qubes-issues Qubes Updater considers in-place upgraded qubes to be "no longer supported"

Qubes OS release

4.2-rc4

Brief summary

The new Qubes Updater introduced a new way to detect if a template or standalone qube is no longer supported. It works, but shows false positives for users who use the in-place upgrade method for their qubes. The "template-name" option in qvm-features retains its old value and Qubes Updater uses it to check if the system is EOL.

Steps to reproduce

Not really reproducible by itself, since it only happens to users who upgrade their templates/standalone qubes in-place. Can be artificially reproduced by changing the template-name value to an old template version:

qvm-features fedora-38-xxx template-name fedora-35

Expected behavior

No "no longer supported" message should appear in Qubes Updater qui if the qube runs a supported release.

Actual behavior

Say that some of my qubes are no longer supported (reported as "obsolete" in Qubes Updater itself) when they are fully upgraded to fedora-38. Running qvm-features on one of the affected template reports the following:

template-name                               fedora-35
template-epoch                              0
template-version                            4.0.6
template-release                            202111131804
template-reponame                           qubes-templates-itl-testing
template-buildtime                          2021-11-13 19:14:50
template-installtime                        2021-12-07 18:11:25
template-license                            GPL
template-url                                http://www.qubes-os.org
template-summary                            Qubes template for fedora-35
template-description                        Qubes template for fedora-35

Nov 23 '23 09:11 Minimalist73

Note that these features are set on package installation, not when modifying the qube from inside.

If this is a bug, it is in the documentation, maybe it should tell you to update the template-name, template-summary and template-description feature? I don't know if the other features should be changed.

But then it would also need to recommend you to set a new feature template-original-name or something like it, so you can know from which version you started doing in-place upgrades. This way the Updater could work with in-place upgrades.

Nov 23 '23 11:11 ben-grande

Another report on the forum: https://forum.qubes-os.org/t/fedora-template-no-longer-supported-4-2-0-rc5/22506

Dec 03 '23 14:12 andrewdavidwong

Note that these features are set on package installation, not when modifying the qube from inside.

If this is a bug, it is in the documentation, maybe it should tell you to update the template-name, template-summary and template-description feature? I don't know if the other features should be changed.

But then it would also need to recommend you to set a new feature template-original-name or something like it, so you can know from which version you started doing in-place upgrades. This way the Updater could work with in-place upgrades.

Confirming: Running qvm-features fedora-39 template-name fedora-39 or the like resolves the issues.

Dec 03 '23 14:12 kennethrrosen

does not work for me. the issue still persists.

Dec 10 '23 19:12 avaaum

does not work for me. the issue still persists.

I had to reboot after changing the template names to have the updater notice it.

Jan 09 '24 07:01 runephilosof-abtion

According to https://forum.qubes-os.org/t/fedora-template-no-longer-supported-4-2-0-rc5/22506/4, it should be enough to restart the widget. But I don't know how to do that.

Jan 09 '24 07:01 runephilosof-abtion

Another user report: https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/qubes-users/ca442c50-7b31-4ea2-b27a-739fc31c7e65%40gmail.com

Jan 10 '24 11:01 andrewdavidwong

As I'm affected, too, I can tell: qvm-features fedora-38 reports (among many other lines):

template-name                               fedora-36
template-epoch                              0
template-version                            4.0.6
template-release                            202205270243
template-reponame                           @commandline
template-buildtime                          2022-05-27 03:11:26
template-installtime                        2022-09-02 22:50:42
template-license                            GPL
template-url                                http://www.qubes-os.org
template-summary                            Qubes template for fedora-36
template-description                        Qubes template for fedora-36
updates-available                           
last-updates-check                          2024-01-19 22:21:28

So my guess is that one step in the template upgrade guide is missing ;-)

Jan 19 '24 22:01 sjvudp

@unman A proper fix for this issue is coming (see marmarek's commits) and will make this part of the documentation obsolete. I don't think this merge should close this issue until the changes in https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-core-agent-linux/pull/481 and https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-core-admin/pull/578 are merged.

Feb 19 '24 10:02 Minimalist73

It looks like an accidental closure due to the keyword fixes in the commit message, but the keyword fixes appears in this context:

Partly fixes: https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/8725
Still missing the other in-place template upgrade instructions.

...which makes it clear that the intention was not to close this issue.

Feb 19 '24 19:02 andrewdavidwong

I have a similar issue on my Qubes!

Just Updated it and stuff, And.. Very bizzare 'error' (or, "warning", as it wasn't really any error) message, I have to admit.

if I remember correctly, it was just after I was done installing my new qubes (latest version) and ALWAYS a RED text would appear, on the qubes update GUI (which is advised in the docs)' "OBSOLETE" cubes are used, use the template manager to install the new template (something)' <- really, really weird. It's from a clean, from scratch, (completely new SSD as well) the latest Qubes Version, and I searched on this, and surprisingly there's only.. Like, 2 or maybe at most 3 (recent/actually relevant) results on google

Being extremely paranoid as I am, this really really making me confused, like, are they obsolete or updated?

Just wanted to point this out; if anyone else has this as well;

Mar 08 '24 19:03 loneicewolf

I have a similar issue on my Qubes!

Just Updated it and stuff, And.. Very bizzare 'error' (or, "warning", as it wasn't really any error) message, I have to admit.

if I remember correctly, it was just after I was done installing my new qubes (latest version) and ALWAYS a RED text would appear, on the qubes update GUI (which is advised in the docs)' "OBSOLETE" cubes are used, use the template manager to install the new template (something)' <- really, really weird. It's from a clean, from scratch, (completely new SSD as well) the latest Qubes Version, and I searched on this, and surprisingly there's only.. Like, 2 or maybe at most 3 (recent/actually relevant) results on google

Being extremely paranoid as I am, this really really making me confused, like, are they obsolete or updated?

Just wanted to point this out; if anyone else has this as well;

If you are talking about the bottom text in the updater GUI, it's an informative text that explain what "OBSOLETE" means when it appears next to a qube in the list. If you don't see any qubes having that, you don't have to worry about it.

Mar 08 '24 20:03 Minimalist73

I have a similar issue on my Qubes! Just Updated it and stuff, And.. Very bizzare 'error' (or, "warning", as it wasn't really any error) message, I have to admit. if I remember correctly, it was just after I was done installing my new qubes (latest version) and ALWAYS a RED text would appear, on the qubes update GUI (which is advised in the docs)' "OBSOLETE" cubes are used, use the template manager to install the new template (something)' <- really, really weird. It's from a clean, from scratch, (completely new SSD as well) the latest Qubes Version, and I searched on this, and surprisingly there's only.. Like, 2 or maybe at most 3 (recent/actually relevant) results on google Being extremely paranoid as I am, this really really making me confused, like, are they obsolete or updated? Just wanted to point this out; if anyone else has this as well;

If you are talking about the bottom text in the updater GUI, it's an informative text that explain what "OBSOLETE" means when it appears next to a qube in the list. If you don't see any qubes having that, you don't have to worry about it.

Hello!

Thanks for the quick reply!

Okay, if that's the case, I misunderstood the text - my bad! thanks a lot for clarifying!

I did see some yellow (maybe) text on some of the qubes, this was solved by simply updating them. I did not see any red (obsolete) text on any of the qubes <- so you are correct; (Thanks again)

Thanks so much for this reply @Minimalist73!

Side note;

Possible Future Improvement of the text

And Have a great Weekend 👋🏼 💯
//loneicewolf

Mar 08 '24 20:03 loneicewolf

Side note;

Possible Future Improvement of the text

Please open a separate issue for this.

Mar 09 '24 02:03 andrewdavidwong

Automated announcement from builder-github

The package core-agent-linux has been pushed to the r4.3 testing repository for the Debian template. To test this update, first enable the testing repository in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/qubes-*.list by uncommenting the line containing bookworm-testing (or appropriate equivalent for your template version), then use the standard update command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

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Qubes Updater considers in-place upgraded qubes to be "no longer supported"

Qubes OS release

Brief summary

Steps to reproduce

Expected behavior

Actual behavior

Hello!

Thanks for the quick reply!

Side note;

Side note;

qubes-issues
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