update broke whonix, can't reinstall

[Ryan Tate]

I run stock Qubes 4, no special repos or templates.

Qubes Manager was showing an update for whonix-ws and whonix-gw templateVMs. Update process on whonix-gw went as usual. On whonix-ws, update seemed to proceed fine initially but then suddenly the update window disappeared. Usually it prompts to hit Enter to shut down the templateVM if the update completes successfully.

Following the updates, neither templateVM (nor any VMs which use them) works - they will launch and run but I cannot bring up any programs, not even a terminal.

I tried reinstalling both templates in dom0 and, rather frustratingly, this did not work.

I will attempt to type part of the error since I can't copy/paste out of dom0 (grr):

Installed package qubes-template-whonix-gw-4.0.0-201803270426.noarch not available
Error: No packages marked for reinstall.

Installed package qubes-template-whonix-ws-4.0.0.-201803270504.noarch not available.
Error: No packages marked for reintall.

Can anyone give me a clue how I might at least start a reinstall? I don't need the package to exactly match, I just want the current whonix-ws and whonix-gw installed. (And yes I have tried a straight sudo qubes-dom0-update - no new stuff there.)

(PS Would really like to avoid any testing or unstable branches, just want stock Qubes, stock templates! ...and working whonix, even if it is old)

Thanks for any help....

[Ryan Tate]

On Wednesday, November 7, 2018 at 3:23:46 PM UTC-5, Ryan Tate wrote:
> Installed package qubes-template-whonix-gw-4.0.0-201803270426.noarch not available
> Error: No packages marked for reinstall.
>
> Installed package qubes-template-whonix-ws-4.0.0.-201803270504.noarch not available.
> Error: No packages marked for reintall.

I forgot to say which commands I used to reinstall:

sudo qubes-dom0-update --action=reinstall qubes-template-whonix-gw

and

sudo qubes-dom0-update --action=reinstall qubes-template-whonix-ws

[Ryan Tate]

Turns out this is a known issue for more than a year and a half :-(

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/qubes-users/action$20reinstall$20package$20not$20available%7Csort:date/qubes-users/pZfFGDsTXbc/9d94zBMXAgAJ

IMO if this isn't going to be fixed the reinstall action should simply be removed. At least then people would just do the thing that works - remove the package, install the package. Having a broken reinstall is the worst of all worlds.

[Ryan Tate]

Well, now I can't figure out how to uninstall the template. Other VMs depend on it. Am I supposed to just.... reassign all of them, and delete it?

Obviously I tried every permutation of "action=remove" I could think of but none matched. I tried copy/pasting every version of the full (and short) package name. %^&#%*^&@^*(@

[Ryan Tate]

Ah, finally I realize that whonix is in a community repo. This was not intuitive as I recall it coming with my Qubes 4 install (do I misremember?).

Adding --enablerepo=qubes-templates-community seems to make it work.

So I just needed to do qubes-dom0-update --enablerepo=qubes-templates-community --action=reinstall qubes-template-whonix-gw

[799]

Hello Ryan,

On Wed, 7 Nov 2018 at 21:23, Ryan Tate <ryan...@ryantate.com> wrote:

[...]

I will attempt to type part of the error since I can't copy/paste out of dom0 (grr):

[...]

I am also not satisfied that there is no easy way to copy the clipboard content between dom0 and an AppVM.

Therefor I have written to small scripts which will do exact this (https://github.com/one7two99/my-qubes/tree/master/home/bin)

The scripts need to be launched from dom0 command line and take the AppVM name as single argument the AppVM where to clipboard should be copied to or from.

This is only a quick&dirty solution, I would like to have a script that I launch and then opens up the "select AppVM" dialog which you get when moving files between VMs from the GUI.

the scripts:

To copy the dom0 clipboard to an AppVM clipboard:

#!/bin/bash
# name   : qvm-xclip-from-vm
# purpose: Copy the clipboard of an AppVM  to the clipboard of dom0a
# Usage  : qvm-xclip-from-vm <AppVM>
AppVM=$1
qvm-run --pass-io $AppVM 'xclip -o' | xclip -selection clipboard &>/dev/null
notify-send --urgency low --icon image --expire-time=5000 "$0" "Clipboard pasted from $AppVM to dom0"

to copy the content of an AppVM clipboard to dom0:

#!/bin/bash
# name   : qvm-xclip-to-vm
# purpose: Copy the clipboard of dom0 to the clipboard of an appvm
# Usage  : qvm-xclip-to-vm <AppVM>
AppVM=$1
xclip -o | qvm-run --pass-io $AppVM 'cat | xclip -selection clipboard &>/dev/null'
notify-send --urgency low --icon image --expire-time=5000 "$0" "Clipboard pasted from dom0 to $AppVM"

regards

- O

[unman]

The problem is, as I recently discovered, is that dnf reinstall
attempts to reinstall exactly the same version of the package that you
have. This means that if the package has been updated and the old package
removed then reinstall will fail.
You probably need to use update.

[unman]

You have seen the relevant section in the docs?
https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/copy-from-dom0/#copypaste-from-dom0

You should, of course, be extremely careful about copying to/from dom0.

[cooloutac]

I'm having the same exact problem right now. Tried uninstalling and reinstalling template as well. But only after I already couldn't open up any applications in whonix-gw, after seeing that the update window from qubes-manager wasn't loading anymore.

In the past this was a debian thing to do with the languages changing and having to change it back to english.

But the issue is I can't bring up any program in the gui for whonix-gw, can't bring up a terminal or update it.

[cooloutac]

I didn't copy anything from dom0. didn't do any changes to system at all. whonix-gw just all of a sudden will not load any applications from menu, or qvm-run. nothing happens. and its not updating.

[cooloutac]

and like above poster I have found that uninstalling template or reinstalling template is not fixing the issue. anyone know how I can get whonix-gw updated or load a terminal on it again?

[cooloutac]

On Thursday, November 8, 2018 at 9:41:34 PM UTC-5, cooloutac wrote:
> and like above poster I have found that uninstalling template or reinstalling template is not fixing the issue. anyone know how I can get whonix-gw updated or load a terminal on it again?

also tried removing and re-adding appmenus. but as I said even trying to load konsole from qvm-run doens't work. nothing happens.

[birdynam]

Hi,
this is the way i've updated my whonix on R4.
Hope it'll help.

https://www.militant.dk/category/linux/qubes-os/

Birdy.

[22...@tutamail.com]

I had problems trying to upgrade as well...I ended up doing a fresh install, during the install I selected Whonix NOT to be installed.

After the install I then added Whonix-14 (I didn't have to delete the old).

Did this a while ago and have updated a few times with no issues...

Bit of a sledge hammer solution...hope it helps.

[Patrick Schleizer]

Stay tuned!

Basically it's hopefully all been covered in news.

https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Stay_Tuned

Qubes-Whonix documentation:

https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Qubes

https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Qubes/Install

https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Qubes/Reinstall

https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Qubes/Uninstall

Ryan Tate:
> qubes-template-whonix-gw
> qubes-template-whonix-ws

This is now:

qubes-template-whonix-gw-14

qubes-template-whonix-ws-14