Qubes OS updates Weekly Review - Y2025-W19

General Discussion
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Qubes OS updates Weekly Review - Y2025-W19

Introduction

Weekly review of new packages uploaded to Qubes OS repositories. Link to previous Newsletter here.

Alphabetically sorted list of new packages uploaded to Qubes OS repositories 
kernel-515-5.15.181-1.qubes.fc37.x86_64.rpm
kernel-515-devel-5.15.181-1.qubes.fc37.x86_64.rpm
kernel-515-modules-5.15.181-1.qubes.fc37.x86_64.rpm
kernel-515-qubes-vm-5.15.181-1.qubes.fc37.x86_64.rpm
kernel-61-6.1.136-1.qubes.fc37.x86_64.rpm
kernel-61-devel-6.1.136-1.qubes.fc37.x86_64.rpm
kernel-61-modules-6.1.136-1.qubes.fc37.x86_64.rpm
kernel-61-qubes-vm-6.1.136-1.qubes.fc37.x86_64.rpm
kernel-66-6.6.89-1.qubes.fc37.x86_64.rpm
kernel-66-devel-6.6.89-1.qubes.fc37.x86_64.rpm
kernel-66-modules-6.6.89-1.qubes.fc37.x86_64.rpm
kernel-66-qubes-vm-6.6.89-1.qubes.fc37.x86_64.rpm
python3-qubesadmin_4.3.15-1+deb12u1_amd64.deb
python3-qubesadmin_4.3.15-1+deb13u1_amd64.deb
python3-qubesadmin-4.3.15-1.fc40.noarch.rpm
python3-qubesadmin-4.3.15-1.fc41.noarch.rpm
python3-qubesadmin-4.3.15-1.fc42.noarch.rpm
python3-qubesadmin_4.3.15-1+jammy1_amd64.deb
python3-qubesadmin_4.3.15-1+noble1_amd64.deb
python3-qui_4.3.12-1+deb12u1_amd64.deb
python3-qui_4.3.12-1+deb13u1_amd64.deb
python3-qui_4.3.12-1+jammy1_amd64.deb
python3-qui_4.3.12-1+noble1_amd64.deb
qubes-core-admin-client_4.3.15-1+deb12u1_amd64.deb
qubes-core-admin-client_4.3.15-1+deb13u1_amd64.deb
qubes-core-admin-client-4.3.15-1.fc40.noarch.rpm
qubes-core-admin-client-4.3.15-1.fc41.noarch.rpm
qubes-core-admin-client-4.3.15-1.fc42.noarch.rpm
qubes-core-admin-client_4.3.15-1+jammy1_amd64.deb
qubes-core-admin-client_4.3.15-1+noble1_amd64.deb
qubes-desktop-linux-manager_4.3.12-1+deb12u1_amd64.deb
qubes-desktop-linux-manager_4.3.12-1+deb13u1_amd64.deb
qubes-desktop-linux-manager-4.3.12-1.fc40.noarch.rpm
qubes-desktop-linux-manager-4.3.12-1.fc41.noarch.rpm
qubes-desktop-linux-manager-4.3.12-1.fc42.noarch.rpm
qubes-desktop-linux-manager_4.3.12-1+jammy1_amd64.deb
qubes-desktop-linux-manager_4.3.12-1+noble1_amd64.deb
qubes-template-kicksecure-17-4.3.0-202505050102.noarch.rpm
qubes-vm-qrexec-4.3.7-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst
xscreensaver-6.08-4.fc37.x86_64.rpm
xscreensaver-6.08-4.fc41.x86_64.rpm
xscreensaver-base-6.08-4.fc37.x86_64.rpm
xscreensaver-base-6.08-4.fc41.x86_64.rpm
xscreensaver-extras-6.08-4.fc37.x86_64.rpm
xscreensaver-extras-6.08-4.fc41.x86_64.rpm
xscreensaver-extras-base-6.08-4.fc37.x86_64.rpm
xscreensaver-extras-base-6.08-4.fc41.x86_64.rpm
xscreensaver-extras-gss-6.08-4.fc37.x86_64.rpm
xscreensaver-extras-gss-6.08-4.fc41.x86_64.rpm
xscreensaver-gl-base-6.08-4.fc37.x86_64.rpm
xscreensaver-gl-base-6.08-4.fc41.x86_64.rpm
xscreensaver-gl-extras-6.08-4.fc37.x86_64.rpm
xscreensaver-gl-extras-6.08-4.fc41.x86_64.rpm
xscreensaver-gl-extras-gss-6.08-4.fc37.x86_64.rpm
xscreensaver-gl-extras-gss-6.08-4.fc41.x86_64.rpm

Highlights

  • Relatively calm week with some updates.

Details

In addition to the usual minor fixes and patches (full list here):

  • core-admin-client v4.3.15 (r4.3)
    To ease looking up the device with other tools (e.g. lspci), --with-sbdf or --resolve-paths options are added to qvm-pci command.

  • desktop-linux-manager v4.3.12 (r4.3)
    . Qui Domains widget will show restart required icon for DispVMs if the TemplateVM of their disposable template has been restarted (for both named disposables e.g. sys-firewall & sys-usb or unnamed DispVMs e.g. disp178 in the below picture).
    . A new expert-mode feature is introduced which will enable Debug Console for a qube with that feature or for all if set for dom0.
    . Setting or un-setting internal feature will properly hide/unhide domain from Qui Domains widget

    Y2025-W19-Qui-Domains
    Y2025-W19-Qui-Domains574×449 39.8 KB

  • xscreensaver v6.08-4 (r4.3)
    A manpage file was unnecessarily executable. It is fixed.

  • linux-kernel-515 (very old LTS) v5.15.181-1 (r4.2)
    linux-kernel-61 (older LTS) v6.1.136-1 (r4.2)
    linux-kernel-66 (old LTS) v6.6.89-1 (r4.2)

  • qubes-template-kicksecure-17 4.3.0-202505050102 (r4.3)
    Kicksecure template for r4.3 testing is available

Epilogue

Since I made few mistakes with links in last week’s newsletter (e.g. link to the newsletter for the week before was broken), I made a script to automate generation of the newsletter template via Github API and some glue logic. Package URLs are also changed. Instead of diff links, the issue links in updates-status are used. You could easily click "Changes since previous version" links there to go to diff pages. This was done to encourage testing users to easily give the relevant issue a thumbs-up/down to facilitate its progress to stable branch.

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Thanks to whomever made the change to Qui Domains widget.

And thanks to the Qubes team in general, for putting together such a great product!

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@rustybird made the change regarding the restart status:

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Is issue where I don’t see updates in Debian-based templates still not fixed in v4.2.4?

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It is still in testing repository. It has not received enough feedback from testing users to be pushed to stable repository. More details in last week’s Newsletter discussions.

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Fedora 42 templates are not available for 4.2, is qubes 4.3 release soon?

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That is correct. Fedora 42 templates are only available for r4.3. This Github Project tracks the last remaining blockers for r4.3. As you can see, only few remain.

For the curious users who have a spare computer, r4.3 alpha installer ISO is available and it is pretty usable and fine for testing and experimenting.

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It‘s a bit hard to test some update status tool when there are no updates (for the template software). Do you have any recommendations what debian software recieves frequent updates?

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Unfortunately little. Debian is an LTS conservative distro which rarely allows new software to their current stable branch. Fortunately it could be easily tricked to install older version of a package manually.

apt install package=version

e.g.

One of the below might work (on Debian 12):

sudo apt install qubes-artwork=4.2.1-1
sudo apt install qubes-video-companion=1.0.2-1
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Neither package is available. But anyway, good hint. I’ll see what I can downgrade.

1 Like