How to handle dirty shutdowns?

General Discussion
1

I couldn’t find an answer to this online with relation to qubes, so I’ll ask here.

Are there any precautions that should be taken before or after dirty shutdowns of a computer running Qubes, to minimize any damage/corruption that could occur? Also, what’s the worst that actually can happen in Qubes due to a hard shutdown, beyond just losing work done on an open document or VM?
In an ideal world, dirty shutdowns should never happen, but they still occasionally do (e.g. a sudden loss of power). As such, I want to be prepared for such a situation. (And yes, yes, I still do backups. I just don’t want to bother with having to reinstall the entire OS again if a simple precaution would’ve prevented the damage to begin with)

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2

My criteria is that all file transfer operations are completed. If I have attached external media to a VM, I dismount it.

I have not performed dirty shutdowns recently, and I am not in a position to test them at the moment.

3

For reference, this was the post that prompted the concerns above:

And btw, why can’t I edit my post? I coulda sworn I was able to do so before.

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4

So why did you create this thread when you already have an answer in a different one?

Clearly this statement is not true and you have wasted my time.

5

I admit, it was a bit dumb of me to have asked the second question, which the post I linked partially answers:

However, I still haven’t gotten a good answer to my main question, that being:

What precautions should be taken before or after dirty shutdowns to minimize damage or data corruption?

To clarify, I’m looking for a comprehensive and technical answer on the matter. One that maybe explains some common points of failure in the OS when a hard-shutdown occurs, and what can be done to mitigate or prepare for these things. My question still stands.

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6

Sure, but since no one else has responded to this thread, I can provide another answer.

Before a dirty shutdown occurs, backup your Qubes using Qubes Tools → Backup Qubes.

After a dirty shutdown occurs, restore your backup by using Qubes Tools → Restore Backup.

Points of failure are disk writing operations.

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7

The worst thing that could happen is what you stated here:

It can and it does happens a lot. There’s not really a good way to do damage control after it happens but to always prepare for it is smart. also carrying a usb stick if everything goes south. :slight_smile:

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8

Also, reinstall is usually not necessary, see for example this: Hard shutdown broke my system

9

Buying an UPS could also save your data from a power loss.

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10

Maintaining a steady power supply is a good suggestion.

One of the perks I’ve noticed of having switched from a desktop to a laptop is that I don’t have to rely on the wall power anymore, which has brief power outages from time to time in my area. They’re long enough to force a hard-shutdown on my desktops, but with a laptop, the battery power could keep me working for another few hours if I had to, more than enough time to close everything and do a proper shutdown.

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11

Yes, laptop barely have this issue. But they are more expensive, less upgradable, less durable, and a lot less performant.

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