Release Upgrade Kicksecure 17 to Kicksecure 18

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How to Release Upgrade from Kicksecure 17 to Kicksecure 18

Notices

Warning: This is for testers-only!

Release Upgrade Kicksecure Notices

Notice	Description
Difficulty	Downloading a new Kicksecure / Kicksecure (Factory Reset) is easier than applying the Release Upgrade instructions on this page. Debian release notes: Chapter 4. Upgrades from Debian 12 (trixie) Chapter 5. Issues to be aware of for trixie
Release Upgrade vs Re-Installation	To use Kicksecure 18, users can either: A) Release upgrade existing Kicksecure 17 images using the instructions on this page; OR B) Factory Reset using the Kicksecure re-install method by downloading the new release, which is much simpler than upgrading: Kicksecure 18: download the new release. Kicksecure for Qubes 18: download the new release.
Standard Updates	For standard ("everyday") update instructions see Operating System Software and Updates. The instructions on this page describe how to perform a Release Upgrade from Kicksecure 17 to Kicksecure 18.
Automated Release Upgrade vs Manual Release Upgrade	Automated Release Upgrade is the newer method that has been implemented. It does not ask for user input and is therefore easier to use. The former Manual Release Upgrade effectively did the same, but it offered more control over system customization. It is now deprecated.
Configuration Files Resets	Since this is an automated release upgrade, user modified configuration files (if any) in folder /etc will be reset, overwritten with the Debian or Kicksecure package version. The user is free to restore the configuration after the release upgrade.

High Level Overview

1. Backup all data - ideally have a copy of the VM(s) so it is possible to try again (if necessary).
2. Perform the usual standard ("everyday") update instructions.
3. Platform specific notice. Qubes users only: Release Upgrade Qubes from version R4.2 to R4.3.
4. Release Upgrade Kicksecure from version 17 to 18.
5. Update derivative APT repository configuration.
6. Power off Kicksecure
7. Release Upgrade Kicksecure
8. Restart Kicksecure

Platform Specific Notices

• Kicksecure: No special notice.
• Kicksecure-Qubes:
  • Qubes R4.2: Unavailable, unsupported for Qubes R4.2.
  • Qubes R4.3: Available for Qubes R4.3 and above only.

Qubes Specific

Notes:

• Qubes applicability: Only applicable if using Qubes. Non-Qubes users should ignore this wiki chapter.
• Required host version: Host operating system must be Qubes R4.3. See Qubes documentation: How to upgrade to Qubes 4.3
• Template upgrade note: When Qubes R4.3 is in dom0 with an old Qubes R4.2 Template, that Template must be upgraded to Qubes R4.3 first. The following quotes from the Qubes documentation explain how to upgrade all Templates from R4.2 to R4.3.
• Qubes release upgrade upstream issue: Until Qubes upstream issue ticket qubes-dist-upgrade: "No such file or directory / ERROR: A general error occurred while upgrading" #10437 gets fixed by Qubes, it might be impossible to upgrade old Qubes R4.2 Kicksecure and Whonix Templates to Qubes R4.3. If users are affected by this issue, chances might be good that this gets fixed in the near future. Quote the same ticket: "marmarek added this to Current team tasks on 1 December 2025." Users are advised to monitor this ticket. No need to report this Qubes issue against Kicksecure. However, if downloading a new Kicksecure version 18 Template as per Qubes/Install, this issue will not occur.

Install the qubes-dist-upgrade tool. This is the in-place upgrade tool, which is not what we’re doing. However, it will be needed in order to upgrade the templates to the 4.3 version. You install it with the following command in the dom0 terminal: sudo qubes-dom0-update -y qubes-dist-upgrade How to upgrade to Qubes 4.3

Change your templates to use the 4.3 repositories instead of the 4.2 ones. You do this with the following command in the dom0 terminal: sudo qubes-dist-upgrade --releasever=4.3 --template-standalone-upgrade How to upgrade to Qubes 4.3

Note: The word "standalone" in the option "--template-standalone-upgrade" does not refer to "Standalone VMs". Instead, this is a command that can be used alone (standalone) to upgrade Qubes Templates from R4.2 to R4.3.

Release Upgrade

1. Backup all data, ideally have a clone of the VM(s) so it is possible to try again (if necessary).
2. Perform the usual standard ("everyday") update instructions.
3. Run systemcheck.
4. View release-upgrade command version: cat /usr/sbin/release-upgrade | grep version=
5. Check release-upgrade command version. It should be a minimum of 3.3, and display version="3.3".
6. Consider keeping the full release upgrade log output. It will be required for Support in case there are issues.
7. Read Platform Specific Notices.
8. Perform the automated release upgrade using the release-upgrade command: sudo release-upgrade
9. Re-run the repository-dist utility to update your derivative APT sources list from the old .list to the new .sources format. This is a very minor issue if forgotten. It can be done at any later time. systemcheck will point this out if it has not been done yet.
10. Done. If everything went well, at the end it will show:

    INFO: OK. (release-upgrade version: 3.3) Release upgrade success.

11. Reboot.
12. Optional, recommended: Re-install Meta Packages and Safely Run Autoremove

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Footnotes

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