How often do you reinstall system?

[f33dm3bits]

Just install Red Star OS as your distribution, that way you know for sure you will have someone watching you

Red Star OS - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[CaffeineAddict]

I wouldn't say that, necessarily.

In your OP, at the end, you said



There are software firewall IP tables you can tweak, penetration testing tools you can install, and so on, to have a safer feeling that your security is not being compromised, and so on.

It just depends if you wish to use them or explore them, rather than reinstall.

Yes, suspicion is the only reason because there are no sure indicators to prove otherwise.
It's more speculative philosophy instead of factual truth.

But this thread did help cement my concern that system performance does not deteriorate over time on Linux and that nothing other than security suspicion can be valid concern. so that's improvement.

Just install Red Star OS as your distribution, that way you know for sure you will have someone watching you

Uh no way, had enough of big brother.

 

[vs2-free-users]

I switched from CentOS to Rocly Linux on my vpses, I'm sure Rocky Linux would work as a desktop os as well if CentOS was working before for your family and friends.

Rockylinux is a good os but. Redheat currently fight against his clones so i think its better to search for alternatives.

 

[f33dm3bits]

Rockylinux is a good os but. Redheat currently fight against his clones so i think its better to search for alternatives.

I still believe it will be fine with Rocky, another option would be AlmaLinux since they don't claim to be a clone anymore but just ABI compatible.

The Future of AlmaLinux is Bright

It’s been a whirlwind few weeks here at AlmaLinux, and I’m elated to be able to finally share this update. The future of AlmaLinux OS In case you missed it, Red Hat announced they will no longer be providing the means for downstream clones to continue to be 1:1 binary copies of Red Hat...

almalinux.org

* Binary/ABI compatibility in our case means working to ensure that applications built to run on RHEL (or RHEL clones) can run without issue on AlmaLinux. Adjusting to this expectation removes our need to ensure that everything we release is an exact copy of the source code that you would get with RHEL. This includes kernel compatibility and application compatibility.

 

[KGIII]

On other boxes I had no issue with that release-upgrade, alas those were systems that had few changes and a failed or unclean upgrade didn't really worry me.

You're braver than I am. I was worried about ending up with a variety of small bugs and a cluttered file system that would be beyond reasonable (for me).

Just install Red Star OS as your distribution, that way you know for sure you will have someone watching you

Red Star OS - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I've installed Red Star in a VM. I didn't understand a darned thing.

Also, I do sometimes do reinstalls in virtual machines. I sometimes test the installation of Lubuntu's development branch - but not lately. Lately, I've had time to test the live versions. Not too many bugs that impacted the live version this time around.

 

[atanere]

Trick learned from @wizardfromoz...

Nine (9) fresh installs... yesterday and today... just goofing off. Debian 12 was the only OS on this drive for awhile. My everyday Linux (Mint) is on another drive.

I think I'll erase it all and start again... with Windows.

Installing Linux is fun. People should not be so afraid of it.

 

[wizardfromoz]

This is Off Topic and I won't go further with it here, but Stan, if you still have those Linux onboard, or else next time you do this, it may be worth running

dmseg | grep -i swap

and see how many of those install with their own Swap catered to.

Wiz

 

[TheProf]

I try not to reinstall often, although in the past year, I probably reinstalled Arch twice, mainly because I screw it up and I find it is just faster to reinstall than to fix the issue. Reinstalling using the arch script and putting everything back is fairly quick, usually takes me 30 minutes to get my system up and running like before.

 

[atanere]

I think I'll erase it all and start again... with Windows.

So, in some cases... I reinstall the system(s) every day! It's easy!

This is where I finished last night on the same drive. These are all bare installs and are not updated (including Windows)... so they are a pretty good indication of how big each distro is after the install.

All this is installed in UEFI mode with Secure Boot disabled. The /boot/efi partition is on a NVMe drive with my daily driver (Mint Cinnamon)... but it's undersized (at 243 MB, only 53 MB used. (See spoiler.)

Spoiler: NVMe drive layout

Undersized /boot/efi??? Huh??? So far, Spiral Linux and KDE Neon have refused to install because /boot/efi is less than 300 MB. They aren't alone with strict requirements: @wizardfromoz reported here that the Solus distro needs a whopping 512 MB ESP or it won't install. That was several years ago, so things may have changed since then. It seems a silly limitation since very little space is actually required for each OS.

Stan, if you still have those Linux onboard, or else next time you do this, it may be worth running

dmesg | grep -i swap

and see how many of those install with their own Swap catered to.

I guess that needs to be run from each distro, and I haven't done that. The daily driver, Mint Cinnamon, reports a swapfile (but I knew that already). As shown above, I've not yet created a swap partition. If this doesn't all crash and burn quickly, I'll probably add one at the end and make it available to those that need it. Debian only initially wanted 1 GB of swap which I expanded to 4 GB with yesterday's testing. I have 32 GB of RAM.

If it does all crash and burn... that's okay too. This is all just for fun and to show some of our other users how easy this can be. But the flip side is... crashing and burning is what teaches best... sometimes called, "experience." When I deleted all those distros yesterday to start over with Windows... I totally hosed up GRUB and I couldn't boot my daily driver anymore, even though it's /boot/efi was on a separate SSD from all the testing distros. Freak out time? No, because I've crashed and burned before. That's the real lesson: Jump in, don't be afraid to make mistakes, and learn from your experiences. Don't be afraid to start over. If you follow someone else's hand-holding instructions and your install goes smoothly... what have you really learned from it?

To recover from the grub> prompt, I carefully followed these instructions. Yes, I still need hand-holding too!

 

[Aristarchus]

I don't like installing and reinstalling OS. OS is a tool that should work. The only time to install OS is hardware failure.

tat -c %w /
2021-07-12 05:17:16.000000000 -0700

Regarding security and VM. Qubes is the only VM hypervisor (type I) that is really secure so anything else and particularly hypervisors type II are not secure. As mentioned above one need very deep knowledge to test if OS is compromised or not. Not to mention that removal of some RATs may be more expensive hardware replacement.

 

[dos2unix]

Regarding security and VM. Qubes is the only VM hypervisor (type I) that is really secure so anything else and particularly hypervisors type II are not secure.

The United States Department of Defense recognizes the key benefits associated with open-source development and trusts Linux as its operating system. In fact, the U.S. Army is the single largest installed base for Red Hat Linux, and the U.S. Navy nuclear submarine fleet runs on Linux, including their sonar systems1. Additionally, the Air Force has developed a secure Linux distribution called Lightweight Portable Security (LPS), which is designed for secure use. Let me tell you more about LPS:

• Lightweight Portable Security (LPS):
  • LPS is a small Linux desktop distribution created by the Software Protection Initiative (SPI) under the direction of the Air Force Research Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Defense.
  • It is designed to boot from a CD or USB pen drive on any Intel-based computer.
  • LPS runs solely in memory and leaves no traces behind after use.
  • Features include a smart card-enabled Firefox browser supporting Common Access Card (CAC) and Personal Identity Verification (PIV) cards, a PDF and text viewer, Java, and Encryption Wizard.
  • It allows general web browsing and connecting to remote networks while ensuring that no trace of work activity (or malware) is written to the local computer.
  • LPS is updated at least every quarter, and users are recommended to download a fresh copy with each update.
  • The interface is simple, resembling Windows XP, and includes essential applications like Firefox, Leafpad, OpenSSH, and Citrix XenApp2.

So, both the U.S. military and other countries recognize the value of Linux for security and operational purposes. If you’re interested in secure Linux distributions, LPS is a notable example.

Lightweight Portable Security - ArchiveOS

Web site: www.spi.dod.mil/lipose.htm (not active) Origin: USA Category: Security Desktop environment: Xfce Architecture: x86 Based on: Thinstation Wikipedia: Lightweight Portable Security Media: Live CD The last version | Released: 1.7.0 | July 20, 2016 Zobacz po polsku: Lightweight Portable...

archiveos.org

 

[etcetera]

I clone the operating system, about once a month or so, so if the primary OS gets hosed, I boot off the clone and sometimes clone the other way (clone--> primary)

Clonezilla on Linux
Macrium Reflect on Win10

 

[atanere]

If you’re interested in secure Linux distributions, LPS is a notable example.

Well, it was. Wikipedia reports that it's now discontinued (since 2021).

 

[etcetera]

User error usually.

 

[dcbrown73]

When I was young and always trying and testing and learning. It could be every 3-6 months, sometimes daily.

Today, something better be really messed up before I go that direction. I'm 50+ and a family and a job that consumes quite a bit more than 40 hours a week. Not to mention I'm an habitual hobbyist and I'm not talking just IT related things.

Time no longer allows it. I reinstall only when I must or as best testing indicates. (Simpsons reference there ) I've gone 5+ years without doing so. (edit, for context, in the past! )

 

[Aristarchus]

The United States Department of Defense recognizes the key benefits associated with open-source development and trusts Linux as its operating system. In fact, the U.S. Army is the single largest installed base for Red Hat Linux, and the U.S. Navy nuclear submarine fleet runs on Linux, including their sonar systems1. Additionally, the Air Force has developed a secure Linux distribution called Lightweight Portable Security (LPS), which is designed for secure use. Let me tell you more about LPS:

• Lightweight Portable Security (LPS):
  • LPS is a small Linux desktop distribution created by the Software Protection Initiative (SPI) under the direction of the Air Force Research Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Defense.
  • It is designed to boot from a CD or USB pen drive on any Intel-based computer.
  • LPS runs solely in memory and leaves no traces behind after use.
  • Features include a smart card-enabled Firefox browser supporting Common Access Card (CAC) and Personal Identity Verification (PIV) cards, a PDF and text viewer, Java, and Encryption Wizard.
  • It allows general web browsing and connecting to remote networks while ensuring that no trace of work activity (or malware) is written to the local computer.
  • LPS is updated at least every quarter, and users are recommended to download a fresh copy with each update.
  • The interface is simple, resembling Windows XP, and includes essential applications like Firefox, Leafpad, OpenSSH, and Citrix XenApp2.

So, both the U.S. military and other countries recognize the value of Linux for security and operational purposes. If you’re interested in secure Linux distributions, LPS is a notable example.

Lightweight Portable Security - ArchiveOS

Web site: www.spi.dod.mil/lipose.htm (not active) Origin: USA Category: Security Desktop environment: Xfce Architecture: x86 Based on: Thinstation Wikipedia: Lightweight Portable Security Media: Live CD The last version | Released: 1.7.0 | July 20, 2016 Zobacz po polsku: Lightweight Portable...

archiveos.org

I am talking about VM. Not OS running in RAM. To secure VM you need hypervisor type I and currently the best is Qubes. Qubes lets you running different insecure OSes in a way that VMclient has access to any hardware in a controlled way. So you can install Windows, infect it and observe how malware behaves. After experimenting you can safely delete infected windows without worry that other VM clients get compromised.
This is not what LPS does. There are other options to LPS certified by DOD... including Windows. One needs to follow specific template and know a lot about security.