I can not BACKUP AGAIN

User Support
1

I am going to try to stay cool about this…

So over the last 2 and a half weeks I all of the sudden have lost the ability to “BACKUP” AGAIN!!
This started happening @ 4.2.1 33-1 and my last working backup is from 07/07/24. Before this I was having issue but for some strange reason after I reported this I was able to Backup until now again at 4.2.2 6.6.36-1

Twice, YES twice now I have ended up at the Qubes “BLACK SCREEN OF DEATH”,WHY???

Well for some reason it doesn’t matter if my backup runs 1hr OR 4hrs all of the sudden my hard drive get PEGGED (Solid light), I have NO KEYBOARD, NO MOUSE, MONITORS stay off no matter what I do. So this leaves me with one 1 option “FORCE SHUT DOWN”. And what do you know I am at Qubes “BLACK SCREEN OF DEATH”…
dev/mapper/dom0/ root drive missing…Whatever the (you know the word) it sayes.
enter maintenace mode press ctl+d
maybe run iniftis

Now twice over the last 2 1/2 weeks I have had to reimaged from my USB Qubes 4.2.0 “restore” from my last working backup…07/07/24, Then UPDATE all my HVM’S & Templates. Lte me tell you have much work that has been…

Tonight I say I will just try to Backup 2 HVM’s “all by themselves”…NOPE

But this time I get a “POPUP” form Qubes Backup GUI and it states…
LVM-root failure…Failed to lock HVM root…

AND what do you know…
hard drive get PEGGED (Solid light), I have NO KEYBOARD, NO MOUSE, MONITORS are ON…
UNRESPONSIVE…

Time to force reboot AND Luck for me my Qube came back up and running…

Now I don’t know why I am having such a PROBLEM here backing up. But as of today everything HVM’S, Templates are updated & upgraded and working from the last time this happened which was last weekend and I am not going through this again. So I am at the point that Qubes “Backup” is HORRIBLE at best and not trust worthy…

This is such a SERIOUS issue and needs to be Addressed…

2

Maybe it’s a hardware problem.
What’s your Qubes OS disk? Is it HDD or SSD?
Do you backup on the same disk the qubes is running on?

1 Like
3

Hi,
before restoring HVM machines, do you do a clean install of qubes 4.2? Are you also restoring the Dom0 configuration?

Please perform:

  • install media test with qubes bootloader from usb
  • RAM test with memtest86 program
  • test the internal HDD/SSD and backup drive with crystaldiskinfo program
  • Verify the temperature of the device (start → other → Sensor viewer)
  • Update BIOS of the device
  • Specify the model of the device you are trying to backup from.
  • What graphics card are you running on, nvidia or intel?
4

Hi guys,

Sorry lost my cool last night… I just can’t keep going through this and the amount that my builds are falling behind and time to rebuild is getting crazy.

Anyway My Qubes OS is installed on a NVME’s 2 of them @ 2TB each (spanned) ((NVME’s are brand new, like maybe 5 months old)), so I have 4TB. When this has failed and the last 2 times it has. I removed the NVME’s and “erase” them 1 pass random, then format as EXFAT, reinstall them to my computer. Reinstall from my 4.2.0 USB then I will do the regular “wait” till my Qube catches the needed updates/upgrades from our repos. Then I restore from my last valid backup, which is 07/07/24 (This as well is a NVME 2TB) switch over what I need to fedora 38 to 39, remap what I have to and that everything dom0 (files),HVM’s,Templates and a few domains (usually not many as I have had to rebuild them of late, as I am now missing a lot with now updated Backups.

My Qube run AWESOME, Boots fast, nothing locks up. I have a… i9/64GB mem/ dual monitors. No issues. In fact I can have 2 HVM’s running at the same time and streaming a Podcast on 1 domain up and working, jump between work spaces… NO PROBLEM what so ever…until I have to Backup and my Qube become UNRESPONSIVE once it crashes, then “force shut down”…

It’s funny the popup that Qubes Backup GUI gave me stated…“if I remember correctly”
LVM-pool Failure: failed to lock root “HMV-name” (forgive me I was seeing RED then)

My Qube does not have a “root” account BUT those hvm’s do. Then my Qube backup GUI CRASHES for some reason, again system became locked up and I had to force it down…

Please I love you guys and the amount of help & teaching I have received from ALL of you is AWESOME, I would not be to where I am today with not only my Qube but LInux.

I just can’t keep doing this, I’m to the point of I don’t know what to do and I need to backup

Please perform:

install media test with qubes bootloader from usb..Will do

RAM test with memtest86 program...Will do

test the internal HDD/SSD and backup drive with crystaldiskinfo program

Verify the temperature of the device (start → other → Sensor viewer)

It’s been between 37C & 40’s on avg…MAYBE high 40’s if I am streaming 720p/60fps videos. You know watching my “gaming” channels, but I never have any issues.

Update BIOS of the device

It’s the original BIOS. The reason is I Qubes installed before I updated the BIOS ON one of these minis and I updated the BIOS and it didn’t go well. In fact I could never boot the mini again

Specify the model of the device you are trying to backup from...Down below

What graphics card are you running on, nvidia or intel?... Down below

Brand: HP
Model: HP EliteDesk 800 G5 Desktop Mini

CPU: Intel(R) Core™ i9-9900T CPU @ 2.10GHz

Chipset: Intel Corporation 8th/9th Gen Core 8-core Desktop Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers [Coffee Lake S] [8086:3e30] (rev 0d)

Graphics: Intel Corporation CoffeeLake-S GT2 [UHD Graphics 630] [8086:3e98] (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

RAM: 64858 Mb

QubesOS version: R4.2.2
BIOS: R21 Ver. 02.19.00
Kernel: 6.6.36-1
Xen: unknown

5

On more thing,

You see I know how to use “search operators & boolean string” very well (they are mathematical sentences to me) and this mini was giving me issues. So I started searching deep and I found a post from like 8 years ago where someone had the same problem. It wasn’t till I followed the cmd’s and instructions that my “Qube came to life”. Could this be causing my problem???

6

Is it a RAID or did you add both disks as PVs to your LVM?

What’s your backup destination? Did you backup on these NVMe disks or on an external USB disk/network share?

If you just added the no-strict-reset option to your network controllers in sys-net then it shouldn’t be related.

Do you have another machine that you can use to test that it’s not a hardware issue with your HP EliteDesk 800 G5 Desktop Mini?
Connect your NVMes to another machine and try to backup there.

7

@apparatus I added both NVME’s as (PVs) to the LVM, then proceeded with the installation. Installation went GREAT minus the “reset error” popup at the end of installation. Which lead me down my path to find the (no-strict-reset). After I followed the instructions and cmd’s, power cycled. MY Qube came to LIFE…
sys-firewall, sys-net, sys-whonix, sys-usb., All is well

OK, so my “backup” NVME is internal. I have a “adaptor” which is “driver-less” that converted the WiFi interface to be used as another NVME interface. I have been using this from the very beginning 4.2.0 on for my backups and until late it works just great. I restored just last weekend from it from my last valid backup 07/07/24. In fact dom0 see’s it gave it a name, and the size is correct, I can access mount it dismount all day, no issues.

My other mini with these specs was killed when I did my BIOS update from the original version. You see that was my “TEST” Qube. I already had Qubes 4.2.0 installed vanilla, and I wanted to see if things went well before my final build out of my Qube and it didn’t/ I could never get it to boot right again. Maybe BIOS failure, Maybe a Qubes issue, IDK. It just never came back. So I use this one for my final build out.

No other mini with these specs, they are all way older.

8

Any suggestions guys or should I try and use crystaldiskinfo program to backup my Qube?

Can I install this installed on Dom0?

I am not familiar with this software…

9

Try make a backup on the disks used by Qubes OS instead of the “backup” NVME to check if it’s an issue with your “backup” NVME or not.

10

Well I am happy to report that I was able to do a “FULL” backup of my Qube today. So what ever you guys addressed / fix, THANK YOU!!

I will say I was sweating bullets all morning…

But it completed without error, and in the time I expected it too…

@apparatus I didn’t do anything different. I used the same NVME, attached to that little card internally , which had a “WiFi” card on the MOBO originally. As I don’t use WiFi, I removed that card and installed the “NVME” card . Everything went fine