template /home/user is not copied when creating appvm

[Dave C]

According to https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/templates/ ,

Whenever a TemplateBasedVM is created, the contents of the /home directory of its parent TemplateVM are copied to the child TemplateBasedVM’s /home...

Is this true in Qubes 4.0 rc3?

In my experience, changes made to /home/user in the template are not copied to the appvm when it is created.

Thanks for any help. -Dave

[Tom Zander]

On Tuesday, 19 December 2017 20:22:02 CET Dave C wrote:
> Whenever a TemplateBasedVM is created, the contents of the /home
> directory of its parent TemplateVM are copied to the child
> TemplateBasedVM’s /home...
>
> Is this true in Qubes 4.0 rc3?
>
> In my experience, changes made to /home/user in the template are not
> copied to the appvm when it is created.

This mirrors my experience, AppVMs don’t inherit the homedir.

I believe that the design has changed (i.e. the docs are outdated). Template
VMs are means to be used purely for its operating system and the software
going with it, the homedir should have no personal data or app-configs
because you should not use the template for anything other than updating
packages.

Notice that disposable VMs no longer use templateVMs, they are based on an
AppVM instead. You will likely end up creating an AppVM which will be a
template for disposable VMs launched by the system.

--
Tom Zander
Blog: https://zander.github.io
Vlog: https://vimeo.com/channels/tomscryptochannel

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

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On Wed, Dec 20, 2017 at 08:55:49PM +0100, 'Tom Zander' via qubes-users wrote:
> On Tuesday, 19 December 2017 20:22:02 CET Dave C wrote:
> > Whenever a TemplateBasedVM is created, the contents of the /home
> > directory of its parent TemplateVM are copied to the child
> > TemplateBasedVM’s /home...
> >
> > Is this true in Qubes 4.0 rc3?
> >
> > In my experience, changes made to /home/user in the template are not
> > copied to the appvm when it is created.
>
> This mirrors my experience, AppVMs don’t inherit the homedir.
>
> I believe that the design has changed (i.e. the docs are outdated). Template
> VMs are means to be used purely for its operating system and the software
> going with it, the homedir should have no personal data or app-configs
> because you should not use the template for anything other than updating
> packages.

Yes, exactly. If you want some initial configuration for new AppVMs, use
/etc/skel there, just like on normal Linux for new user's home.

> Notice that disposable VMs no longer use templateVMs, they are based on an
> AppVM instead. You will likely end up creating an AppVM which will be a
> template for disposable VMs launched by the system.

Yes, this is the reason why DispVMs are based on AppVM (which was also
the case in 3.2 - there were fedora-xx-dvm VMs).

- --
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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