Whonix
Whonix (clearnet link) can be installed on POWER using KVM. These instructions were tested with Whonix 17.
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 Bookworm ppc64el VM's. 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 --output ~/derivative.asc --url https://www.kicksecure.com/keys/derivative.asc sudo cp ~/derivative.asc /usr/share/keyrings/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 [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/derivative.asc] tor+http://deb.dds6qkxpwdeubwucdiaord2xgbbeyds25rbsgr73tbfpqpt4a6vjwsyd.onion bookworm main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/derivative.list sudo apt-get update
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 Bookworm, 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 Trixie or higher, 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
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.
