I’m encountering inconsistent behavior with the Qubes Update tool across three systems, all running Qubes OS 4.2.4 with kernel 6.12.18.1. All three systems received a dom0 update on April 16th, but their template update behaviors afterwards differ significantly. Here’s a breakdown:
System 1:
Receives template update notifications normally via Qubes Update GUI.
Templates update successfully when triggered manually or automatically.
No issues observed.
System 2:
Does not receive template update notifications in the Qubes Update GUI.
When I manually run Qubes Update the templates fetch and install updates successfully.
No errors reported during manual updates.
System 3:
Does not receive template update notifications in the Qubes Update GUI.
When running Qubes Update manually, templates check for updates but report “No updates available”, even though updates exist.
No errors displayed during the update check process.
What could be the reason for this inconsistent behavior?
It can be partially related but not completely. Because in this post the problem is with only debian templates, but I’m experiencing it with all templates.
By default, most qubes that are connected to the internet will periodically check for updates for their parent templates. You can check the date of the last update check in the “last checked” column. If updates are available for any qube, you will receive a notification as described above, and in the “Updates available” column you will see “YES” for that qube(s). If the update check did not find any new updates, “NO” will appear in the column. Respectively, for qubes that are no longer supported, “OBSOLETE” will be displayed. However, if you have any templates that do not have any online child qubes, you will not receive update notifications for them. By default, after a week, if updates for a given qube have not been checked, the value in the “Updates available” column will be set to “MAYBE”.