Software Installation qube

[deeplow]

The problem you're addressing (if any)

In qubes it's quite hard to install software and the graphical software centers don't work

Proposed Solution (simple version)

An internet-connect disposable qube running Gnome's software center. When the user chooses the software to install, a prompt asks the user on which qube they want to install and then it communicates the package names to that qube. Then that qube proceeds to install it.

Proposed Solution (complex version)

The workflow for the user would start by clicking a install software button on the qubes menu tab for a particular qube:

By knowing in advance which qube the user wants to install software on, this software installation qube could be created on-demand based on the template on which the qube to be updated is based. This way it would be running the same system and therefore all packages listed would be guaranteed to be compatible. This could be good for example in systems where there are different software stores: suppose in Fedora there is Software Center and in ubuntu there is the Ubuntu Store (no idea if that's the case).

Let's see an example:

1. user clicks install software on personal qube tab in the qubes menu
2. starts personal-software-center qube (created on demand and based on Fedora -- the same tempalte as personal)
3. starts patched Software Center (*) application on personal-software-installer qube
4. user chooses software to install (e.g. vlc)
5. personal-software-installer sends package names via qrexec to fedora-34 (the template of personal)
6. fedora-34 shows a prompt with the package names it received for the user to confirm these are the packages it wants to install

(*)patched software center: (probably) a forked version that has been modified not to actually install software but rather sends the names of the packages to be installed to the app qube or template.

The value to a user, and who that user might be

• GUI for installing software
• More discoverable way to install software

[deeplow]

Then there could be a + install software button on the qubes menu for each qube. This would provide the user of a very clear hint of where they're supposed to do to install software (something that is quite hard to know currently. @marmarta @ninavizz

[deeplow]

@fepitre mentioned this is a similar implementation to the way installing software is done in dom0: it's done via sys-firewall.

[deeplow]

I've updated the original issue's description to include a more detailed description on how this could be implemented in terms of user workflow.