Upgrade from 3.2 to 4.0 ?

[ThierryIT]

Hi,

Is there any procedure available ?
Or can I follow this one: https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/upgrade-to-r3.2/

Thx

[Chris Laprise]

There is no procedure for in-place upgrading that I'm aware of. You'll
need to backup your VMs, install 4.0, then restore the VMs.

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[ThierryIT]

Will have to wait the stable version in this case :)
Thx

[Yuraeitha]

I think too much has changed to allow such an upgrade from 3.2. to 4.0. For one consider release 3.1. and 3.2. were similar, no big changes, just adding on-top the old. It's my understanding that new "versions" releases contain new "features", while regular updates are fixes of errors and bugs. In other words, 3.2. upgrade added some features on-to 3.1. But Qubes 4 is much more different than 3.2., a lot was changed and it's not merely about adding on-top anymore. I don't think it's feasible to use such a method to upgrade, not without the developers spending extra significant time (and a lot of it) to make it work, and they're busy already as it is with higher priorities already as it is. Maybe once Qubes won't change so much between major releases, in the future, but not now.

Consider that I have no insider knowledge, nor am I an expert, however it's possible that Qubes 4 RC-4 will be the final release. I'm saying this, because I've used Qubes 4 since RC-2, and it's become quite stable now. To me, it seems like they are just polishing it off right now, making last adjustments, fixing the last errors, ensuring hardware compability, and so on. But as said, I have no insider knowledge, nor am I an expert, this is just my impression sitting on Qubes 4 while it improved.

Also consider, that like between RC-2 and RC-3, no re-install were required, you just kept updating. However sometimes, a re-install is required. The Qubes developers has started telling us what they recommend on the release day of a RC-X version, just read the release article to find out, they started doing this since the last 2 RC-X releases and will likely keep doing this.

So if you install RC-3, the current one, you might not have to re-install for RC-4, and even then, you might not have to re-install for the final release.

I say "might not", because, odds are that they might recommend a re-install between RC-3 and RC-4, or a RC-5 if they extend it further, but I do think a RC-5 is quite unlikely considering how stale it feels now. It's also my understanding that the moment they can say no further re-install is required to fix an issue, is the moment we will stop seeing new RC-X releases, and just see regular qubes-dom0-update's instead.

It's up to you, to me personally Qubes 4 works just fine, I'm quite happy with it. But it's also true that it isn't ready for final release yet, although, it might be soon considering how stable it feels now. At least personally I only experience minor issues now a days.

- - -

Also note, it might be a good idea to abandone your Qubes 3.2. templates on Qubes 4. There is no official announcement on this, but in my experience, while it works, it becomes sluggish and error prone. I've experienced performance increas too by abandoning my old AppVM's. So what I did was ignore templates from my backup, only restoring my AppVM's. Then I systematically made new VM's, and simply transfered my files from the old to the new. Once confirmed it all worked, I then deleted the old. Do keep in mind that re-naming qubes in Qubes 4 is no simple matter, it will basically copy your entire VM and delete the old, instead of just renaming as it does it in Qubes 3.2. I do not know why, but there is apparently a good reason for it. Keep this in mind if you got low disk space, and stay patient. If you want to keep the names of your AppVM's, it might be a good idea to re-name them slightly with a single letter difference, before you backup on Qubes 3.2., so it's easier to build new VM's with the correct names on your new system. This way, you avoid some hassles. I don't know why the AppVM's seem more smooth when they are of the Qubes 4 version, seemingly it should not matter, however this is my anecdotal experience. Maybe it's been fixed too by the time you get on qubes 4, who knows.