In 4.1.2, a un-named disposable sys-vpn would start as an appvm with a dispxxxx name. But in 4.2 sys-vpn no longer appears under the APPS menu. I can find it under TEMPLATE or SERVICES and the qube would start as named.
Is there a way to start a sys-vpn with a random dispxxxx cube in 4.2?
It works as intended since it provides network so it’s a service qube.
There seems to be a bug in the Application menu. When service qube is set to be a disposable template it’s not creating and starting disposables (DispVM) based on this disposable template when you start it from SERVICE tab but it starts the disposable template itself (AppVM). What is started is not a named disposable.
This should be reported on github:
There’s a couple way to run a sys-vpn as disposable; 1. set sys-vpn as AppVM and flag as a Disposable template in the Advanced tab and 2. set sys-vpn as DispVM.
Option 2 requires you to manage extra disposable AppVMs if you have individual minimal templates. This is how the built-in sys-net and sys-firewall is setup.
For now, I’m using option 2 as a workaround. In some ways it’s more convenient since I can set my Web AppVM to it. Option 1 requires me to always set my Web AppVM to the dispxxxx qube when it loads, but it requires me to consciously do it and it prevents me from doing accidentally connecting.
I’m not sure I’d feel comfortable submitting anything. It seems like a preferred way of managing and using disposable qubes similar to how sys-net and sys-firewall was distributed by default.
I am running into this for unnamed disposables that are NOT service vms. For example I have a disposable browser qube, it’s supposed to start as disp1234.
No menu entries are generated for it at all. There are things that LOOK like they are menu entries (under Templates, not Apps) but they run the dvm template, not the dvm (which makes sense).
Named disposables work fine, it’s just the unnamed ones with the disp1234 that I cannot call up.
4.2 is unusable as is, for web browsing.
Can you write step-by-step how did you create the disposable template?
Did you try to create it like this?
Using the gui manager. Select template. Create AppVM based on the template. Then open the AppVM’s settings. Go to the second tab and check template for disposables (not the exact phrasing…I’m not on that box right now).
As soon as you do that there is NOTHING you can do in the GUI that will populate a menu for the disposable (under AppVMs). I’ve tried going into the settings for both the template VM and the AppVm(disposable template) and selecting applications, nothing works, there are no menu entries.
The page you pointed to, by the way, appears to be for older versions of qubes.
Using the gui manager. Select template. Create AppVM based on the template. Then open the AppVM’s settings. Go to the second tab and check template for disposables (not the exact phrasing…I’m not on that box right now).
As soon as you do that there is NOTHING you can do in the GUI that will populate a menu for the disposable (under AppVMs). I’ve tried going into the settings for both the template VM and the AppVm(disposable template) and selecting applications, refreshing the applications lists, etc. nothing works, there are no menu entries even if some are shown in the applications tab in setup.
The page you pointed to, by the way, appears to be for older versions of qubes.
The one hint I have is that default-dvm has a menu that works. I have no idea why. This is something that was set up at installation, so the installer probably has access to things the gui does not.
Add/remove the applications in Settings → Applications tab and press Apply, check if you’ll see the apps.
Or press “Refresh applications” button.
No, that doesn’t work. I just said so.
I’ve tried going into the settings for both the template VM and the AppVm(disposable template) and selecting applications, refreshing the applications lists, etc. nothing works, there are no menu entries even if some are shown in the applications tab in setup.
There is no menu entry for your disposable template in APPS tab in Qubes menu?
Try to start some app in disposable based on this disposable template in dom0 terminal:
qvm-run --dispvm your-disp-template uxterm
Also did you upgrade to Qubes OS 4.2 from Qubes 4.1 in-place or was it a clean install?
The template itself is listed. But nothing shows up in the menu to the side showing apps you can run (e.g., firefox isn’t there).
This is a clean install of 4.2. I’ll soon be trying to install again.
Will try the qvm-run command shortly.
Also check whatever the appmenus-dispvm feature is enabled for your disposable template:
qvm-features your-disp-template | grep appmenus-dispvm
Additionally, if you want to have menu entries for starting applications in disposables based on this app qube (instead of in the app qube itself), you can achieve that with the
appmenus-dispvmfeature:
[user@dom0 ~]$ qvm-features <DISPOSABLE_TEMPLATE> appmenus-dispvm 1
appmenus-dispvm is enabled. (I’ve tried with it enabled and disabled.)
I believe I know what you are experiencing. This has been a problem in all the Qubes versions.
Follow these steps:
OK, THIS works with one caveat.
If, in step 13, you move Start Qube into Applications shown in the App Menu, it will NOT work.
If you leave Start Qube out, it seems to work OK. You can even go back in and add it later. However, with the xfce menu, it’s superfluous because “start qube” appears on the right hand side, at the bottom.
I set these things up with salt (usually), and I always add Start Qube to the menu. When I started seeing problems I tried doing things “manually” through the GUI to see if Salt (or my implementation thereof) was somehow the issue, and that’s what I reported here.
I am going to try re-salt-generating one of the VMs (and its TemplateVM) without “Start Qube” to see if it gets it right the first time. (Unfortunately, since I clone templates and build, I’ll have to do a whole “chain” of them to get to one that is a numbered-disposable’s dvm-template’s, TemplateVM.)
It’s likely Start Qube was on the right pane and you forgot to do step 3 while the AppVM was a disposable. Just redo steps.
Also if you covert the AppVM to/from disposable, you have to do the same thing. It’s hard to explain, but mess with it and you’ll figure it out.
Nope, I was very careful. If I put start-qube there in step 13, it doesn’t work. It didn’t work every time I did it. The only reason I figured this out is that I forgot to move it over in step 13 once, and it magically worked that one time. Further testing showed that this was the one thing that would make it break.
If you leave it out in step thirteen then go in again and just move start-qube over the way you normally would (add these steps shown below) it works:
steps 1-12 the same
13. Move your desired applications to the Applications shown in the App Menu, except DO NOT move start qube over.
14. Click OK. Stop here unless you want Start Qube in the menu.
15. Edit the Settings for the AppVM (a third time)
16. Select the Applications tab
17. Move start qube to the Applications shown in the App Menu
18. Click OK
I verified that if I don’t try to put start-qube in with my salt scripts it works fine, and I don’t have to do any of this afterwards. (Start qube causes no trouble with named disposables, templates, normal AppVM, or even the disposable template itself.)
The good news is, start-qube is actually pointless in this context. Start qube on a disp1234 qube doesn’t give it anything to run, so it should just shut down immediately. The real issue, in my mind, is that nothing prevents you from trying to do this.
I’m going to try to start a new thread on this, since I suspect it’s a different issue than the originally posted one.
Yep. I might not have explained it well. The desktop seems to remember the last state (persistent/disposable) so if it was in the right pane while the AppVM was disposable and you change it to persistent, it will disappear on the menu.
Anyway, I knew you’d figure it out.
It’s by sheer luck that I forgot to put start-qubes in one time, then added it in later (in the additional steps) when I realized I had forgot. That one worked, the others didn’t. And then the light bulb came on.
It really makes no sense to have it for a numbered disposable, so I won’t miss it if I leave it out, but then in the GUI either: allow it anyway and have it work, or disallow it and warn the user or prevent him from trying to set it up that way.