Current Qubes R3.0 (R3.0) systems can be upgraded in-place to the latest R3.0 by following the procedure below. However, upgrading in-place is riskier than performing a clean installation, since there are more things which can go wrong. For this reason, **we strongly recommended that users perform a [clean installation](/doc/installation-guide/) of Qubes R3.0**.
**Before attempting either an in-place upgrade or a clean installation, we strongly recommend that users back up the system by using the built-in [backup tool](/doc/backup-restore/).**
Experienced users may be comfortable accepting the risks of upgrading in-place. Such users may wish to first attempt an in-place upgrade. If nothing goes wrong, then some time and effort will have been saved. If something does go wrong, then the user can simply perform a clean installation, and no significant loss will have occurred (as long as the user [backed up](/doc/backup-restore/) correctly!).
By default, in Qubes R2, there is only one Template VM, however users are free to create more Template VMs for special purposes, as well as Standalone VMs. More information on using multiple Template VMs, as well as Standalone VMs, can be found [here](/doc/software-update-vm/). The steps described in this section should be repeated in **all** user's Template and Standalone VMs.
1. Open terminal in the template VM (or standalone VM). E.g. use the Qubes Manager's right-click menu and choose Run Command in VM and type `gnome-terminal` there.
You'll need to accept "Qubes Release 3 Signing Key" - it is delivered by signed qubes-upgrade-vm package (verify that the message is about local file), so you don't need to manually verify it.
1. Open terminal in the template VM (or standalone VM). E.g. use the Qubes Manager's right-click menu and choose Run Command in VM and type `gnome-terminal` there.
Be sure to do steps described in this section after *all* your template and standalone VMs got updated as described in the section above. Also make sure you haven't shutdown any of: netvm, firewallvm - you will not be able to start them again.
It may happen that the system hang during the reboot. Hard reset the system in such case, all the filesystems are unmounted at this stage.
Please note that if you use Anti Evil Maid, then it won't be able to unseal the passphrase this time, because the Xen, kernel, and initramfs binaries have changed. Once the system boots up again, you could reseal your Anti Evil Maid's passphrase to the new configuration. Please consult Anti Evil Maid documentation for explanation on how to do that.
Now, when you have dom0 upgraded, you can install new templates from Qubes R3.0 repositories. Especially Fedora 21 - default Qubes R3.0 template:
If for some reason you did not upgrade all the templates and standalone VMs before upgrading dom0, you can still do this, but it will be more complicated. This can be the case when you restore backup done on Qubes R2.
1. qrexec will not connect (you will see an error message during VM startup)
2. GUI will not connect - you will not see any VM window
3. VM will not be configured - especially it will not have network access
Because of above limitations, you will need to configure some of those manually. The instruction assumes the VM name is `custom-template`, but the same instructions can be applied to a standalone VM.
Waiting for VM's qrexec agent.............................................................Cannot connect to 'custom-template' qrexec agent for 60 seconds, giving up