How to update Qubes-Whonix 17 on R4.2 officially?

[adw]

@boreas

So my (first) question is:

1. What is the official (and therefore recommended) way of updating the workstation and gateway templates (and therefore qubes) in Qubes-Whonix?

Using the Qubes Update tool (or its command-line equivalents), as described here:

How to update

@boreas

Another question that might be too small for another topic is:
again on this page, its says:

If you plan to use Debian heavily, we highly recommend you install the Whonix templates and use them to update your normal Debian template.

2. Does this mean to update via the onion services with Whonix?

I don’t know what that means. My best guess is that it just means to route updates through sys-whonix (Tor) rather than directly through sys-firewall (clearnet). Using onion repos is a separate matter.

@boreas

And is the missing protection of Tor when not using “Whonix templates to update normal Debian templates” the only drawback or is something different meant with the citation above?

Again, I don’t know what was intended, but my guess is that you’re correct. To be honest, I don’t know why that’s stated in bold on that page. It seems misplaced (and, as you point out, inaccurate, since you would not be using a Whonix template to update, but rather sys-whonix).