Re: Return a Debian system to a pristine state
Victor Sudakov wrote:
> Dan Ritter wrote:
> > Victor Sudakov wrote:
> > > A production system, especially a desktop system, tends to accumulate
> > > unnecessary packages. Users install software for testing, then forget
> > > about it, or it falls into disuse...
> > >
> > > In FreeBSD, you can always run "pkg delete -a" and return to the
> > > post-install state (well, almost). This command will remove all the
> > > third-party packages added to the base system after installation
> > > (modified files under /usr/local/ will remain).
> > >
> > > What's the procedure for Debian?
> >
> > There is no pristine state for Debian.
>
> There should be, even if this "pristine state" is but a list of packages
> at the moment of the first boot.
> The first boot experience is what can be called a pristine state. If
> something or someone saved that initial list of packages, it could be
> called "the pristine state."
That won't be consistent against other installs of the same Debian
version.
The installer looks at the hardware it can find and asks you for
selections that influence what it will install. If you answer
the questions the same way every time on a particular machine,
it will produce a consistent result. If you answer the questions
differently, or the hardware is at all different, you will get a
different result.
Hardware manufacturers often substitute "equivalent" parts, so
two identical machines from the same vendor might not actually be
identical. For example, a laptop vendor might ship a mini-PCIe add-on
card for bluetooth 4 and wifi b/g/n, but when they run out, might ship a
slightly more expensive card that does bluetooth 5 and wifi b/g/n/ac --
with a different driver required.
You might be interested in:
- chef, puppet, ansible, salt: systems that enforce package
installation and configuration across many machines
- etckeeper: a version control system that operates
semi-automatically on /etc
- FAI, installer pre-seed, Debian Live: methods for producing as
consistent an installation as possible across many machines
-dsr-
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