Fedora 32 approaching EOL

[Andrew David Wong]

Dear Qubes Community,

Fedora 32 is scheduled to reach EOL (end-of-life [1]) on 2021-05-25.

We strongly recommend that all Qubes users upgrade [2] their Fedora
32 TemplateVMs and StandaloneVMs to Fedora 33 before Fedora 32 reaches
EOL.

We provide a fresh Fedora 33 TemplateVM package through the official
Qubes repositories, which you can install in dom0 by following the
standard installation instructions [3]. Alternatively, we also provide
step-by-step instructions for performing an in-place upgrade [4] of an
existing Fedora TemplateVM. After upgrading your TemplateVMs, please
remember to switch all qubes that were using the old template to use
the new one [5].

For a complete list of TemplateVM versions supported for your specific
version of Qubes, see Supported TemplateVM Versions [6].

Please note that no user action is required regarding the OS version in
dom0. For details, please see our note on dom0 and EOL [7].

[1] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/End_of_life
[2] https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/templates/fedora/#upgrading
[3] https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/templates/fedora/#installing
[4] https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/template/fedora/upgrade/
[5] https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/supported-versions/#templatevms
[6] https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/templates/#switching
[7] https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/supported-versions/#note-on-dom0-and-eol

This announcement is also available on the Qubes website:
https://www.qubes-os.org/news/2021/04/29/fedora-32-approaching-eol/

--
Andrew David Wong (Axon)
Community Manager, Qubes OS
https://www.qubes-os.org

[Ulrich Windl]

On 4/30/21 1:31 AM, Andrew David Wong wrote:
> Dear Qubes Community,
>
> Fedora 32 is scheduled to reach EOL (end-of-life [1]) on 2021-05-25.

I have a question on https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/template/fedora/upgrade/:

Towards the end of the update procedure "Detailed instructions for
standard Fedora TemplateVMs" there is the command
[user@dom0 ~]$ sudo dnf remove qubes-template-fedora-<old>

However I wonder: I did not install a fedora-<new> template per
instructions, and I wonder about this asymmetry.

[Steve Coleman]

When you installed Qubes the default templates were installed for you. Because the fedora-32 came onto your system as an rpm it can only be removed by removing that rpm. To remove it, if you wish, you need to change all AppVMs to use some other template, to remove any qubes dependencies, then you remove the rpm. 

If you want to see all the default rpm templates you can do: "dom0> rpm -qa | grep qubes-template". Those templates need to be removed via dnf or rpm rather than just deleting it from the qube-manager or the qvm-* command line tool. When you clone a template it will not have an rpm file associated with it, so it can be removed easily using qube-manager.

I always clone all the rpm templates then remove the rpm's, and then rename the clones to the name I actually want. If I ever need a fresh copy I can always reinstall the rpm and clone it to start over. 

[Andrew David Wong]

I have updated the documentation to address this.

[Ulrich Windl]

On 5/13/21 2:36 AM, Steve Coleman wrote:
>
>
> On Wed, May 12, 2021, 5:52 PM Ulrich Windl
> <Ulrich...@rz.uni-regensburg.de

> <mailto:Ulrich...@rz.uni-regensburg.de>> wrote:
>
> On 4/30/21 1:31 AM, Andrew David Wong wrote:
> > Dear Qubes Community,
> >
> > Fedora 32 is scheduled to reach EOL (end-of-life [1]) on 2021-05-25.
>
> I have a question on
> https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/template/fedora/upgrade/
> <https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/template/fedora/upgrade/>:
>
> Towards the end of the update procedure "Detailed instructions for
> standard Fedora TemplateVMs" there is the command
> [user@dom0 ~]$ sudo dnf remove qubes-template-fedora-<old>
>
> However I wonder: I did not install a fedora-<new> template per
> instructions, and I wonder about this asymmetry.
>
>
> When you installed Qubes the default templates were installed for you.
> Because the fedora-32 came onto your system as an rpm it can only be
> removed by removing that rpm. To remove it, if you wish, you need to
> change all AppVMs to use some other template, to remove any qubes
> dependencies, then you remove the rpm.
>
> If you want to see all the default rpm templates you can do: "dom0> rpm
> -qa | grep qubes-template". Those templates need to be removed via dnf

"rpm -qa qubes-template\*" might be a bit more efficient. ;-)

> or rpm rather than just deleting it from the qube-manager or the qvm-*
> command line tool. When you clone a template it will not have an rpm
> file associated with it, so it can be removed easily using qube-manager.
>
> I always clone all the rpm templates then remove the rpm's, and then
> rename the clones to the name I actually want. If I ever need a fresh
> copy I can always reinstall the rpm and clone it to start over.

So cloning actually duplicates the rpm-installed template so it's safe
to remove the RPM package afterwards?

>
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[Steve Coleman]

Yes, it's safe. There are no rpm dependencies to prevent it's removal. You just need to be sure no AppVM anywhere on your system is currently using it. As long as no templates exist using the default name it's simple to reinstall from rpm to grab a pristine unmodified copy whenever you need one.

Cloning it merely copies the template contents to a new template name that is not controlled by any rpm. The new clone can be backed up and restored like any normal vm and can be quickly removed as long as it has no Qubes AppVM dependencies using it. 

>