the VM's NIC to use the Whonix-External Network source. Then add a 2nd NIC to the VM, and set it to use the Whonix-Internal Network source.

If you're installing Whonix-Workstation, set the VM's NIC to use the Whonix-Internal Network source.

Launch the VM again; Whonix should be running.

If you get errors in Whonix-Gateway about the Tor service failing to start, this is probably an AppArmor issue. You can fix it by running the following:

sudo touch /etc/apparmor.d/local/system_tor.anondist

Restart Whonix-Gateway again and Tor should work.

Known Issues

See Kicksecure known issues.

On Bookworm, as of 2022 June 4, systemcheck fails with an AppArmor error: Jun 04 14:59:26 host kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1654354766.467:1227): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" profile="/usr/bin/systemcheck" name="/usr/libexec/sudo/libsudo_util.so.0.0.0" pid=1705 comm="sudo" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=0 ouid=0. Not sure whether this also happens on Kicksecure.