[Solved (More or less)] Create a non-persistent install

TheHebes · 2012-06-07 21:14:06

I want to set up a new machine that is essentially a "live" environment-- in that when it is shut down, it reverts back to the state it was in at boot up. The only issue I have found so far is that I need to find a way to put this environment on a hard disk, meaning that I cannot be booting/running from a flash disk or cd at all times. Does anyone have an idea how best to tackle this? Points for a way to update the image easily as well!

EDIT: Okay, so the best way I thought of to do this (so far) would be to remaster the arch install iso so that it is configured how I want it to be (ie accounts, apps, whatnot) and then using a external device + unetbootin to push it to the hard drive. Thoughts?

Last edited by TheHebes (2012-06-08 21:23:21)

toad · 2012-06-07 21:28:25

Why not fiddle with your home until it suits you, make a tarball of it and have it recreated on every boot up along the lines of putting a script in rc.d somewhere that deletes ~ and unpacks the relevant tarball into ~ again?

TheHebes · 2012-06-07 21:48:15

I was hoping to include / in there as well. I'm talking about a completely fresh machine on each boot. I tend to break things rather quickly, and VMs aren't really an option.

Gcool · 2012-06-08 06:23:00

Another option is to create an iso of the system in the state you want it to be. Afterwards use a GRUB2 entry to boot directly from the iso.

TheHebes · 2012-06-08 21:22:11

Hmm, ain't that nifty? I never knew that you could boot from an iso!
Anyways, yes, that sounds perfect. Now if only I could figure out how to put a homebrew kernel in there...
But that's a topic for a new thread!

DSpider · 2012-06-08 21:51:21

LVM also allows snapshots. Any changes you'd make can be rolled back.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LVM#Snapshots

snapshots are primarily used to provide a frozen copy of a filesystem to make backups

Arch Linux

#1 2012-06-07 21:14:06

[Solved (More or less)] Create a non-persistent install

#2 2012-06-07 21:28:25

Re: [Solved (More or less)] Create a non-persistent install

#3 2012-06-07 21:48:15

Re: [Solved (More or less)] Create a non-persistent install

#4 2012-06-08 06:23:00

Re: [Solved (More or less)] Create a non-persistent install

#5 2012-06-08 21:22:11

Re: [Solved (More or less)] Create a non-persistent install

#6 2012-06-08 21:51:21

Re: [Solved (More or less)] Create a non-persistent install

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