Auto Reset Linux Distro

JacobOkanta

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I remember having a version of Linux years ago that would basically reset to factory after every reboot (Delete downloads,reset settings, etc). I am looking to find this again for a junk PC just to play around with. Is there a configuration or a certain distribution that would do this?
 


If you burn the Linux .iso to a CD/DVD, they will all behave as you describe. If you burn the .iso to a USB, they will all behave that way too, as long as you don't enable "persistence." That is, they will forget everything in between the times you boot it up.

For a "junk PC"... you should try to identify if you can whether it is 32-bit or 64-bit CPU, and whether it has a DVD drive or just a CD, and whether it can boot on a USB. A computer from the last 10 years will probably be okay on all of these issues, but if it's older... these differences may matter.
 
There's factory reset and factory reset ^^

I never had the need for such feature so I'm not really a veteran on the matter.
It's probably better to have "save points" than having a total reset, since some configurations are good to have permanently.

The easiest "custom" way to do it would be to split the drive in half, plus a small partition. You would install the system on one of the big partition, the other big one would be a dump of the first one. The small one would be a minimalist system that you would use to dump/restore the system.

This way you can set the system in a state that you like, make a full copy of it, then restore the copy when you have been too far ^^

Saving/restoring partitions with the same size is pretty easy with the dd command.

This is probably not a good way to go if you have a ssd drive since restoring a partition with a full dump would wear it out fast.

EDIT : you could also only mount the system from the small os and copy its content with a command that preserve file metadata. this way you won't need a full dump, that would use less space so you could even have multiple save points. But depending on the context it could be slower than a sequential copy.
 
Or there is Timeshift written about here, which would do basically all of the above.

It ships installed with Linux Mint, Linux Lite, some community-based Manjaro, and others, but can be applied to all of the 80 to 100 LInux I run at any time (difficult with openSUSE).

G'day and welcome to linux.org @JacobOkanta :)

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

Edited added BTW

BTW I have to update the Manjaro section and video, as there are newer easier ways now :D
 
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