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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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"Deploying" images rather than installing from the official ISO? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

16 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I like my Linux installs heavily customized and security hardened, to the extent that copying over /home won't cut it, but not so much that it breaks when updating Debian. Whenever someone mentions reinstalling Linux, I am instinctively nervous thinking about the work it would take for me to get from a vanilla install to my current configuration.

It started a couple of years ago, when dreading the work of configuring Debian to my taste on a new laptop, I decided to instead just shrink my existing install to match the new laptop's drive and dd it over. I later made a VM from my install, stripped out personal files and obvious junk, and condensed it to a 30 GB raw disk image, which I then deployed on the rest of my machines.

That was still a bit too janky, so once my configuration and installed packages stabilized, I bit the bullet, spun up a new VM, and painstakingly replicated my configuration from a fresh copy of Debian. I finished with a 24 GB raw disk image, which I can now deploy as a "fresh" yet pre-configured install, whether to prepare new machines, make new VMs, fix broken installs, or just because I want to.

All that needs to be done after dd'ing the image to a new disk is:

Some machines: boot grubx64.efi/shimx64.efi from Ventoy and "bless" the new install with grub-install and update-grub
Reencrypt LUKS root partition with new password
Configure user and GRUB passwords
Set hostname
Install updates and drivers as needed
Configure for high DPI if needed

I'm interested to hear if any of you have a similar workflow or any feedback on mine.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Just put your system configuration in Ansible playbook. When your distro has new release, go through your changes and remove ones that are no longer relevant.

For home, I recommend a dotfiles repository with subdirectories for each tool, like bash, git, vim, etc. Use GNU stow to symlink the required files in place on each machine.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

I use ansible + a debian preseed for unattended installs.