Template for sys-firewall, sys-net and sys-usb

User Support
1

Hello, I am very new to this great OS and there is still a lot I don’t know, I ask for your patience!

I downloaded fedora-32 to replace the deprecated fedora 30, I replaced it in my work, personal and vault vms, but then I noticed sys-firewall, sys-net and sys-usb were also using fedora 30 as a template, as I am unfamiliar with the particularities of this vms I am not sure if I should also switch them to fedora 32 or if I should just leave them using the fedora 30 template. I am not even sure if it makes a difference or not. My feeling tells me I should switch them to fedora 32 but I reckoned I it was better to ask the experts.

Thanks in advance for your time and help. Have a good day.

2

Your feeling was right. You should upgrade these as well. One of the
benefits of Qubes is that VM OS upgrades can usually be rolled back
quite easily, so if something goes wrong, just change the template back
to fedora 30 and debug from there. The difference it makes is in
security and stability. Fedora 30 is not receiving patches anymore,
meaning that any bug found will remain permanently.

It should be as easy as shutting down the VM and changing the template.

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3

Hello

“It should be as easy as shutting down the VM and changing the template.”

Yes: for sys-firewall and sys-net. Just shutdown every template that uses these two.
But, for sys-usb, it depends on what are your keyboard and mouse. If you use a USB keydoard or USB mouse you may lock yourself out (until you reboot te computer).
If these is yor case read this:


you will have to use the command that is specified there (note I switch fedora-31 for fedora-32, below): 
 $ qvm-shutdown --wait sys-usb; qvm-prefs sys-usb template fedora-32; qvm-start sys-usb

this way you will keep USB keyboard and mousse.

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4

Thanks for the replies, is it a problem if I use Debian 10 as a template for sys-firewall instead of fedora-32?

5

Not at all - you can use Debian as template for all sys-qubes. (But
you may need drivers/firmware installed for some NICs)

6

Hey, what are NICs? And what drivers would I need in order to use debian 10 as a template for sys-firewall?

7

NIC=Network Interface Controller - the hardware that connects your
computer to a network.

This is only relevant for sys-net because it’s there that you attach
your networking devices. What drivers you need will depend on what
device it is.
This doesn’t apply to sys-firewall - you can just change to a Debian
template for that.

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