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Updating Qubes Whonix

#1

Hi somewhat new, but have been cruising the forum trying to figure this out and cant get a straight answer.

Whats the deal with updating in Qubes-Whonix? After the install,and after I had used the system for a bit, my [dom0] Qubes VM manager let me know that there were some updates needed in some of my virtual machines. (Green up arrow). I right clicked and clicked “update VM.” The green arrow dissapeared after the update finished.

Now, however, my dom0 AdminVM is saying that I need to run an update. However, when I right click, press update, let it run, and then apply the update, the green arrow remains.

My question: am I doing this update thing correctly? What should I be doing. Thanks in advance.

#2

Hi Jon

Can you give more information.

  1. What VM(s) are you having this issue with? You only update the template VMs.
    • Whonix-gw template VM
    • Whonix-ws template VM
  2. Are the updates producing any errors?
  3. What Qubes version are you using?
#3

Thanks for the response.

Using Qubes Version 3.2.; Xen version 4.6.6; Linux 4.9.45-21

My main concern is the following: I’ve seen discussions and instructions to the effect that updates should be done in terminal. Except, its very simple for me - I just right click on the VM in Qubes VM manager and click “Update VM.” It runs its course and get no error messages with the Terminal GW and WS. But when I click to update the dom0 within the “AdminVM” work station, the process requires a little more - specifically, it involves a number of windows, and a number of prompts, one of which is a list of the changes that it wants to do, and where I press “apply changes.” This “dom0” update in the “AdminVM” VM seems to have worked now, although initially I believed that it did not download a few updates. I now get no green “down arrow” indicating that a update is needed.

Just wanted to be 100% certain this was correct. Again, thanks in advance.

#4

Hi Jon

Sometimes not all of the updates will be downloaded due to a spotty connection with the server. This can happen regardless if you use the dom0 graphical updater or Whonix templates konsole. This may be why the green arrow icon remained after updating.

As far as how to update your templates, that is up to you. You can use dom0 GUI or template konsole.

#5

Relevant documentation:
http://qubesos4rrrrz6n4.onion/doc/software-update-dom0/
http://qubesos4rrrrz6n4.onion/doc/software-update-vm/