how to integrate 3-year old backed up VM's into new system?

[Emil Cronjäger]

Hi,

I have a 3-year old backup of an old Qubes system that I cannot access
on my new, up-to-date system.

Two templates are standalone VM's: I can integrate them with the
Qubes-backup tool, so they appear in Qubes Manager, but they wont start:
"ERROR: Cannot execute qrexec-daemon!"

Two VM's are based on out-dated templates (fedora-18-x64) and cannot be
restored. I can restore them still, with the "ignore missing" option,
but I guess this wont make them boot?

Any suggestions?

Best regards,
Emil

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

On Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 07:50:26PM +0000, Emil Cronjäger wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a 3-year old backup of an old Qubes system that I cannot access
> on my new, up-to-date system.
>
> Two templates are standalone VM's: I can integrate them with the
> Qubes-backup tool, so they appear in Qubes Manager, but they wont start:
> "ERROR: Cannot execute qrexec-daemon!"

Take a look at those instructions (in order):
https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/upgrade-to-r3.0/
https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/upgrade-to-r3.1/
https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/upgrade-to-r3.2/

Especially the first link have steps for recovering from your situation.

> Two VM's are based on out-dated templates (fedora-18-x64) and cannot be
> restored. I can restore them still, with the "ignore missing" option,
> but I guess this wont make them boot?

That should work - those VMs will be set to use your default template.

- --
Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
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[Emil Cronjäger]

Marek Marczykowski-Górecki:

> On Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 07:50:26PM +0000, Emil Cronjäger wrote:
> Take a look at those instructions (in order):
> https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/upgrade-to-r3.0/

That got me a shell in one of the two VM's - thanx! There were some
problems with the ip-commands though, but I managed to get the data out,
and put it into a fresh VM.

The other VM (also standalone), however, wont help me with a shell:

connected to domain [domain-name]
error: operation failed: PTY device is not yet assigned

I am not sure or how to determine it, but it *might* be a debian-based
VM, if that is to any help.
It is not crucial for me to get the VM up and running, but I need to get
data out of it somehow.

> That should work - those VMs will be set to use your default template.
>
>

Yup, it worked.

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

On Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 11:08:35PM +0000, Emil Cronjäger wrote:
>
>
> Marek Marczykowski-Górecki:
> > On Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 07:50:26PM +0000, Emil Cronjäger wrote:
> > Take a look at those instructions (in order):
> > https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/upgrade-to-r3.0/
>
> That got me a shell in one of the two VM's - thanx! There were some
> problems with the ip-commands though, but I managed to get the data out,
> and put it into a fresh VM.
>
> The other VM (also standalone), however, wont help me with a shell:
>
> connected to domain [domain-name]
> error: operation failed: PTY device is not yet assigned
>
> I am not sure or how to determine it, but it *might* be a debian-based
> VM, if that is to any help.

Standalone (PV) VM, right? Or maybe some HVM?

> It is not crucial for me to get the VM up and running, but I need to get
> data out of it somehow.

If you just want the data, create new VM, start it, and then attach the
old VM private.img and/or root.img to the new one as additional device:

qvm-block --attach-file new-vm /var/lib/qubes/appvms/old-vm/private.img

- --
Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
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[Emil Cronjäger]

Marek Marczykowski-Górecki:
> On Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 11:08:35PM +0000, Emil Cronjäger wrote:
>
>
>> Marek Marczykowski-Górecki:
>>> On Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 07:50:26PM +0000, Emil Cronjäger wrote:
>>> Take a look at those instructions (in order):
>>> https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/upgrade-to-r3.0/
>
>> That got me a shell in one of the two VM's - thanx! There were some
>> problems with the ip-commands though, but I managed to get the data out,
>> and put it into a fresh VM.
>
>> The other VM (also standalone), however, wont help me with a shell:
>
>> connected to domain [domain-name]
>> error: operation failed: PTY device is not yet assigned
>
>> I am not sure or how to determine it, but it *might* be a debian-based
>> VM, if that is to any help.
>
> Standalone (PV) VM, right? Or maybe some HVM?

yes, standalone VM, no HVM.

>> It is not crucial for me to get the VM up and running, but I need to get
>> data out of it somehow.
>
> If you just want the data, create new VM, start it, and then attach the
> old VM private.img and/or root.img to the new one as additional device:
>
> qvm-block --attach-file new-vm /var/lib/qubes/appvms/old-vm/private.img

The command goes through without any errors, but the device doesnt show
up in new-vm. No changes in lsblk before/after.
I tried the --frontend=xvdi, also goes through with no problem, but
still no new device for me in new-vm. Does it hide somewhere special?

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

On Tue, Oct 18, 2016 at 12:05:33PM +0000, Emil Cronjäger wrote:
>
>
> Marek Marczykowski-Górecki:
> > On Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 11:08:35PM +0000, Emil Cronjäger wrote:
> >
> >
> >> Marek Marczykowski-Górecki:
> >>> On Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 07:50:26PM +0000, Emil Cronjäger wrote:
> >>> Take a look at those instructions (in order):
> >>> https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/upgrade-to-r3.0/
> >
> >> That got me a shell in one of the two VM's - thanx! There were some
> >> problems with the ip-commands though, but I managed to get the data out,
> >> and put it into a fresh VM.
> >
> >> The other VM (also standalone), however, wont help me with a shell:
> >
> >> connected to domain [domain-name]
> >> error: operation failed: PTY device is not yet assigned
> >
> >> I am not sure or how to determine it, but it *might* be a debian-based
> >> VM, if that is to any help.
> >
> > Standalone (PV) VM, right? Or maybe some HVM?
>
> yes, standalone VM, no HVM.
>
> >> It is not crucial for me to get the VM up and running, but I need to get
> >> data out of it somehow.
> >
> > If you just want the data, create new VM, start it, and then attach the
> > old VM private.img and/or root.img to the new one as additional device:
> >
> > qvm-block --attach-file new-vm /var/lib/qubes/appvms/old-vm/private.img

Correction: prefix file path with "dom0:". But if you didn't get any
error, it should be fine too...

> The command goes through without any errors, but the device doesnt show
> up in new-vm. No changes in lsblk before/after.
> I tried the --frontend=xvdi, also goes through with no problem, but
> still no new device for me in new-vm. Does it hide somewhere special?

No, it should be there as /dev/xvdi... Anything in `dmesg` output in
new-vm?

- --
Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
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[Emil Cronjäger]

Marek Marczykowski-Górecki:

It worked with the "dom0:" option, the device got mounted as /dev/xvdi
and all good. I mistakenly used prefix "old-vm:", thats why it did't
work. Thanks a lot, all solved.