Release Upgrade Whonix 17 to Whonix 18

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How to Release Upgrade from Whonix 17 to Whonix 18

Notices

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Release Upgrade Whonix Notices
Notice Description
Difficulty
Release Upgrade vs Re-Installation

To use Whonix 18, users can either:

Standard Updates
Automated Release Upgrade vs Manual Release Upgrade
  • Automated Release Upgrade is the newer method that has been implemented. It does not ask for user input and is therefore easier to use.
  • The former Manual Release Upgrade effectively did the same, but it offered more control over system customization. It is now deprecated. [1]
Configuration Files Resets Since this is an automated release upgrade, user modified configuration files (if any) in folder /etc will be reset, overwritten with the Debian or Whonix package version. The user is free to restore the configuration after the release upgrade.

High Level Overview

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  1. Backup all data - ideally have a copy of the VM(s) so it is possible to try again (if necessary).
  2. Perform the usual standard ("everyday") update instructions.
  3. Platform specific notice. Qubes users only: Release Upgrade Qubes from version R4.2 to R4.3.
  4. Release Upgrade Whonix-Workstation from version 17 to 18.
  5. Update derivative APT repository configuration.
  6. Power off Whonix-Workstation
  7. Release Upgrade Whonix-Gateway
  8. Restart Whonix-Gateway

Platform Specific Notices

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  • Whonix: No special notice.
  • Qubes-Whonix:
    • Supported path (recommended): Upgrade the Qubes host from R4.2 to R4.3 first, then release-upgrade Whonix from 17 to 18.
    • Qubes R4.2: Whonix 18 on Qubes R4.2 is unsupported (templates are not provided/supported for that host version). [2]
    • Qubes R4.3: Qubes-Whonix 18 is available and supported.
    • Important note on wording: Unsupported does not necessarily mean "technically impossible". It means "not maintained/tested as a supported combination".
    • Follow the steps in the order shown on this page.

Qubes Specific

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Notes:

  • Qubes applicability: Only applicable if using Qubes. Non-Qubes users should ignore this wiki chapter.
  • Required host version: Host operating system must be Qubes R4.3. See Qubes documentation: How to upgrade to Qubes 4.3archive.org iconarchive.today icon
  • Template upgrade note: When Qubes R4.3 is in dom0 with an old Qubes R4.2 Template, that Template must be upgraded to Qubes R4.3 first. The following quotes from the Qubes documentation explain how to upgrade all Templates from R4.2 to R4.3.

Install the qubes-dist-upgrade tool. This is the in-place upgrade tool, which is not what we’re doing. However, it will be needed in order to upgrade the templates to the 4.3 version. You install it with the following command in the dom0 terminal: sudo qubes-dom0-update -y qubes-dist-upgrade How to upgrade to Qubes 4.3archive.org iconarchive.today icon

Change your templates to use the 4.3 repositories instead of the 4.2 ones. You do this with the following command in the dom0 terminal: sudo qubes-dist-upgrade --releasever=4.3 --template-standalone-upgrade How to upgrade to Qubes 4.3archive.org iconarchive.today icon

Note on terminology: The option name --template-standalone-upgrade is unfortunately easy to misread because Qubes uses “Standalone” as a VM type name. Here, “standalone” in the option name refers to the fact that this stage can be run by itself (as a standalone step). It is not an instruction to “upgrade Standalones only”. This step upgrades TemplateVMs and also any Standalone Qubes (VM type) that are applicable. [3]

Release Upgrade

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  1. Backup all data, ideally have a clone of the VM(s) so it is possible to try again (if necessary).
  2. Perform the usual standard ("everyday") update instructions.
  3. Run Kicksecure logo systemcheckOnion network Logo.
  4. View release-upgrade command version: cat /usr/sbin/release-upgrade | grep version=
  5. Check release-upgrade command version. It should be a minimum of 3.3, and display version="3.3".
  6. Consider keeping the full release upgrade log output. It will be required for Support in case there are issues.
  7. Read Platform Specific Notices.
  8. Perform the automated release upgrade using the release-upgrade command: sudo release-upgrade
  9. If everything went well, at the end it will show:

    INFO: OK. (release-upgrade version: 3.3) Release upgrade success.

  10. Re-run the repository-dist utility to update your derivative APT sources list from the old .list to the new .sources format. [4] This is a very minor issue if forgotten. It can be done at any later time. systemcheck will point this out if it has not been done yet.
  11. Reboot.
  12. Optional, recommended: Re-install Meta Packages and Safely Run Autoremove

Support the Future of Whonix

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Whonix is made possible thanks to the donation of people like you.

Please support the Whonix development with a donation.

Donate to Whonix

Footnotes

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  1. ↑ This method is still possible. All the automated release-upgradeGitHub Logo script does is perform actions which the user could perform manually. If a manual release upgrade is desired, emulate what the release-upgrade script is doing. The manual release upgrading procedure is undocumented due to the size of the instructions and duplication involved.
  2. ↑ qrexec sdwdate.ConnectCheck denied messagesarchive.org iconarchive.today icon (despite the name, sdwdate-gui issue, not sdwdate issue)
  3. ↑ https://forums.whonix.org/t/qubes-whonix-18-released-major-release-upgrade/22517/7archive.org iconarchive.today icon
  4. ↑ https://forums.kicksecure.com/t/apt-sources-list-one-line-format-versus-deb822-style-format/267archive.org iconarchive.today icon
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