On Sunday, February 4, 2018 at 1:10:59 PM UTC+1, Nuno Branco wrote:
> So I decided to take a gamble and see if I could make the jump to 4.0. I
> know it is still not the final version and want to thank everyone that
> worked hard on this and also want to report on some annoying things and
> other more concerning things:
>
> 1) When installing Qubes 4.0RC4 from ISO I clearly selected to not
> install any of the whonix templates, yet Qubes installed them anyway.
>
> 2) When restoring VMs from Qubes 3.2 the software does not seem to work
> if you select more than one VM to restore at a time. By this I mean the
> restore process launches and finishes and I do have a VM listed on Qubes
> manager with the name of the VM I tried to restore however it reports
> "disk size 0 MiB" - when I power on the VM and check /home it is empty.
> If I restore the VMs one by one this does not happen and the VMs are
> restored normally - this is obviously annoying (e.g. while writing this
> email I had around 8 prompts for access)
>
> 3) When using split GPG I am constantly getting a popup message for
> granting access from the VM with the mail app to the VM with the gpg app
> - this popup completely disregards the authorization I gave the first VM
> to access the second VM for "X minutes" and makes using split gpg a shore.
>
> 4) I am unable to create a proper HVM. I used the new command with
> "qvm-create name --class StadaloneVM --label gray" and it works however
> when i try to boot with "qvm-start name --cdrom=vm:/path/to/debian.iso"
> nothing happens. I used qvm-prefs to set virtual mode to HVM and when I
> try to start it this way the VM briefly boots but crashes before it
> reaches the CDROM facility. The ISO file itself is fine as I used it for
> the same purposes to create a 3.2 HVM and it booted.
>
> 5) This is probably been reported before but whenever you try to stop a
> VM from qubes manager it errors out (the VM still stops).
>
> 6) When restoring a vm named "abcd" for some reason now i have a vm
> named "xpto" and another vm named "disp-abcd" on my qubes manager that I
> can't delete - says it is already in use. "abcd" is the only VM where
> this happened and its only special feature is that it was a proxy VM in 3.2
>
> If any logs are required to provide more information please let me know
> what you need and I will try to provide.
>
> --
>
> Best regards,
> Nuno Branco
Most of these things you listed can indeed be frustrating, but can be worked
around until they are fixed. Feel free to ask for elaboration if I went over
something not properly explained.
Below are my experiences from using Qubes 4 daily since early RC-2, in relation
to your listed points. In other words I'm not an expert, but I have been using
the Qubes 4 for a while now.
Reply to #1)
That's odd, it wasn't like t hat in the previous RC-X versions. I currently use
RC-3 updated to RC-4 (no-reinstall required between these particular versions),
and I did also not install Whonix/Debian-8 because I had to download newer
versions anyhow, so it was redundant to install the older ones. So at least
RC-3 did not install them. Perhaps this is a miss-step in the build of the
RC-4? It may probably be corrected in possible final release, RC-5, or Qubes
4.1. later on, though it probably isn't on a high priority given the other
issues to be fixed atm.
Reply to #2)
For now you may want to avoid using the GUI backup tools, it seems like it's
not always perfect. Generally Qubes 4 has issues where either the terminal or
the GUI works better, and usually one of the two is somewhat bug-free, while
the other is buggy. Generally the terminal is the better choice, but not
always. I imagine this will probably be fixed at some point soon once
everything intended for Qubes 4 release works and the remaining issues are
smoothing out issues like these. So my guess it will probably be updated later
on. For backup and backup-restore recommend you use the dom0 terminal instead,
from memory something like this qvm-backup-restore -d name-of-AppVM
'/path-to-backup-inside-the-AppVM'.
Rememeber you can use '' on the path, like above, so it stays coherent as a
single unit from the rest of the command. You can use "man qvm-backup" or "man
qvm-backup-restore" for manuals, or check the guides on the Qubes doc page for
further information.
ALso use "-x VM-name" to narrow down the VM's you do not want to restore, or
alternatively instead just write the VM-name if you only want to restore a few
VM's. For example "qvm-backup-restore -d name-of-AppVM
'/path-to-backup-inside-the-AppVM' -x VM-Bob -x VM-Alice -x VM-and-so-on".
Also the Qube Manager does not currently update live, you need to shut it down
and up again to see a new read-out. It may be easier to just have a dom0
terminal with "qvm-ls" and then just "arrow-up + enter" every time you need a
new read-out.
Reply to #3
I'm not quite sure about what to suggest trying here. Maybe make
