A recent update to kali-core borked my template and no gui apps launch at all. Not even the Run terminal in the qube menu works. How does one connect to a template from dom0 to try and fix stuff like this? I’d love to say I made of backup of the template but, that is sadly not the case.
You can try qvm-console-dispvm.
Also, you can try to revert the volume?
the oldest revert also has the same issue, can’t launch anything gui related.
When I use qvm-console-dispvm, it launches a disposable vm. Will any changes there stay in the actual template ?
using qvm-console, I can launch xterm and chromium, those seem to work fine. But anything in the actual template (or qube based on template) fail to launch.
I miraculously found an backup of a working kali-core template. I’ll try updating it to try and see what actually breaks it
something in the latest upgrade of kali breaks stuff for Qubes OS. I started from a working backup and upgraded the template via the qubes os update tool. It doesn’t matter as it also fails by manually updated a cloned template with the same result. I also held back the qubes packages and the update also left me with an invalid template. The result is the same, no apps show any gui at all. Any app you launch does not appear at all. I have attached the log of the update via the qubes update tool that failed. Sorry if it’s big but my backup dates from some time. If anybody sees anything that can be fixed, any info is appreciated
One of the things that might cause the problem is python3 which seems to be upgrade to 3.13.7 in kali vs 3.13.5 in a standard debian 13 template
You should hold packages related to Qubes.
Read about it here:
https://qubes.3isec.org/Templates/
I did and it still bombed
apt-mark hold python3-qubesdb
apt-mark hold qubes-*
Kali-core template is currently broken, read from this post to the end of topic:
Also:
yeah but my kali-core worked until an update a couple days ago I guess. I guess I’ll have to use my kali VM from now one, pretty sad
Additional info the backup of the kali-core that works has python3 3.13.3. So clearly something in 3.13.7 breaks the qubes tool / integration
I guess some kali tool now requires a newer python version that breaks the template.
that’s my understanding but I’d like to get confirmation and see how it can be fixed if at all
I dont know how it works but I use it like a SSH shell. It a bit like a normal terminal but from another qube?
I can connect and it does connect to the actual template but since this is via a disposable, all qubes stuff is probably from the disposable template. Hence why the qubes integration (i.e. launching gui apps) works via this console but not via the actual template. But I could be completely wrong as a console via a disposable qube is a new one for me
I restored a known good template and held back the qubes packages. During the update, we get this
Processing triggers for qubes-core-agent (4.2.42-1+deb13u1) …
Failed connect to local daemon
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/usr/bin/qvm-features-request”, line 111, in
sys.exit(main())
~~~~^^
File “/usr/bin/qvm-features-request”, line 90, in main
qdb = qubesdb.QubesDB()
qubesdb.Error: (2, ‘No such file or directory’)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/usr/bin/qvm-features-request”, line 111, in
sys.exit(main())
~~~~^^
File “/usr/bin/qvm-features-request”, line 90, in main
qdb = qubesdb.QubesDB()
After which, the qubes-core-agent seems broken
systemctl status qubes-core-agent
● qubes-qrexec-agent.service - Qubes remote exec agent
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/qubes-qrexec-agent.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Tue 2025-10-14 08:51:01 EDT; 41min ago
Invocation: 0918cb8344af49d2b37cb5fd30211848
Main PID: 754 (qrexec-agent)
Tasks: 1 (limit: 7680)
Memory: 1.3M (peak: 3.3M)
CPU: 767ms
CGroup: /system.slice/qubes-qrexec-agent.service
└─754 /usr/lib/qubes/qrexec-agent
Oct 14 08:51:01 kali-core-broke systemd[1]: Starting qubes-qrexec-agent.service - Qubes remote exec agent…
Oct 14 08:51:01 kali-core-broke systemd[1]: Started qubes-qrexec-agent.service - Qubes remote exec agent.
Oct 14 08:51:01 kali-core-broke qrexec-agent[757]: 2025-10-14 08:51:01.607 qrexec-agent[757]: qrexec-agent-data.c:256:handle_new_process_common: executed: user:QUBESRPC qubes.SetMonitorLayout dom0 (pid 759)
Oct 14 08:51:01 kali-core-broke qrexec-agent[759]: pam_unix(qrexec:session): session opened for user user(uid=1000) by (uid=0)
Oct 14 08:51:02 kali-core-broke qrexec-agent[757]: 2025-10-14 08:51:02.794 qrexec-agent[757]: qrexec-agent-data.c:288:handle_new_process_common: pid 759 exited with 0
Oct 14 08:56:07 kali-core-broke systemctl[1028]: Failed to connect to user scope bus via local transport: $DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS and $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR not defined (consider using --machine=@.host --user>
Again, kali updates to python3 3.13.7 if this is relevant for any of the qubes packages. The result is that qrexec then fails or timesout meaning that we cannot launch any gui apps from what I see
EDIT: and if I don’t hold back qubes packages, I get no errors at all and qubes-core-agent does seem to start fine but no gui apps can’t launch regardless
I can confirm marking python3 to hold at 3.13.5 allows upgrades to happen normally without bricking the system. GUI apps work too.
having said that, I have no clue which package update fixed it but one of the latest updates corrected my broken template. I have no held packages and the template works fine. Go figure