VM troubleshooting

VM Kernel troubleshooting

This troubleshoot applies to the non-default kernel choice described in the Managing VM docs.

In case of problems, you can access the VM console using qvm-console-dispvm VMNAME in dom0, then access the GRUB menu. You need to call it just after starting the VM (until GRUB_TIMEOUT expires); for example, in a separate dom0 terminal window.

In any case you can later access the VM's logs (especially the VM console log /var/log/xen/console/guest-VMNAME.log).

You can always set the kernel back to some dom0-provided value to fix a VM kernel installation.

Qubes starts, but no VMs load

First, try to start a particular VM, check any failure message and direct further steps based on that.

This issue has been seen to occur if a dom0 update is interrupted halfway through and/or a hard power off is done without shutting down Qubes, which results in files getting corrupted.

Can not uninstall a VM / “ERROR: VM installed by package manager: template-vm-name”

Try the normal method before resorting to this method to remove a VM manually. All of the following commands should be executed in a dom0 terminal.

When a template is marked as 'installed by package manager', but cannot be uninstalled there, trying to uninstall manually will result in the error "ERROR: VM installed by package manager: template-vm-name". Do as follows to be able to uninstall the template:

Check the state of installed_by_rpm
```
$ qvm-prefs template-vm-name
```
If installed_by_rpm - True], mark the template as not installed by package manager
```
$ qvm-prefs template-vm-name installed_by_rpm false
```
Re-check the state of installed_by_rpm

If installed_by_rpm - False, remove the template like you would a regular qube:
```
 $ qvm-remove template-vm-name
```
If installed_by_rpm remains True, reboot your computer to bring qubes.xml in sync with qubesd, and try again to remove the template.

Fixing package installation errors

By default, templates in 4.0 only have a loopback interface.

Some packages will throw an error on installation in this situation. For example, Samba expects to be configured using a network interface post installation.

One solution is to add a dummy interface to allow the package to install correctly:

ip link add d0 type dummy
ip addr add 192.168.0.1/24 dev d0
ip link set d0 up

"Cannot connect to qrexec agent" error

If you face this error when starting a VM, look into the VM logs at /var/log/xen/console/guest-VMNAME.log. Common reasons that may be revealed are: too low memory, corrupted files or a VM crash on startup.

If the error occurs as a result of too little initial memory, increase the initial memory from 200MB to 400MB by navigating to VM settings » Advanced » Initial memory.

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