---
lang: en
layout: doc
permalink: /doc/upgrade/4.1/
title: How to upgrade to Qubes 4.1
---

This page explains how to upgrade from Qubes 4.0 to Qubes 4.1. There are two
ways to upgrade: a clean installation or an in-place upgrade. In general, a
clean installation is simpler and less error-prone, but an in-place upgrade
allows you to preserve your customizations.

## Back up

Before attempting either an in-place upgrade or a clean installation, we
strongly recommend that you first [back up your
system](/doc/how-to-back-up-restore-and-migrate/) so that you don't lose any
data.

## Clean installation

If you would prefer to perform a clean installation rather than upgrading
in-place:

1. Create a
   [backup](/doc/how-to-back-up-restore-and-migrate/#creating-a-backup) of your
   current installation.
2. [Download](/downloads/) the latest 4.1 release.
3. Follow the [installation guide](/doc/installation-guide/) to install Qubes
   4.1.
4. [Restore from your
   backup](/doc/how-to-back-up-restore-and-migrate/#restoring-from-a-backup) on
   your new 4.1 installation.

## In-place upgrade

**Warning:** It is not possible to upgrade directly from releases earlier than
4.0. If you're still on an earlier release, please either perform a [clean
installation of 4.1](#clean-installation) or [upgrade to
4.0](/doc/upgrade/4.0/) first.

The upgrade may take several hours, and will download several gigabytes of
data.

In place upgrade is a complex operation. For this reason, we provide a
`qubes-dist-upgrade` tool to handle all the necessary steps automatically. You
can install it with the following command in the dom0 terminal:

    sudo qubes-dom0-update -y qubes-dist-upgrade

The upgrade consists of seven stages --- six before restarting the system ---
labeled "STAGE 0" through "STAGE 5" in the options list below. The seventh stage
is rebuilding the application and features lists, which you can start with the
`--resync-appmenus-features` option.

Full list of options can be obtained with `qubes-dist-upgrade --help`:

    Usage: qubes-dist-upgrade [OPTIONS]...

    This script is used for updating current QubesOS R4.0 to R4.1.

    Options:
        --double-metadata-size, -d         (STAGE 0) Double current LVM thin pool metadata size.
        --update, -t                       (STAGE 1) Update of dom0, TemplatesVM and StandaloneVM.
        --template-standalone-upgrade, -l  (STAGE 2) Upgrade templates and standalone VMs to R4.1 repository.
        --release-upgrade, -r              (STAGE 3) Update 'qubes-release' for Qubes R4.1.
        --dist-upgrade, -s                 (STAGE 4) Upgrade to Qubes R4.1 and Fedora 32 repositories.
        --setup-efi-grub, -g               (STAGE 5) Setup EFI Grub.
        --all, -a                          Execute all the above stages in one call.

        --assumeyes, -y                    Automatically answer yes for all questions.
        --usbvm, -u                        Current UsbVM defined (default 'sys-usb').
        --netvm, -n                        Current NetVM defined (default 'sys-net').
        --updatevm, -f                     Current UpdateVM defined (default 'sys-firewall').
        --skip-template-upgrade, -j        Don't upgrade TemplateVM to R4.1 repositories.
        --skip-standalone-upgrade, -k      Don't upgrade StandaloneVM to R4.1 repositories.
        --only-update                      Apply STAGE 0, 2 and resync appmenus only to
                                           selected qubes (coma separated list).
        --keep-running                     List of extra VMs to keep running during update (coma separated list).
                                           Can be useful if multiple updates proxy VMs are configured.
        --max-concurrency                  How many TemplateVM/StandaloneVM to update in parallel in STAGE 1
                                           (default 4).

        --resync-appmenus-features         Resync applications and features. To be ran individually
                                           after reboot.

After installing the tool, upgrade can be performed all at once with:

    sudo qubes-dist-upgrade --all

Optionally, an `--assumeyes` (or `-y`) option can be used to automatically
accept all the actions without confirmation.

Alternatively, each upgrade stage can be started separately (see the list of
options above).

After completing "STAGE 0" through "STAGE 5", restart the system. Then perform
the final step:

    sudo qubes-dist-upgrade --resync-appmenus-features

When this completes, you can start using Qubes OS 4.1.

### Known issues

1. The script does not convert LUKS1 to LUKS2 disk encryption format (fresh
   Qubes 4.1 install uses LUKS2 for disk encryption, while earlier versions use
   LUKS1).
2. Early Qubes 4.0 pre-releases (before R4.0-rc2) made `/boot/efi` partition
   only 200MB, which is too small for R4.1. In case of such partition layout,
   clean installation is necessary.
3. If user has created some custom qrexec policy entries, they may not be
   correctly handled in R4.1, resulting in denying all the calls. It is advised
   to verify if there are not qrexec policy errors in the log after the system
   restart - using `journalctl -b` command.

If any early upgrade stage fails, the `qubes-dist-upgrade` tool will try to
restore previous system state. After fixing an issue, the tool can be started
again, to retry the operation. If a later stage (number 3 or later) fails, the
tool may not be able to rollback the changes. But it may still be possible to
retry the upgrade.

## Update

After upgrading or performing a clean installation, we strongly recommend
[updating your system](/doc/how-to-update/).