How to recover data from a non-booting Qube?

[00010...@gmail.com]

How does one recover data from a Qube that does not want to start anymore?

The following bug leads to this question: https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/3810

[awokd]

Looks like you are on testing. Might be more straight-forward to back out
the testing update that's causing your problem. I'm guessing it would be
one for dom0 core admin, but check your dnf log to see what was updated
lately then roll back with
https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/software-update-dom0/#how-to-downgrade-a-specific-package.

Otherwise you could mount the VM's private logical partition manually to
recover data from it but if you aren't careful, that could cause more
damage to it...

[00010...@gmail.com]

On Wednesday, April 11, 2018 at 1:52:04 PM UTC+2, awokd wrote:

> On Wed, April 11, 2018 10:57 am, ... wrote:
> > How does one recover data from a Qube that does not want to start
> > anymore?
> >
> > The following bug leads to this question:
> > https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/3810
>
> Looks like you are on testing.

Is one only "on testing" when one has enabled any of the 3 testing repos (https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/software-update-dom0/#testing-repositories)? Because I checked the "enabled" booleans in /etc/yum.repos.d/qubes-dom0.repo and they are all set to FALSE except of course for "qubes-dom0-current".

And I only remember doing updates using the GUI (I suppose one does not end up "on testing" like that).

Is there any other way one can end up "on testing" without even knowing?

[awokd]

Oh sorry, assumed you were the same one who submitted the issue. If it's
not critical you immediately get in to those VMs, suggest adding your
notes to that issue (about it also being seen in "current") and wait for a
bug fix or contribute your own! If you do need them right away, then
roughly what you have to do is:
1) boot from recovery disk/liveCD
2) cryptsetup open drive
3) scan for LVM partitions
4) mount logical partition of VM contents
5) copy out contents

You could do just steps 4&5 from dom0 but some would not suggest using it
like that due to the potential for VM contents to touch dom0. Of course,
your liveCD would also have access to dom0 once decrypted so it's a
trade-off.