Kali TemplateVM terminal etc. do not open

[Bernd Kohler]

Hi @ all,

I made a clone of my debian-8 TemplateVM, renamed it and replaced the apt-sources with the kali-ones. After that I installed some kali- paket-groups.

Everything was fine until last week. After some updates I could start the TemplateVM but wasn't able to start/run any programm

For example opening a Gnome terminal does not work.

In case someone here has the solution I am very interested, but giving me a hint, where and how to debug will make me happy too ;)

thx and regards

Bernd

[J. Eppler]

Hello,

you can try this:

`qvm-run personal "xterm" --pass-io`

the command will either start "xterm" or simply return an error message.
You can replace "xterm" with "gnome-terminal" or any other program you want to start.

For more information have a look here:

https://github.com/Jeeppler/qubes-cheatsheet/blob/master/qubes-cheatsheet.md#troubleshoot

regards
J. Eppler

[qubenix]

Bernd Kohler:

See here for details:
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/qubes-users/94997d39-2302-4c94-9aa1-ffee6f639bb1%40googlegroups.com

In short you need to:

- Change qubes repo to `stretch-testing`
- update and dist-upgrade your template

If you run into problems, all the answers should be in that thread I linked.

--
qubenix
GPG: B536812904D455B491DCDCDD04BE1E61A3C2E500

[Bernd Kohler]

Hi @ all.

Thx to "J. (Eppler)" and qubenix for the hint.

Using $(qvm-run $VM_NAME xterm --pass-io) gave me the needed hint: "Cannot open Display"

With further Google-search I found [0] - yeah got a console $(sudo xl console $VM_NAME)

Adding the qubes testing repo and initiate a dist-upgrade did not solve my problem but
tomorrow I will do some further reading on [1].

As soon as I solved my problem I will post the answer.

regards

Bernd




[0]
https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/1095

[1]
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/qubes-users/94997d39-2302-4c94-9aa1-ffee6f639bb1%40googlegroups.com




--

Bernd Kohler

IT Center
Abteilung: Netze
RWTH Aachen University
Wendlingweg 10
52074 Aachen
Tel: +49 241 80-29793
Fax: +49 241 80-22241
koh...@itc.rwth-aachen.de
https://www.itc.rwth-aachen.de

[J. Eppler]

Hello,

glad I was able to help. However, it is recommended to use: virsh -c xen:/// console $VM_NAME instead of xl console $VM_NAME, but both work.

best regards
J. Eppler

[Bernd Kohler]

Hi @ all,

just for the records - I was able to fix my problem.

Here my solution

01. take a look at installed qubes* packages in debian template vm

02. start kali vm and connect via console (see below)

03. apt-get remove --purge $(dpkg --get-selections | grep deinstall | \
cut -f1 | tr "\n" " " # maybe not needed a saptitude will be used later

04. apt-get install --reinstall qubes-core-agent qubes-gpg-split qubes-gui-agent \
qubes-img-converter qubes-input-proxy-sender qubes-mgmt-salt-vm-connector
qubes-pdf-converter qubes-utils qubesdb qubesdb-vm # leeds to broken packages

05. apt-get install aptitude

06. aptitude -f # upgrade packages

07. aptitude install qubes-core-agent qubes-gpg-split qubes-gui-agent \
qubes-img-converter qubes-input-proxy-sender qubes-mgmt-salt-vm-connector
qubes-pdf-converter qubes-utils qubesdb qubesdb-vm

wihtin this install process I made the following decisions:

... The following packages have unment dependencies...
The following actions will resolve these dependencies
1) qubes-gui-agent [Not Installed]
2) xserver-xorg-input-qubes [Not Installed]
3) xserver-xorg-video-dummyqbs [Not Installed]

Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] <==== here enter "n"

The following actions will resolve these dependencies#

Remove the following packages
1) xserver-xorg-legacy

Downgrade the following packages
1) xserver-xorg-core
2) xserver-xorg-video-dummy

Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] <==== here enter "y"



Et voila terminal starts/opens up again

regards

Bernd