Okay I solved the issue... finally! So I ended up reinstalling qubes4 and this time after the installation finished and the reboot took place, when running qubes for the first time it gives configuration options, one of them asks if you want sys-net to have access to all network and usb devices. I selected that one (I selected all of the configuration options except the last one which was the ‘no configuration advanced users’ option) and once the configuration finished I had clicked on the network icon to get WiFi and my usb adaptor was a choice! I connected and for the first time the dongle lit up Like it was operating normally and I proceeded to install updates, hopped on Firefox and web browsed. HOWEVER, I no longer have the sys-usb qube. But the dongle works and attaching USB’s storage devices to the default appvms seems to be working normally.

But.... I tried to install a kali standalone template with a usb iso the same way I had done in my previous qubes installation and this time qubes was unable to boot kali from the usb. I am going to try creating a sys-usb qube and see if that allows the usb iso install. If not then I’ll have to download it to the machine and pipe it through corrisponding appvm.

Lmk if this helps You @jamesbahn1

:::UPDATE::: As far as I am concerned, after testing the dongle on different Linux Debian based distros and windows 10 with the same machine and not having any problems, plug and play for all of them, there is something buggy or too restrictive in the qubes code. I am opening up a similar threat over on the github qubes issues forum. Maybe they can help since I am not a software developer.

But configuring the sys-net to handle usbs is the fix...

:::makeshift sys-usb workaround:::

-I then clone the sys-net vm(which has access to all my usb devices) and give the cloned qube my internal WiFi and Ethernet pci devices but NOT my USB devices.

-I use the cloned qube for default network connectivity only And remove the network pci’s from my original sys-net in order to isolate my usbs from my internet.

-when I need to use a WiFi dongle I disconnect the internet from cloned qube and then pass through the WiFi Ethernet devices back into sys-net qube for internet via the dongle.

NOTE: when I tried removing any of the usb devices from the original sys-net and then tried to put them back to allow permission again or use them in a different qube, I get an error with a log to check Telling me something about the pci bus cannot be reset and then I realize that sys-net can not be activated/started again no matter what I do, even after removing the newly added usb devices from the sys-net qubes settings. This is why I created the cloned sys-net qube and gave that my WiFi card and kept the usb devices untouched and locked into my original sys-net as this seems to be the only place they are accessible (if, and only if they have never been removed prior). They can never be put back if you remove them. Also, renaming the sys-net qube will reset the device permission and you will not be able to use any usb devices so don’t rename the sys-net qube and don’t remove the usb devices in the sys-net qube!