Qubes OS 4.0.4-rc2 has been released!

[Andrew David Wong]

Dear Qubes Community,

We're pleased to announce the second release candidate for Qubes OS
4.0.4.

Qubes OS 4.0.4-rc2 includes many updates over the initial 4.0 release,
in particular:

- All 4.0 dom0 updates to date
- Fedora 32 TemplateVM
- Debian 10 TemplateVM
- Whonix 15 Gateway and Workstation TemplateVMs
- Linux kernel 5.4 by default
- Bug fixes from 4.0.4-rc1

Qubes 4.0.4-rc2 is available on the downloads page:

https://www.qubes-os.org/downloads/


What is a point release?
------------------------

A point release does not designate a separate, new version of Qubes OS.
Rather, it designates its respective major or minor release (in this
case, 4.0) inclusive of all updates up to a certain point. Installing
Qubes 4.0 and fully updating it results in the same system as installing
Qubes 4.0.4.


What should I do?
-----------------

If you installed Qubes 4.0, 4.0.1, 4.0.2, or 4.0.3 and have fully
updated [1], then your system is already equivalent to a Qubes 4.0.4
installation. No further action is required.

Regardless of your current OS, if you wish to install (or reinstall)
Qubes 4.0 for any reason, then the 4.0.4 ISO makes this more convenient
and secure, since it bundles all Qubes 4.0 updates to date. Please see
the installation guide [2] for detailed instructions.

If you're willing to test [3] this release candidate, you can help to
improve the stable release by reporting any bugs you encounter [4].


Release candidate planning
--------------------------

If no major issues are discovered in 4.0.4-rc2, we expect to announce
the stable release of 4.0.4 in a couple weeks.


[1] https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/updating-qubes-os/
[2] https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/installation-guide/
[3] https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/testing/
[4] https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/reporting-bugs/

This announcement is also available on the Qubes website:
https://www.qubes-os.org/news/2021/01/22/qubes-4-0-4-rc2/

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

[haaber]

I have a kernel question. With last updates I have 3 kernels 5.4.x
installed and one 5.10.x (kernel-latest). It happens that the
5.4.x-kernels provoque freezes & sponaneous reboots. So I would like to
ask qubes to disregard these (5.4.x) and keep at least two 5.9.x or
5.10.x kernels when upgrading (and maybe some stable 4.x kernel as
backup in case). How can I do that? Cheers. Bernhard

[0spin...@gmail.com]

5.4 is a stable kernel series, so if you experience issues, please report them on the github issues list after some trial and erroring on here or the qubes-os forum.

[brian rutland]

dom0: sudo dnf remove kernel-5.4.x... -y

It will be nice if the next update will come with a 5.6+ kernel(a lot of people are complaining about Nvidia RTX 20xx issues).