Installing Sparrow Wallet on Qubes OS
Let me preface this blog post by first saying that https://www.qubes-os.org has a ton of material if you plan on reading up, it's very detailed and if you happen to be ultra paranoid, you're gonna have a field day lol. This is a quick and dirty guide for those of you out there who want to move fast, get Sparrow Wallet up and running on what could possibly be the MOST "reasonably secure operating system" out there.
Not going to bore anyone further so let's get down to it, in 8 somewhat simple steps.
Step 1
Look up https://forum.qubes-os.org/t/community-recommended-computers/5560 or https://www.qubes-os.org/hcl/ for the least expensive USED laptop you can find at your local marketplace or eBay equivalent. Bear in mind you need at least 8GB of RAM and 256GB HDD or SDD (preferred). Once you shortlist "the ideal laptop", you can confirm the specifications using this https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/how-to-use-the-hcl/ as a reference(i skipped this part myself). Please ensure that BIOS isn't locked and confirm with the seller that all the USB ports are working since you will be booting from it. I am assuming the reader(you) is already familiar with Balena.
Step 2
Assuming you have already procured your laptop and fumbled around with the BIOS to enable USB boot, follow this Youtube tutorial https://yewtu.be/watch?v=3XMfPNYtDWM to get yourself started on the installation. Once you get to the 7:04 mark of the video, choose Debian as default under Template Configuration, leave everything else as default and click through the rest of the installation, bear in mind that (Dom0) Qubes OS Setup will take around 15-20 minutes to install, have some patience.
Step 3
Assuming you see this screen, congratulations, you made it through the installation!
Step 4
We're almost there guys, immediately click on the little Qubes icon on the top left corner and open the (blue) Qube : work, click on work: Firefox ESR as pictured below and download Sparrow Wallet (remember to choose .deb), once it's in your Downloads folder and after you've done the verification for the release. Do NOT install, please proceed to Step 5.
Step 5
Proceed to clone the cube as per above under work: Qube Settings.
Once you have performed this step, Sparrow installation is next.
Step 6
Launch Template: sparrow (assuming you named it Sparrow), sparrow: Files, create a "tmp" under Downloads and move the downloaded .deb over, don't ask me why but this is how I did the installation.
Open Template: sparrow, sparrow: Terminal.
Step 7
Before you execute the install command, remember to do this inside the terminal window. This is taken from https://sparrowwallet.com/download
sudo mkdir /usr/share/desktop-directories/
Followed by:
sudo apt install /home/user/Downloads/tmp/sparrow_1.7.1-1_amd64.debSparrow installation is now complete.
Step 8
We're almost there guys, just 2 more steps. Next, go to Template: sparrow, sparrow: Qube Settings
Go to Applications and be sure to select Sparrow and click on the right arrow button from Available to Selected.
Finally, you can now launch Sparrow. Have fun exploring everyone and I hope this guide was useful.
