Librem Mini - keyboard and mouse with Qubes

Librem Mini seems a great fit for using Qubes OS, except one thing: there is no way to use keyboard and mouse as intended.

Qubes OS devs recommend a second USB controller if you have no PS/2 on your motherboard: https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/system-requirements/

And their warning: https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/device-handling-security/#security-warning-on-usb-input-devices

This way you entrust one controller with your keyboard and mouse and don’t use it for any other USB devices, while leaving the second controller fully untrusted. If you have only one controller and enable keyboard and mouse in there, if you insert an untrusted USB device that pretends to be a keyboard, it can take over dom0 (like rubber ducky).

I would like to request a hardware design change: a second USB controller or USB-to-PS/2 converter. Currently, installing a second one would probably require significant tinkering.

Even better, Purism could include a PS/2 controller and an external USB-to-PS/2 adapter. This way the system would see your USB peripherals as PS/2 without changing the default installation of USB Qube, which is the most preferred way.

Please share what you think about this suggestion.

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I think PS/2 is best avoided in 2020. However those peripherals that claim to support PS/2 usually do so by being USB peripherals and including a USB(F) to PS/2(M) adapter, so it is still possible to buy “PS/2” peripherals. Conversely, it is also possible to buy a USB(M) to 2 x PS/2(F) converter cable.

I would opt for a second USB controller.

is this somehow related to N-Key-Rollover being available on usb keyboards or ?

I wasn’t aware of that. In that case, I would prefer a second USB controller too.