qusal/docs/INSTALL.md

Install

Qusal install and update guide.

Table of Contents

• Installation
  • Prerequisites
  • DomU Installation
  • Dom0 Installation
• Update
  • DomU Update
  • Dom0 Update with Git
  • Dom0 Update by literally copying the git repository
• Template upgrade
  • Clean install
  • Upgrade a template in-place

Installation

Prerequisites

You current setup needs to fulfill the following requisites:

• Qubes OS R4.2
• Internet connection

DomU Installation

1. Install git in the qube, if it is an AppVM, install it it's the TemplateVM and restart the AppVM.

2. Clone the repository (if you made a fork, fork the submodule(s) before clone and use your remote repository instead, the submodules will also be from your fork).

   git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/ben-grande/qusal.git
   

3. Copy the maintainer's signing key to your text editor and save the file to /home/user/ben-code.asc.

Dom0 Installation

Before copying anything to Dom0, read Qubes OS warning about consequences of this procedure.

1. Copy the repository $file from the DomU $qube to Dom0 (substitute CHANGEME for the desired valued):

   qube="CHANGEME" # qube name where you downloaded the repository
   file="CHANGEME" # path to the repository in the qube
   
   qvm-run --pass-io --localcmd="UPDATES_MAX_FILES=10000
     /usr/libexec/qubes/qfile-dom0-unpacker user
     ~/QubesIncoming/${qube}/qusal" \
     "${qube}" /usr/lib/qubes/qfile-agent "${file}"
   

2. Pass the maintainer's key from the qube to Dom0:

   qvm-run --pass-io "${qube}" -- "cat /home/user/ben-code.asc" | tee /tmp/ben-code.asc
   

3. Verify that the key fingerprint matches DF38 3487 5B65 7587 13D9 2E91 A475 969D E4E3 71E3. You can use Sequoia-PGP or GnuPG for the fingerprint verification:

   gpg --show-keys /tmp/ben-code.asc
   # or
   #sq inspect ben-code.asc
   

4. Import the verified key to your keyring:

   gpg --import /tmp/ben-code.asc
   

5. Verify the commit or tag signature and expect a good signature, be surprised otherwise:

   git verify-commit HEAD
   git submodule foreach git verify-commit HEAD
   

6. Copy the project to the Salt directories:

   ~/QubesIncoming/"${qube}"/qusal/scripts/setup.sh
   

Update

To update, you can copy the repository again to dom0 as instructed in the installation section above or you can use easier methods demonstrated below.

DomU Update

Update the repository state in your DomU:

git -C ~/src/qusal fetch --recurse-submodules

Dom0 Update with Git

This method is more secure than literally copying the whole directory of the repository to dom0 but the setup is more involved. Requires some familiarity with the sys-git formula.

1. Install the sys-git formula and push the repository to the git server.

2. Install git on Dom0, allow the Qrexec protocol to work in submodules and clone the repository to ~/src/qusal (only has to be run once):

   mkdir -p ~/src
   sudo qubesctl state.apply sys-git.install-client
   git clone --recurse-submodules qrexec://@default/qusal.git ~/src/qusal
   

3. Next updates will be pulling instead of cloning:

   git -C ~/src/qusal pull --recurse-submodules
   git -C ~/src/qusal submodule update --merge
   

4. Verify the commit or tag signature and expect a good signature, be surprised otherwise (signature verification on submodules is skipped if checking out but not merging):

   git verify-commit HEAD
   git submodule foreach git verify-commit HEAD
   

5. Copy the project to the Salt directories:

   ~/src/qusal/scripts/setup.sh
   

Dom0 Update by literally copying the git repository

This method is similar to the installation method, but easier to type. This method is less secure than Git over Qrexec because it copies the whole repository, including the .git directory which holds files that are not tracked by git. It would be easier to distrust the downloader qube if the project had a signed archive. The .git/info/exclude can exclude modified files from being tracked and signature verification won't catch it.

1. Install the helpers scripts and git on Dom0 (only has to be run once):

   sudo qubesctl state.apply dom0.install-helpers
   sudo qubes-dom0-update git
   

2. Copy the repository $file from the DomU $qube to Dom0 (substitute CHANGEME for the desired valued):

   qube="CHANGEME" # qube name where you downloaded the repository
   file="CHANGEME" # path to the repository in the qube
   
   rm -rf ~/QubesIncoming/"${qube}"/qusal
   UPDATES_MAX_FILES=10000 qvm-copy-to-dom0 "${qube}" "${file}"
   

3. Verify the commit or tag signature and expect a good signature, be surprised otherwise:

   git verify-commit HEAD
   git submodule foreach git verify-commit HEAD
   

4. Copy the project to the Salt directories:

   ~/QubesIncoming/"${qube}"/qusal/scripts/setup.sh
   

Template upgrade

Template upgrade refers to template major releases upgrade.

Clean install

As we use Salt, doing clean installs are easy. Unfortunately QubesOS does not provided a CLI program to rename qubes.

1. Open Qube Manager, select the template you want to upgrade and rename it adding the suffix -old. The Qube Manager will change the template preference of qubes based on the chosen template.
2. Rerun the formulas that targeted the chosen template.
3. If the formula fails, use Qubes Template Switcher to set the -old template to be used by the qubes managed by that specific formula.
4. Repeat for every template that needs to be upgraded.

Upgrade a template in-place

This method is discouraged as it leads to different results compared to installing a new template. Fixes done upstream by Qubes OS to the build system of templates, such as package list, cannot be backported to old templates. In other words, in-place upgrades leads to a different environment compared to installing a new template.

One advantage of this method is when dealing with a StandaloneVM, as important data can be present in the root volume, in-place upgrades are easier for this qube class instead of doing a migration of specific folders and files to the new qube.

1. If you still want to do upgrade in-place, refer to upstream guides, for Debian and Fedora.
2. Rerun the formulas that targeted the chosen template.
3. Repeat for every template that needs to be upgraded.