option to set the TemplateVM setting for TemplateBasedVMs to none

[adrelanos]

Setting the template to an arbitrary different temporary template during template reinstallation is a bit dangerous. Easily forgotten. Lets say oneyou would not want boot some my-whonix-ws AppVM in a debian-8 template.

This makes template reinstallation instructions more difficult than possible.

Feature request:
Please have an option for qvm-prefs as well as in QVMM to allow setting the template to none.

Related mailing list discussion:
Is there a standard procedure to reinstall whonix?

Since this touches usability, I am looping in @bnvk.

[marmarek]

Having template set to "none" means it is Standalone VM (with own root.img etc). So not that simple. But maybe we should ship dummy template?

[marmarek]

Having template set to "none" means it is Standalone VM (with own root.img etc). So not that simple. But maybe we should ship dummy template?

[andrewdavidwong]

This makes template reinstallation instructions more difficult than possible.

I started to rewrite that page to generalize it so that the procedure could be used for any TemplateVM (not just Whonix). However, I stopped when the discussion turned toward creating special tools for the job (rather than having the user manually create the dummy template). Here is the latest draft. If you think it's worth finishing and adding to the docs, let me know. If not (e.g., because we don't want users trying to do that, or it's going to be deprecated soon by this option), then that's ok.

[andrewdavidwong]

This makes template reinstallation instructions more difficult than possible.

I started to rewrite that page to generalize it so that the procedure could be used for any TemplateVM (not just Whonix). However, I stopped when the discussion turned toward creating special tools for the job (rather than having the user manually create the dummy template). Here is the latest draft. If you think it's worth finishing and adding to the docs, let me know. If not (e.g., because we don't want users trying to do that, or it's going to be deprecated soon by this option), then that's ok.

[adrelanos]

I think it's worth being documented because until the improved solution
gets available, users updated, old versions are deprecated and so forth
will probably still take quite some time.

[adrelanos]

I think it's worth being documented because until the improved solution
gets available, users updated, old versions are deprecated and so forth
will probably still take quite some time.

[andrewdavidwong]

I think it's worth being documented because until the improved solution gets available, users updated, old versions are deprecated and so forth will probably still take quite some time.

Done: QubesOS/qubes-doc@652409c

[andrewdavidwong]

I think it's worth being documented because until the improved solution gets available, users updated, old versions are deprecated and so forth will probably still take quite some time.

Done: QubesOS/qubes-doc@652409c

[marmarek]

In Qubes 4.0, it's simple to create "dummy" template for this purpose:

qvm-create --class TemplateVM --label red dummy

[marmarek]

In Qubes 4.0, it's simple to create "dummy" template for this purpose:

qvm-create --class TemplateVM --label red dummy