Whonix

Whonix (clearnet link) can be installed on the Talos using KVM.

Both Whonix-Gateway and Whonix-Workstation

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

Extract it:

tar -xvf Whonix*.libvirt.xz

Install the Whonix virtual networks:

virsh -c qemu:///system net-define Whonix_external*.xml
virsh -c qemu:///system net-define Whonix_internal*.xml
virsh -c qemu:///system net-autostart external
virsh -c qemu:///system net-start external
virsh -c qemu:///system net-autostart internal
virsh -c qemu:///system net-start internal

Then, create two Debian Buster ppc64el VM's, launch a root shell in each, and follow the below instructions for each VM.

Import the Whonix signing key (source):

apt-key --keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/whonix.gpg adv --recv-keys 916B8D99C38EAF5E8ADC7A2A8D66066A2EEACCDA

Add the Whonix package repository (source):

echo "deb http://deb.whonix.org buster main" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/whonix.list

Whonix-Gateway

For Whonix 15

Run the following:

apt-get update

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

apt-get install non-qubes-whonix-gateway-kde

apt-get install non-qubes-whonix-gateway-xfce

apt-get install non-qubes-whonix-gateway-cli

If you get prompted with 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, which means you should delete the sources.list that Debian came with (in order to avoid warnings from apt-get about duplicated repos):

rm /etc/apt/sources.list

Shut off the VM.

Set the VM's NIC to use the external Network source.

Add a 2nd NIC to the VM, and set it to use the internal Network source.

Launch the VM again; Whonix-Gateway should be running.

If you get errors about the Tor service failing to start, this is probably a bug in Whonix's AppArmor configuration; you can fix it by editing the file /etc/apparmor.d/tunables/home.d/live-mode and commenting out the line @{HOMEDIRS}+=/rw/home/ (i.e. prefix it with a # character, so it will look like #@{HOMEDIRS}+=/rw/home/). Restart the VM again and Tor should work.

For Whonix 14

Unfortunately, Whonix's tor package, which is a required dependency of Whonix-Gateway, is not available for ppc64el. Debian's stretch-backports repo does have a tor package that works, we just need to edit its metadata to make the package manager happy. First, we download the tor package and extract it:

echo "deb http://http.debian.net/debian stretch-backports main" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/stretch-backports.list
apt-get update
apt-get download -t stretch-backports tor
mkdir tor_extracted
dpkg-deb -R ./tor_*.deb ./tor_extracted

Then, run the following command. It will fail with a dependency error, note the minimum tor version that it wants.

apt-get install non-qubes-whonix-gateway-kde whonix-gateway-shared-packages-shared-meta whonix-gateway-packages-recommended-cli tor-geoipdb

Then, edit the metadata file:

nano tor_extracted/DEBIAN/control

And replace the Version field with the minimum version you noted earlier. Then exit nano.

Rebuild the package and install it:

mkdir tor_rebuilt
dpkg-deb -b tor_extracted tor_rebuilt
apt-get install ./tor_rebuilt/tor*.deb

Now we can install the Whonix packages:

apt-get install non-qubes-whonix-gateway-kde

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

rm /etc/apt/sources.list

Shut off the VM.

Set the VM's NIC to use the external Network source.

Add a 2nd NIC to the VM, and set it to use the internal Network source.

Launch the VM again; Whonix-Gateway should be running.

Whonix-Workstation

For Whonix 15

Run the following:

apt-get update

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

apt-get install non-qubes-whonix-workstation-kde

apt-get install non-qubes-whonix-workstation-xfce

apt-get install non-qubes-whonix-workstation-cli

If you get prompted with 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, which means you should delete the sources.list that Debian came with (in order to avoid warnings from apt-get about duplicated repos):

rm /etc/apt/sources.list

Shut off the VM.

Set the VM's NIC to use the internal Network source.

Launch the VM again; Whonix-Workstation should be running.

For Whonix 14

This one's a lot easier, since Whonix's tor package version isn't a requirement.

Install the Whonix packages:

apt-get update
apt-get install non-qubes-whonix-workstation-kde

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

rm /etc/apt/sources.list

Shut off the VM.

Set the VM's NIC to use the internal Network source.

Launch the VM again; Whonix-Workstation should be running.

Known Issues

Checking for virtualization

whonixcheck in both VM's reports this error:

[ERROR] [whonixcheck] Virtualizer Failed to check for virtualization: Permission denied unsupported by Whonix developers! Whonixcheck aborted! (qubes_detected: false)

Using Virtualizer Failed to check for virtualization: Permission denied together with Whonix is recommended against, because it is rarely tested. [1] [2] [3] It could be made possible, but would require more Whonix contributors.
It may already work, but is highly experimental.



This might endanger your anonymity. Do not proceed unless you know what you are doing.

If you wish to ignore this warning and to continue whonixcheck anyway, you can set
    WHONIXCHECK_NO_EXIT_ON_UNSUPPORTED_VIRTUALIZER="1"
in /etc/whonix.d/30_whonixcheck_default.conf.

Recommended action:
- Shut down.
- Read Whonix documentation [4].
- Use Whonix with a supported virtualizer or Physical Isolation [5].

Footnotes:

[1] https://www.whonix.org/wiki/LeakTests
[2] https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Test
[3] https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Protocol-Leak-Protection_and_Fingerprinting-Protection
[4] https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Documentation
[5] https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Physical_Isolation

It is not clear why this error shows up, or whether anything bad will happen if it's ignored. The only mention of this error that I can find in upstream documentation is this forum thread, which doesn't have any solution.