Qubes: Install the Brave Browser
Qubes OS provides a foundation to create a highly useable and reasonably secure operating systems to access Web3 technologies
The brave web browser has a built in crypto wallet, can handle Interplanetary File System requests, built on Chromium the open source standard for web based interactions. On the system before Qubes it did attempt to compartmentalize, by using Firefox as a productivity browser; for sites that required standard email logins, and Brave used for sites that require signing using crypto wallets to secure identities
The current internet is still in the process of adopting a new authentication standard beyond email and password. The regular internet requires fixing, email is fundamentally insecure and allows governments and agencies easy access to most people’s digital existences. Having people beginning to sign everything using cryptography would make email redundant
Qubes: Debian Template Installation
The way Qubes is currently set up is using the Debian template for installing most applications and the Fedora template being used for utilities, like VPN’s and system based applications. Qubes is based on Fedora, which is the bleeding edge of updates and patches, whilst keeping Debian for installing applications
This guide is designed to work around the problem that the shell on the template doesn’t have full internet access and cannot download the GPG key. The terminal is designed to only allow packages to be downloaded from signed apt package, so the standard curl command needs to be proxied to get access to the internet
How To Install Brave in Qubes OS
The main menu in Qubes is accessed via the blue Q in the top right hand corner when using the XFCE interface, this will bring a number of options and towards the bottom chooses the Template: Debian 11 option and then select Debian 11: Terminal
Next, the Brave Browser is not included in the base sources list and Debian requires a GPG key downloaded to verify all downloads from the Brave repo, by default the Template won’t allow the curl command access to the internet
This is a good example of how security brings inconvenience (wait to see how to copy and paste) through additional steps to a standard install before it works promoting the ideal of security through compartmentalization
1// Install dependencies
2// Download Brave Keyring
3// Update Repo
4// Apt Install Brave Browser
TLDR; This guide shows how to install the Brave web browser in Qubes OS using the Debian template and worlds around the problem of not being able to use the standard curl command to download the key that unlocks the repo
