I don’t know if it should be like this. Official manual says nothing about this. My Whonix templates still 17 and Debian still 12 (I don’t use Fedora and removed its template). At least they still displayed with these numbers. Is it a bug or is it intended? I remember that last time, after a manual upgrade of the system, I didn’t have to upgrade them manually and they upgraded to the latest version automatically. Should I upgrade them manually or install fresh ones? By the way, I don’t know how to manually upgrade templates. I looked into template manager and only see manual upgrade available for Debian template but for Whonix there is neither manual upgrade nor fresh installation options available.
I found this command in my stash: sudo qubes-dom0-update --action=reinstall qubes-template-package-name If I replace “reinstall” with “install” will it be the command that I need to install Whonix templates (of course with adding actual template names too)?
What is the command to upgrade Whonix templates in-place?
Another important question: this comment says that I lose all my template customizations (additional installed apps, custom settings, modifications) in any case, with any upgrade option, manual upgrade or fresh installation. Is it truth? What can I do to prevent this? If I back-up templates in Backup Qubes and restore those backups after templates upgrading, will it restore all my removed customizations or it will also downgrade templates to their previous versions?
There is not just one command. There are a series of commands. Please follow this guide to upgrade Whonix 17 to Whonix 18 templates:
And follow this guide for in-place upgrade of Debian 12 to Debian 13:
Yes. It is true. If you upgrade and/or reinstall your templates via Qubes Template Manager, you will lose you customization. It will be a fresh stock template.
As usual, keep backups before upgrades.
You mean my assumption about backups? If I backup templates and then restore those backups after templates upgrading, then it will be upgraded templates with my customizations on them?
No. It will restore the template with customizations. But definitely NOT upgraded. Just what it used to be without any change.
Please note that the Qubes Update GUI (and qubes-vm-update). Could only “update” the template and standalones. i.e. Debian 12 to updated Debian 12.
qubes-dist-upgrade utility could only update the same template to support the next Qubes OS release. i.e. Debian 13 of Qubes OS r4.2 to Debian 13 of Qubes OS r4.3.
But if you want to to update Debian 12 to Debian 13, you have to follow the guides I shared earlier.