Removing Template VMs?

[viktor....@gmail.com]

Hello community,

If I'd like to remove any old & **unused** Template VMs (e.g. Debian 9, Fedora 29, etc.) all I have to do is to start the Qubes Manager, select the template I'd like to remove - and - select 'Delete qube' ...

Is this approach OK - or - am I missing something?

With kind regards,

VR

[dhorf-hfre...@hashmail.org]

On Mon, May 04, 2020 at 12:28:27PM -0700, viktor....@gmail.com wrote:
> If I'd like to remove any old & **unused** Template VMs (e.g. Debian 9,
> Fedora 29, etc.) all I have to do is to start the Qubes Manager, select the
> template I'd like to remove - and - select 'Delete qube' ...

this should not work for templates that were installed by rpm.
you will have to use "rpm -e qubes-template-fedora-23" (or similar).
this will also require you clean up anything depending on these
templates first, like switching all VMs using them to something else,
removing related dvm templates ...

i recommend to keep your one-generation-outdated mainline-template
around (even if it is EOL) if you can spare the diskspace.
if you manage to wreck your new mainline template some way, it is
easier to recover from that with an outdated than with no template.

[viktor....@gmail.com]

Thanks for your feedback.

Am Montag, 4. Mai 2020 22:25:13 UTC+2 schrieb dhorf-hfr...@hashmail.org:

On Mon, May 04, 2020 at 12:28:27PM -0700, viktor....@gmail.com wrote:
> If I'd like to remove any old & **unused** Template VMs (e.g. Debian 9,
> Fedora 29, etc.) all I have to do is to start the Qubes Manager, select the
> template I'd like to remove - and - select 'Delete qube' ...

this should not work for templates that were installed by rpm.
you will have to use "rpm -e qubes-template-fedora-23" (or similar).

I'm a new user of Qubes OS. - I started to use it only with R4.0.

Does any of the above concern me?

this will also require you clean up anything depending on these
templates first, like switching all VMs using them to something else,
removing related dvm templates ...

I'm aware/ took care of that/ already. - This is why I referred to 'remove old & **** unused *** Template VMs'.

i recommend to keep your one-generation-outdated mainline-template
around (even if it is EOL) if you can spare the diskspace.
if you manage to wreck your new mainline template some way, it is
easier to recover from that with an outdated than with no template.

 This advice of yours I don't fully understand - but - I'll defer it to another message.

With kind regards,

VR

[viktor....@gmail.com]

Am Dienstag, 5. Mai 2020 20:39:52 UTC+2 schrieb viktor....@gmail.com:

Am Montag, 4. Mai 2020 22:25:13 UTC+2 schrieb dhorf-hfr...@hashmail.org:

On Mon, May 04, 2020 at 12:28:27PM -0700, viktor....@gmail.com wrote:
> If I'd like to remove any old & **unused** Template VMs (e.g. Debian 9,
> Fedora 29, etc.) all I have to do is to start the Qubes Manager, select the
> template I'd like to remove - and - select 'Delete qube' ...

this should not work for templates that were installed by rpm.
you will have to use "rpm -e qubes-template-fedora-23" (or similar).

I'm a new user of Qubes OS. - I started to use it only with R4.0.

Does any of the above concern me?

this will also require you clean up anything depending on these
templates first, like switching all VMs using them to something else,
removing related dvm templates ...

I'm aware/ took care of that/ already. - This is why I referred to 'remove old & **** unused **** Template VMs'.

i recommend to keep your one-generation-outdated mainline-template
around (even if it is EOL) if you can spare the diskspace.
if you manage to wreck your new mainline template some way, it is
easier to recover from that with an outdated than with no template.

 This advice of yours I don't fully understand - but - I'll defer it to another message.

I could spare the disk space - but - why should I do that?

My understanding from reading the documentation is, that I could re-create the deleted Template VM later in time anyhow, should the need arise ...

For example I could execute 

[vr@dom0 ~]$ sudo qubes-dom0-update qubes-template-fedora-29

in order to re-create a Template VM, which is used by an 'old' backup-ed App VM, that I've deleted in my current Qubes OS setup.

Thanks already in advance for any answers & insights on what I might be missing!

With kind regards,

VR

[dhorf-hfre...@hashmail.org]

On Wed, May 06, 2020 at 09:31:50PM -0700, viktor....@gmail.com wrote:
> >> i recommend to keep your one-generation-outdated mainline-template
> >> around (even if it is EOL) if you can spare the diskspace.
> >> if you manage to wreck your new mainline template some way, it is
> >> easier to recover from that with an outdated than with no template.

> My understanding from reading the documentation is, that I could re-create
> the deleted Template VM later in time anyhow, should the need arise ...

> [vr@dom0 ~]$ sudo qubes-dom0-update qubes-template-fedora-29

this only works if you have a working template for your netvm
and updatevm to run on.
having two usable templates makes it much less likely both are going
to break at the same time.