Unable to uninstall or reinstall Whonix

[Person]

I use Qubes-Whonix (precisely Qubes 3.2), and when I try to remove the Whonix Template VMs after removing the anon-whonix VM, it says that the command I used to remove is not found. Also, the Whonix template VMs no longer work.

I also tried to just install Whonix, but dom0 replies with "Update VM not found".

[Person]

On Tuesday, September 19, 2017 at 10:59:33 AM UTC+8, Person wrote:
> I use Qubes-Whonix (precisely Qubes 3.2), and when I try to remove the Whonix Template VMs after removing the anon-whonix VM, it says that the command I used to remove is not found. Also, the Whonix template VMs no longer work.
>
> I also tried to just install Whonix, but dom0 replies with "Update VM not found".

Edit: I read the qubes-os.org manual, but nothing really seems to work.

[cooloutac]

whats the exact command you are typing?

[Person]

I believe it is "sudo yum erase qubes-template-whonix-gw" for uninstalling (I typed it in a Whonix Konsole) and "sudo qubes-dom0-update --enablerepo=qubes-templates-community qubes-template-whonix-gw qubes-template-whonix-ws". I haven't deleted the old Whonix-gw and Whonix-ws templates yet, because there seems to be no option other than the terminal commands, which don't work.

[Essax]

To remove Whonix templates first remove all the appVMs based on those templates. In dom0 type :

qvm-remove sys-whonix

qvm-remove anon-whonix

Then to remove the Whonix templates. In dom0 type :

qvm-remove whonix-gw

qvm-remove whonix-ws

Essax

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[Unman]

On Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 08:57:41PM -0400, 'Essax' via qubes-users wrote:
> To remove Whonix templates first remove all the appVMs based on those templates. In dom0 type :
>
> qvm-remove sys-whonix
> qvm-remove anon-whonix
>
> Then to remove the Whonix templates. In dom0 type :
>
> qvm-remove whonix-gw
> qvm-remove whonix-ws
>
> Essax
>

> Sent with [ProtonMail](https://protonmail.com) Secure Email.

>
> > -------- Original Message --------
> > Subject: [qubes-users] Re: Unable to uninstall or reinstall Whonix
> > Local Time: September 20, 2017 4:46 PM
> > UTC Time: September 20, 2017 8:46 PM
> > From: xueyi...@gmail.com
> > To: qubes-users <qubes...@googlegroups.com>
> >
> > I believe it is "sudo yum erase qubes-template-whonix-gw" for uninstalling (I typed it in a Whonix Konsole) and "sudo qubes-dom0-update --enablerepo=qubes-templates-community qubes-template-whonix-gw qubes-template-whonix-ws". I haven"t deleted the old Whonix-gw and Whonix-ws templates yet, because there seems to be no option other than the terminal commands, which don"t work.
> >

Please don't top post.

I don't use whonix myself, but it seems to me that Essax is partly right
and partly wrong.
You need to make sure that there aren't ANY qubes using the whonix
templates.
You can either do this by deleting them using qvm-remove or (better)
changing the template they are based on, in QubesManager or using
qvm-prefs in a dom0 terminal.

To remove the actual templates, I don't believe you would be able to
use qvm-remove because they have been installed using yum.
You have the correct command, but you used it in the wrong place. Don't
run it in a whonix konsole - run it in dom0 terminal.
Whonix is Debian based which is why you had "command not found"

unman

[Person]

I tried these commands in dom0 too, but the terminal only replies with "Update VM not set". I have no idea what to do.

[nicholas roveda]

I don't know if dom0 actually warned you after having successfully removed the packages or it didn't let you do that because of the matter it warned you about.

Anyway, I think the problem is you set up the dom0 updates to be done through Whonix, so you can try to change the UpdateVM field in the Qubes Global Settings (I can't recall now if R3.2 has the same name), choosing for example 'sys-firewall' and then remove the Whonix Templates.

[Person]

You were correct (thank you so much!). Apparently I set the Update VM to "none" in the Global Settings, so it didn't work. Now installing Whonix works fine.

However, uninstalling the old templates still does not work. The dom0 terminal only replies with "No match for argument: qubes-template-whonix-gw" and "Error: No packages marked for removal". Although I assume as I am already starting to reinstall Whonix, the old templates won't matter as much.

[cooloutac]

On Saturday, September 23, 2017 at 10:31:08 PM UTC-4, Person wrote:
> You were correct (thank you so much!). Apparently I set the Update VM to "none" in the Global Settings, so it didn't work. Now installing Whonix works fine.
>
> However, uninstalling the old templates still does not work. The dom0 terminal only replies with "No match for argument: qubes-template-whonix-gw" and "Error: No packages marked for removal". Although I assume as I am already starting to reinstall Whonix, the old templates won't matter as much.

https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/remove-vm-manually/ try these steps.

[Person]

It seems that the VMs have already been replaced. Which is good considering that then I don't need to delete the old templates.

However, the system didn't automatically give me an anon-Whonix or sys-Whonix templates, so I tried making some for myself. (I'm not sure if there is a easier or better way to get the templates, if there is, please inform me.)

I tried to download Tor Browser on Whonix-ws, and it doesn't work. My internet connectivity and Whonix VMs are working fine, but there is an error because "Tor could not connect to the Tor control port".

Specifically, the error I saw was this: http://imgur.com/eQWNgcf.

[cooloutac]

whonix already comes with tor browser.

[Person]

Well, (probably) because I deleted and reinstalled Whonix, Tor Browser isn't downloaded to whonix-ws yet. There is an app specifically for me to download Tor Browser, but unfortunately, it is not working.

https://imgur.com/eQWNgcf

[Person]

The Tor Control Port thing is actually a more common problem than I thought, but I might have to edit the torrc file and change the port connection.
https://tor.stackexchange.com/questions/12650/could-not-connect-to-tor-control-port

Otherwise, I might have to reinstall the Tor Browser Bundle or delete any possible old file configurations for Tor.

[cooloutac]

do you have the whonix-gw template installed with sys-firewall as its netvm. and did you put whonix-gw as netvm for the whonix-ws?

[cooloutac]

if you didn't change any of the firewall settings, then your router might be filtering outgoing ports.

[Person]

I have the Whonix-gw template installed with sys-firewall as its NetVM, but the same problem appears. Also, when I try to make the NetVM of Whonix-ws a Whonix-gw VM, there is an error: “Cannot dynamically attach to stooped NetVM”.

[Person]

I opened the torrc file successfully through dom0, but I can’t figure out how to edit the ports or what ports to use.

[Person]

I changed the NetVM of whonix-gw from sys-net to anon-whonix (so whonix-gw finally has a NetVM that uses Whonix as its template) , and the Tor Control Port problem no longer appears. However, a Tor Bootstrap problem appears: http://imgur.com/1Gut4Tz.

I don’t understand why this is happening. My internet connection is working and Tor is not censored in my area. So I opened Arm, but it was lagging and I couldn’t do anything on it.

[Unman]

On Sun, Oct 01, 2017 at 06:35:03PM -0700, Person wrote:
> I changed the NetVM of whonix-gw from sys-net to anon-whonix (so whonix-gw finally has a NetVM that uses Whonix as its template) , and the Tor Control Port problem no longer appears. However, a Tor Bootstrap problem appears: http://imgur.com/1Gut4Tz.
>
> I don’t understand why this is happening. My internet connection is working and Tor is not censored in my area. So I opened Arm, but it was lagging and I couldn’t do anything on it.
>

I don't use Whonix but I can almost guarantee that this is NOT what you
should be doing.
I'd suggest you might get more help over at the Whonix forums that here.
BUT I suspect that they might baulk at your suggestion that you are
"making some templates for myself." Do you really mean this?

I've lost track of what you have done and what you haven't, because you
rarely give enough information to understand what is happening, and
when you do it's quite confusing. I suspect this is because you are
confused yourself.

The one specific error that you mentioned "Cannot dynamically attach to
stopped NetVM" means exactly what it says: You are trying to change the
NetVM of whonix-ws while it is running, and the NetVM you choose is NOT
running. The solution is to start the NetVM you want to use.

[Person]

I have successfully changed the NetVM for the Whonix templates, luckily.

To explain what I said eariler, I changed the NetVM of whonix-gw to anon-whonix, so that the “Whonix has no UpdateVM” (I think they mean that the whonix-gw template does not use a NetVM with a whonix template) and the Tor Control Port errors are gone. However, a Tor Bootstrap problem appears: http://imgur.com/1Gut4Tz. This seems to mean that a Tor connection was not established.

The three reasons the error message gives me are that my internet is not working, Tor is censored in my area, or that my Arm (Tor Controller) configuration is off somehow.
The first two reasons do not apply to me because my internet is working, and Tor is not censored in my area. So I opened Arm (Tor Controller) to edit the configuration of Tor, but Arm was lagging and I couldn’t change anything.

[Person]

I looked at Arm again. It seems that Arm is working, but I don’t know the commands to edit the Tor configuration.

Arm mentions a list of problems relating to Tor (http://imgur.com/XrJHKSK). It seems that I have relaying disabled, torrc differs from what Tor is using, there is insufficient uptime, Tor is preventing utilities like netstat and lsof from working, and no armrc is working. Unfortunately, I can’t figure out how to solve these problems.

This is the link I found in the bottom of the Arm report: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/3313. I’m not too sure what it means.

[Person]

The Control Port is 9051. I’m not sure if that has anything to do with my problems.

I chose Internal Relaying and started Tor through Arm, but it did not register that Tor was connected. I still received the bootstrap problem and the qrexec problem.

[filtration]

what it means..
>
Forgive me, Person, but maybe you should be reinstalling at this point.
You are asking for lots of help with all these problems; the people
helping you probably have other things to do.

Try again from scratch and resist the urge to "customize." I used to
break lots of installs that way, until I reigned in that behavior.

<b>Don't proceed with customizations unless you are fully aware of the
consequences.</b>

[Person]

I’ll probably try to reinstall Whonix or just delete it altogether.

[Unman]

On Mon, Oct 09, 2017 at 08:40:19PM -0700, Person wrote:
> I’ll probably try to reinstall Whonix or just delete it altogether.
>

I admire your persistence, if not your skills.

If you DO try Whonix again, please make an effort to understand how it
is intended to work.
I don't use it myself, but I believe that it comes in two parts - the
gateway and the ws. The problems you are talking about now arise
because you tried to use anon-whonix , which is the ws side of things as
the gateway.
I haven't looked at the code but I can almost guarantee that that wont
work. And indeed it didn't for you.

Don't give up.
Make sure that you remove the Whonix templates and then reinstall
them.

You will almost certainly get better advice if you address the Whonix
forums rather than this mailing list, unless you have Qubes specific
problems.

[Person]

I believe I’m going to ask the Whonix forums, then.

Thank you all for your input.

[Franz]

On Sat, Oct 14, 2017 at 11:17 AM, Person <xueyi...@gmail.com> wrote:

I believe I’m going to ask the Whonix forums, then.

Thank you all for your input.

It is really very simple, just  follow instructions here

https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/whonix/install/

In my case the command did not work in one step, I had to divide it in two

sudo qubes-dom0-update --enablerepo=qubes-templates-community qubes-template-whonix-ws

 

sudo qubes-dom0-update --enablerepo=qubes-templates-community qubes-template-whonix-gw

Best

[Franz]

But if it had been already installed  previously, you should add the option
 --action=reinstall

[Franz]

Well installation works well, but trying to start the template I get a

cannot execute a qrexec-daemon

[Franz]

A work-around: changing the netVM of whonix-gw to sys-firewall allows whonix-gw to start without the qrexec issue. Then shutting it down and using the correct netVM that is sys-whonix everything works.