Announcement: Qubes Tor onion services will no longer be maintained

[Andrew David Wong]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512

Dear Qubes Community,

We regret to announce that the Qubes Tor onion services will no longer
be maintained due to lack of resources. This includes all Qubes onion
services, including the Qubes website onion mirror and the onion package
repos.

We would like to thank the Whonix Project for generously maintaining
these services for over a year. [1] Maintaining the Tor onion services
requires labor, servers, and bandwidth. Unfortunately, none of these
resources are available to the Qubes OS or Whonix projects in sufficient
quantities to allow us to continue offering these services.

We recommend that users who currently rely on any Qubes onion addresses
transition to the corresponding clearnet addresses immediately.


[1] https://www.qubes-os.org/news/2018/01/23/qubes-whonix-next-gen-tor-onion-services/

This announcement is also available on the Qubes website:
https://www.qubes-os.org/news/2019/03/24/tor-onion-services-no-longer-maintained/

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

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
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=K1j1
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

[haaber]

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA512
>
> Dear Qubes Community,
>
> We regret to announce that the Qubes Tor onion services will no longer
> be maintained due to lack of resources. This includes all Qubes onion
> services, including the Qubes website onion mirror and the onion package
> repos.
>
> We would like to thank the Whonix Project for generously maintaining
> these services for over a year. [1] Maintaining the Tor onion services
> requires labor, servers, and bandwidth. Unfortunately, none of these
> resources are available to the Qubes OS or Whonix projects in sufficient
> quantities to allow us to continue offering these services.
>
> We recommend that users who currently rely on any Qubes onion addresses
> transition to the corresponding clearnet addresses immediately.
>

Maybe you could have added two lines how to do this. Is is correct /
sufficient for this transition to choose sys-firewall as UpdateVM in
qubesManager->GlobalSettings ?

[Andrew David Wong]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512

It is not necessary to switch from sys-whonix to sys-firewall. Whonix
VMs will still continue to work as before. This announcement just
means that you should switch from any Qubes Tor onion service domains
(ending in ".onion") that you may have been relying on (e.g., for
package repos or the Qubes website) to instead use the corresponding
clearnet domain (usually qubes-os.org). Note that you can still use
Tor with clearnet domains.

If you were not using any Qubes Tor onion services, then this
announcement does not affect you.

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

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----

iQIzBAEBCgAdFiEEZQ7rCYX0j3henGH1203TvDlQMDAFAlyYKt8ACgkQ203TvDlQ
MDCg1A//VYXaL6NyHnaO8gQCwI2emTi17D2y8ZKXvBUQg4djJAF3WxI6lG6tF1zn
sUgBP9Qx40KI68IjikAgmk3nACpCpA+95d+UjP7Nss5Q1PuZtLrHvupys786EMmC
AzE3ttwiOz6rf2ljjxLY4+a6YHoi2euHx1wuf0/un62znO/F5Pl67YmAkiarIuiP
p6QA5Yhj9Yhg8tTrU+pkFKZUH8eNCSt5GRMdcOZ9oHDlXZHDhnAIYqvhHIZRA98y
Ird9c8fWoxHrA70PhGzROhLEc03zN03xT62XYEULDnbRzlkHlMJe7wE0lsfZwrmh
whWbWZLoJMU2EUmRDqR714IGomj/GonHQp1yviyI24GJfyIxjJoCaX1f2qxTNlFu
wRPiuVusGLOyYzlkx6rgkL7tAOZe72gPwL1p9Nzl33rJvVxPv0bIQ8ICCeZY4VE5
BkzKb22ps7Gux9o+aNuxV4B65KmCVWXyLOE9Zaegkoa9dAXZyk7dpwWvSSa0reaZ
+sQyDy6U0J4U2399pPnjCGuuPDrnka9K1A28s33cQBekDgpos/C+xJ27IPpA5Rn9
+2ihZqm2I1SZfufWCH26buiCVJ/dYZ2hTgiHf1JCCjm9RSPETkPNFIN34Mb0S6/s
Xj+gD2ZI1CCH6nmaMRwiWcx7wKr9iwyJS+UxMJg1A/HhWTC2Gpw=
=HBQ9
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

[jrsm...@gmail.com]

This is seriously bad news. If you and Whonix are that resource strapped, it does not bode well for the future of either team. I have done my part and contributed what I could to both.

[qubenix]

Andrew David Wong:

> Dear Qubes Community,
>
> We regret to announce that the Qubes Tor onion services will no longer
> be maintained due to lack of resources. This includes all Qubes onion
> services, including the Qubes website onion mirror and the onion package
> repos.
>
> We would like to thank the Whonix Project for generously maintaining
> these services for over a year. [1] Maintaining the Tor onion services
> requires labor, servers, and bandwidth. Unfortunately, none of these
> resources are available to the Qubes OS or Whonix projects in sufficient
> quantities to allow us to continue offering these services.
>
> We recommend that users who currently rely on any Qubes onion addresses
> transition to the corresponding clearnet addresses immediately.
>
>
> [1] https://www.qubes-os.org/news/2018/01/23/qubes-whonix-next-gen-tor-onion-services/
>
> This announcement is also available on the Qubes website:
> https://www.qubes-os.org/news/2019/03/24/tor-onion-services-no-longer-maintained/
>
>

Wow, very sad. May I ask why so many extra resources are needed? Can't
you just install tor on the system that hosts your clearnet repos?

--
qubenix

CODE PGP: FE7454228594B4DDD034CE73A95D4D197E922B20
EMAIL PGP: 96096E4CA0870F1C5BAF7DD909D159E1241F9C54
IRC OTR: DFD1DA35 D74E775B 3E3DADB1 226282EE FB711765

[22...@tutamail.com]

I just donated a small amount...not much but all I can right now. I would encourage others if you can...both Qubes and Whonix do good work!

Maybe someone can clarify and help. I have been using Qubes for a while favoring Whonix when I can.

My understanding is:

The -gw and -ws templates, -dvm, appvm, etc and functionality will remain...correct?

The Qubes-os.org onion site is going away...right?

I have been keeping pretty good track of my changes from default install(dom0 and templates) over the past few year when I originally installed 4.0, but "...have been relying on (e.g., for package repos..." might have been something I did a while ago. How would one check this?

Thanks again...

[Andrew David Wong]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512

On 24/03/2019 7.30 PM, Andrew David Wong wrote:
> Dear Qubes Community,
>
> We regret to announce that the Qubes Tor onion services will no longer
> be maintained due to lack of resources. This includes all Qubes onion
> services, including the Qubes website onion mirror and the onion package
> repos.
>
> We would like to thank the Whonix Project for generously maintaining
> these services for over a year. [1] Maintaining the Tor onion services
> requires labor, servers, and bandwidth. Unfortunately, none of these
> resources are available to the Qubes OS or Whonix projects in sufficient
> quantities to allow us to continue offering these services.
>
> We recommend that users who currently rely on any Qubes onion addresses
> transition to the corresponding clearnet addresses immediately.
>
>
> [1] https://www.qubes-os.org/news/2018/01/23/qubes-whonix-next-gen-tor-onion-services/
>
> This announcement is also available on the Qubes website:
> https://www.qubes-os.org/news/2019/03/24/tor-onion-services-no-longer-maintained/
>

Dear Qubes Community,

Thank you all for your support. Unman has generously agreed to bring the
Qubes Tor onion services back and maintain them. He has considerable
experience in hosting and infrastructure management, including running
onion services. He is working on it now. We'll have another update for
you soon.

Thank you, unman!

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

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----

iQIzBAEBCgAdFiEEZQ7rCYX0j3henGH1203TvDlQMDAFAlyZkfsACgkQ203TvDlQ
MDCeNA/8Dcb3mOGy0GqtoVN33331adyRk0sx8HjC372wsN3WdTKSpMPT3vSnv83x
7F7l+14g5ODfp0g0NN2yNZau24KswW4j96cWMrjAGTgTBtpOp76MmKnDWAATUt13
6gL7QACtG6QOvK0FKKa+6Y3JGXyftG2GxomeS1d6LPiG09FN45IGbjyIvwRhM8iv
igfniJr/mhwxfjKjMrPiCBqJdr4PjX07LMSB/qns/qXJBcH8xga2KRM4tqSmCTEr
Vin6ecAxKsQOL0RMCoEGRDNt0ieQkrqhQTp4o+B6AbiYyjB7ggQm9Kyt8gGYymM1
NibtSIiDooBQzOx+Qp61re2Im40bTrQPJV5KvHJkN3klBDQsfiu8n6LSdeGcdA8V
49TGr1gVIegfpc56wCbj9g4UnKIpoUKpGJEyKMLaqXG0nVkr07gTuePQX4bhswD/
sY/V1qwYssD1l79eqVNu9QC8Jnx6DTtKnidDaj6wEJFmZnAy+O35znrbquJpCRi+
2XGXnqF1MP+8xRlOlMnEtFzKVv2LPYKUJTYPVSPUci+D0l8f8649eJcGSECk13BX
FakdNrzIseJxOOhYvH8zsl4HGy4TD/Xe4aHeh+fBNCpO/9XEB0WYvWF2rW4RmaRn
YCCEOa2HA0E+3czZarhTYvTllQWLQ2N+874g/qkWU82cOzYtgIQ=
=hqT/
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

[js...@bitmessage.ch]

22...@tutamail.com:

> My understanding is:
>
> The -gw and -ws templates, -dvm, appvm, etc and functionality will remain...correct?
>
> The Qubes-os.org onion site is going away...right?
>
> I have been keeping pretty good track of my changes from default install(dom0 and templates) over the past few year when I originally installed 4.0, but "...have been relying on (e.g., for package repos..." might have been something I did a while ago. How would one check this?

Yes the qubes onion hosting (website and repo) is gone, but the
announcement from Andrew said that unman is working on hosting it again
(thank you unman!)

Until that's back up the only thing that needs to be changed is your
update source, if you changed it to the qubes onion repo before (the
whonix onion repo is still working).

To check, in debian/whonix templates, look in
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/qubes-r?.list (? is 4 or 3 depending on qubes
version). If you have a .onion address in there it needs to be changed
back to the clearnet address until the onion repo is back up.

In dom0 (and i think in fedora templates too) the relevant files are in
/etc/yum.repos.d/

--
Jackie

[jrsm...@gmail.com]

Thank you, Unman for taking this on. I still think the larger issue is that the qubes and whonix teams are severely resource strapped. It is truly a David and Goliath situation between them and the Wintel money machine. We need to give these guys all the financial support we can.

[Franz]

Today I tried to updated the Whonix-ws template, but got an error about being  unable to download some asc file. Then trying to update it again, it founds nothing to update and there is no network connection even if I connect it to default NON tor firewall.

If I ping google I get "operation not permitted"

Is that related to this thread?

Best

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "qubes-users" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to qubes-users...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to qubes...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/qubes-users/68e9cb48-8d7a-4bea-abbc-d928d0fff52a%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[0brand]

Franz:

> Today I tried to updated the Whonix-ws template, but got an error about
> being unable to download some asc file. Then trying to update it again, it
> founds nothing to update and there is no network connection even if I
> connect it to default NON tor firewall.

Could you please post the error that you are referring to.

Qubes 4.0 templateVMs are non-network connected by default and instead
use qubes-updates-proxy to update software.

If you were to connect Whonix-ws-14 to a clearnet connected VM you would
have no network connection in the template.

>
> If I ping google I get "operation not permitted"

ping does not work over Tor.

>
> Is that related to this thread?

Not unless you configured your template(s) to use Qubes .onion repositories.

>> Thank you, Unman for taking this on. I still think the larger issue is
>> that the qubes and whonix teams are severely resource strapped. It is
>> truly a David and Goliath situation between them and the Wintel money
>> machine. We need to give these guys all the financial support we can.
>>
>> --
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
>> "qubes-users" group.
>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
>> email to qubes-users...@googlegroups.com.
>> To post to this group, send email to qubes...@googlegroups.com.
>> To view this discussion on the web visit
>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/qubes-users/68e9cb48-8d7a-4bea-abbc-d928d0fff52a%40googlegroups.com
>> .
>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>>
>

--
GPG Public Key: 0x09B31BA99EC051FE
Fingerprint: 4452 4D54 4EB2 53E8 1EE9 223A 09B3 1BA9 9EC0 51FE

[Franz]

0brand

On Sun, Mar 31, 2019 at 6:32 PM 0brand <0br...@mailbox.org> wrote:

Franz:
> Today I tried to updated the Whonix-ws template, but got an error about
> being  unable to download some asc file. Then trying to update it again, it
> founds nothing to update and there is no network connection even if I
> connect it to default NON tor firewall.

Could you please post the error that you are referring to.

No because, as I wrote, when i try to update again I do no more get the error message. It simple reports there is nothing to update.

Qubes 4.0 templateVMs are non-network connected by default and instead
use qubes-updates-proxy to update software.

If you were to connect Whonix-ws-14 to a clearnet connected VM you would
have no network connection in the template.

May be I was not clear. My problem is not the template, rather the depending applvm. I mentioned the template only because of the updating error not finding the relevant asc file, because I imagined it may be the cause of the lacking network in the applVM. 

>
> If I ping google I get "operation not permitted"

ping does not work over Tor.

 

>
> Is that related to this thread?

Not unless you configured your template(s) to use Qubes .onion repositories.

so it is not related since I used the default configuration.