Editing Openai/695158d7-1b68-800b-a02f-4817bf1f6d25 (section)

=== Assistant: You’re thinking about this exactly the right way now. ===
You’re thinking about this exactly the right way now. Let’s straighten this out cleanly so you can pick once, confidently, and move on.

==== ### ====
* Qubes decides everything
* Encrypted LUKS2
* LVM Thin
* Sensible sizes
* Lowest risk
* Least control

👉 Best if you don’t care about unencrypted media partitions.

===== - Semi-guided =====
* You choose LVM vs LVM Thin
* You choose encryption
* Qubes still creates correct layout
* Good balance

👉 This is what you should use.

===== - Full manual control =====
* No guard rails
* Easy to break EFI / encryption / boot
* Needed only for: - Multi-disk - Dual-boot - Special layouts - Separate unencrypted partitions (your case)

👉 Only use Blivet if you need custom unencrypted partitions

==== This choice matters. ====

==== ### ====
* Volumes are fully allocated upfront
* Disk space reserved immediately

===== - Extremely reliable =====
* Simple recovery
* Predictable behavior
* Fewer edge cases

===== - Less flexible =====
* Slightly less space-efficient

==== ### ====
* Volumes grow on demand
* Space is shared dynamically
* VM disks are sparse

===== - Recommended by Qubes =====
* Efficient storage usage
* Fast VM creation
* Snapshot-friendly
* Standard Qubes setup

===== - More complex internally =====
* If pool fills → VMs pause
* Requires monitoring free space

==== 👉 LVM Thin Provisioning ====

This is:
* What Qubes expects
* What qubes-dom0 tooling assumes
* What documentation is written for

Choosing classic LVM gains you nothing here.

==== Security concern myth: ====

: 

Reality:
* LVM thin runs in dom0 kernel
* Attackers don’t get dom0 anyway
* Risk is negligible
* Benefit is huge (VM storage efficiency)

Qubes devs explicitly design for LVM Thin.

==== You observed something important. ====

===== When you click: =====

: 

Blivet:
* Generates the same layout as Custom
* But exposes it visually
* Lets you edit before commit

===== - You can: - Add unencrypted partitions - Resize system LVM - Verify ESP location =====
* No functional difference otherwise

===== - You can accidentally: - Encrypt ESP - Delete boot - Create multiple swaps - Break alignment =====

==== You want: ====
* Encrypted system
* Unencrypted media
* Correct Qubes layout
* Minimal pain

===== 1. Choose Advanced Custom (Blivet-GUI) =====
# Delete all partitions
# Manually create: - ESP (500 MiB, vfat, unencrypted)
# Click Create automatically
# Choose: - Encryption: ON - LVM Thin Provisioning
# Resize the encrypted VG to ~150 GiB
# Create unencrypted media + exchange partitions
# Do not touch internal LVs

This gives you:
* Safety of automatic layout
* Control where you need it
* No EFI/LUKS issues

==== ✔ LVM Thin, not classic ====
✔ One encrypted VG only
✔ ESP outside encryption
✔ No extra swap
✔ Media unencrypted

==== - Choose LVM Thin Provisioning ====
* Advanced Custom only because you need extra partitions
* “Create automatically” is safe — think of it as a template you can edit
* You’re now making correct, informed choices

If you want, next we can:
* check final layout before clicking Begin Installation
* explain how Qubes uses thin pools internally
* or finally get this thing installed 😄