I confirm having the same exact problem with my network when booting up after the last dom0 upgrade.
What is going on with Qubes OS [regarding Debian’s flavour] (1) ?
I am not happy with what is going on so far:
They forced the modification of choice of kernel version when upgrading dom0 without asking ME although I had manually changed the settings to use a specific one.
They released two consecutive upgrades that were NOT tested as needed BEFORE releasing them, with huge “gaps in the system” (in French, “des trous dans la raquette”).
Now I am wondering how to maintain a previous kernel if needed, since the one which allows me to connect my network is the third of three I can see in the global config.
=> It may not be proposed after the next upgrade !
I advise all to backup more than before and, for sure, BEFORE EVERY upgrade proposed by Qubes OS which has CHOSEN to no longer be trustful.
If anybody knows how to manually maintain (and force) one specific kernel, please shout out here: I guess we may need that in a near future (or maybe we will need to stop using Qubes OS).
If anybody knows what is actually going on and can advise us about Qubes OS will to maintain an acceptable kernel [for Debian flavours] (1), please tell.
I can answer this question. In your dom0, edit the /etc/dnf/dnf.conf (requires sudo) and increase installonly_limit=3 to higher value (3 is default). For more information refer to man dnf.conf and search for installonly_limit. But please be aware that this also affects the number of available host (dom0) kernels. There is a storage limit for /boot and do not go too high as it fills the /boot partition. For example if /boot is half-free at this moment, increasing 3 to 5 is desirable.
If you are still worried that even 5 is not enough, you can manually set the kernel version for your sys-net via qvm-prefs sys-net kernel WORKING_KERNEL or via the qube GUI Settings. Since you have explicitly set the kernel version (instead of using the default), that kernel version will not be removed during updates. But you will see an annoying warning during updates.
bonus:
Fortunately there is a a diverse choices of (vm) kernels for different needs (lts, old-lts, latest, …). You could find them via:
BTW, this strategy will not work in this specific situation. Please let me explain. The Kernels you see in the Qube Setting GUI → Advanced tab → Kernel are not in the template. They are usually in dom0 in /var/lib/qubes/vm-kernels directory. Or the dir_path stated in the output of qvm-pool info linux-kernel command. And those kernels are not included in the regular Qubes Backup/Restore.
Thx very much. Great contribution, it helps a lot.
installonly_limit: If you can update your message, please replace dnf.con => dnf.conf for future readers.
I had lots of space available for /boot so I doubled the limit.
I chose the GUI to manually select the sys-net / settings / advanced / kernel, so that it’s no longer the default.
I first used the global settings since that was the simplest and fastest, I will look deeper into that later on.
I used the bonus command, but still need further learning to ‘manage the processes’ behind that.
My learning curve has moved faster thx to you.
Hope it will help many too.
Also no Wifi after Dom0 update. Solution was to use a Wifi USB Dongle and connect it to sys-net. This made it possible to have Wifi and to update the template, in my case debian-12-xfce. After the update and restart sys-net, Wifi worked again.
