Whonix template install errors

[cprise]

Here is a problem I originally described on the Whonix forum[1]...

I get a host of errors (see below) when installing the Whonix 10 gateway
template, and they seem to result in the lack of any menu entries for
Whonix in the Launcher. In VM Manager I can create a VM based on the
gateway template, and an entry will appear for it in Launcher - but it
contains only Terminal.

So for me the template is essentially non-operative.

This reminds me of the past problems I've had with menus not appearing
for template VMs and dispVM; I'm not sure if they're related.

1. https://www.whonix.org/forum/index.php/topic,1369.0.html

-

Running transaction (shutdown inhibited)
Installing :
qubes-template-whonix-gw-experimental-3.0.2-201505180340.noarch
1/1
--> Processing the root.img... (this might take a while)
--> Processing the volatile.img...
--> Creating private.img...
--> Instaling menu shortcuts...
--> Cleaning volatile image:
/var/lib/qubes/vm-templates/whonix-gw-experimental/volatile.img...
--> Loading the VM (type = TemplateVM)...
--> Setting Xen Store info for the VM...
--> Updating firewall rules...
--> Starting the VM...
--> Starting the qrexec daemon...
Waiting for VM's qrexec agent.....connected
Warning: ignoring key 'Comment' of gateway-reloadtor.desktop
Warning: ignoring key 'Comment' of gateway-reloadfirewall.desktop
Warning: ignoring key 'Comment' of gateway-stoptor.desktop
Warning: ignoring key 'Comment' of gateway-restarttor.desktop
----> Failed to get icon for qtconfig-qt4.desktop: Image format violation
----> Failed to get icon for gateway-firewall30default.desktop: Image
size constraint violation: width=720 height=720 max_width=512 max_height=512
----> Failed to get icon for krandrtray.desktop: Image format violation
----> Failed to get icon for mutt.desktop: Image format violation
----> Failed to get icon for debian-xterm.desktop: Image format violation
----> Failed to get icon for debian-uxterm.desktop: Image format violation
Shutting down VM: 'whonix-gw-experimental'...
Waiting for the VM(s) to shutdown...
Waiting for VMs: ['whonix-gw-experimental']
Waiting for VMs: ['whonix-gw-experimental']
Verifying :
qubes-template-whonix-gw-experimental-3.0.2-201505180340.noarch
1/1

Installed:
qubes-template-whonix-gw-experimental.noarch 0:3.0.2-201505180340


Complete!

[☣Adam]

On 6/29/15, cprise <cpr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I get a host of errors (see below) when installing the Whonix 10 gateway
> template, and they seem to result in the lack of any menu entries for
> Whonix in the Launcher. In VM Manager I can create a VM based on the
> gateway template, and an entry will appear for it in Launcher - but it
> contains only Terminal.

Are you trying to use it as an AppVM instead of a ProxyVM? I
installed it on Qubes 3 rc1 and it showed up in the Qubes VM Manager,
I made a proxy VM from it, and then an AppVM named "anonymous". Going
to https://check.torproject.org in the anonymous VM confirmed that the
traffic was actually routing through the Tor network.

[cprise]

At this point I'm just trying to run the gw template itself to complete
the installation/update instructions.

Its showing up in the VM Manager but not the Launcher menu.

[lanythe]

I'm guessing that you already tried spinning up the Whonix-GW TemplateVM
and then running qvm-sync-appmenus in Dom0?

I've had similar application shortcut issues both with self-compiled
templates and when manually editing the Qubes.xml file after a manual
"out-of-band" backup restoration. Running qvm-sync-appmenus always
seemed to fix things pretty much 100% of the time.


BTW, There is something that I did notice that happened when playing
around with flaky .desktop shortcuts though. My entire
/usr/share/applications folder gets wiped clean! It happened in R2 and
it happened again in R3 once I started re-installing templates.

I'm unsure if it's the qvm-sync-appmenus command or some other
post-installation scripts that occur during template installation, and
I'm unsure if it's because of a particular template (it's either whonix
or archlinux, but so far I haven't been able to reproduce the bug a
third time). In any case, I made sure to backup my
/usr/share/applications folder, because AFAIK there isn't any way to
re-generate those shortcuts aside from re-installing the applications or
manually re-creating the shortcuts.

-Lanythe

[☣Adam]

On 6/30/15, lanythe <lan...@mail2tor.com> wrote:
> On 06/30/2015 12:30 AM, cprise wrote:
>> At this point I'm just trying to run the gw template itself to complete
>> the installation/update instructions.
>>
>> Its showing up in the VM Manager but not the Launcher menu.
>>

To just complete the install, there's always qvm-run[1].

[1] https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/Dom0Tools/QvmRun/

[cprise]

On 06/29/2015 10:52 PM, lanythe wrote:
> On 06/30/2015 12:30 AM, cprise wrote:
>> On 06/29/2015 04:29 PM, ☣Adam wrote:
>>> On 6/29/15, cprise <cpr...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> I get a host of errors (see below) when installing the Whonix 10
>>>> gateway
>>>> template, and they seem to result in the lack of any menu entries for
>>>> Whonix in the Launcher. In VM Manager I can create a VM based on the
>>>> gateway template, and an entry will appear for it in Launcher - but it
>>>> contains only Terminal.
>>>
>>> Are you trying to use it as an AppVM instead of a ProxyVM? I
>>> installed it on Qubes 3 rc1 and it showed up in the Qubes VM Manager,
>>> I made a proxy VM from it, and then an AppVM named "anonymous". Going
>>> to https://check.torproject.org in the anonymous VM confirmed that the
>>> traffic was actually routing through the Tor network.
>>>
>>
>> At this point I'm just trying to run the gw template itself to complete
>> the installation/update instructions.
>>
>> Its showing up in the VM Manager but not the Launcher menu.
>>
>
> I'm guessing that you already tried spinning up the Whonix-GW TemplateVM
> and then running qvm-sync-appmenus in Dom0?

No dice. Something must be fubar-ed in my dom0 that prevents this from
working.

[Patrick Schleizer]

cprise:

> Warning: ignoring key 'Comment' of gateway-restarttor.desktop
> ----> Failed to get icon for qtconfig-qt4.desktop: Image format violation
> ----> Failed to get icon for gateway-firewall30default.desktop: Image
> size constraint violation: width=720 height=720 max_width=512
> max_height=512

Confirmed, I also saw those.

I guess it's nothing serious. But very worthwhile to fix, because it
looks confusing.

Could this be related to qvm-sync-appmenus?

I guess there is code that parses /usr/share/applications/*.desktop
files during template installation?

Seems the /usr/share/applications/*.desktop files are using a newer
format than whatever parses those. For example, if I remember right, the
'Comment' field in '.desktop' files is relatively new. I would
speculate, that a newer dom0 Fedora version [of the related package]
would fix this. Something else to consider would be suppressing
stdout/stderr of the tool that parses the '.desktop' files, but this has
disadvantages.

Cheers,
Patrick

[cprise]

On 07/03/2015 09:53 PM, Patrick Schleizer wrote:
> cprise:
>> Warning: ignoring key 'Comment' of gateway-restarttor.desktop
>> ----> Failed to get icon for qtconfig-qt4.desktop: Image format violation
>> ----> Failed to get icon for gateway-firewall30default.desktop: Image
>> size constraint violation: width=720 height=720 max_width=512
>> max_height=512
>
> Confirmed, I also saw those.
>
> I guess it's nothing serious. But very worthwhile to fix, because it
> looks confusing.
>
> Could this be related to qvm-sync-appmenus?

That is the output of qvm-sync-appmenus AFAIK. Shows the same thing if I
run it manually.

>
> I guess there is code that parses /usr/share/applications/*.desktop
> files during template installation?

Yes, but I think the bug I suffer (no additions to Launcher menu) must
be an error I acquired in dom0 as I seem to be the only one experiencing
the problem and it has happened before with other templates.