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I'm looking for a program that whenever I restart my computer, it will reset back to a restore point that I can select.

Is there a program that does this?

cocomac
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John MacPherson
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    Which version of Ubuntu are you planning to use? – Archisman Panigrahi May 19 '23 at 17:45
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    Check out https://askubuntu.com/questions/349678/is-there-any-deep-freeze-like-application-for-ubuntu – Archisman Panigrahi May 19 '23 at 21:08
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    You can set up to login to the guest user account (without root access). Then, once you reboot, everything in the guest user's home folder gets deleted, and since the guest user does not have root access, they cannot change the system files. Does that work for you? – Archisman Panigrahi May 19 '23 at 21:10
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    A Guest user requires Lightdm. Lightdm was replaced by GDM in Ubuntu 16.10. It is easy to reinstall Lightdm and activate the Guest Account. – C.S.Cameron May 20 '23 at 12:15
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    I am going to have to try some these suggestions and will reply afterwards. I'm planning to use 22.04.2 version of Ubuntu – John MacPherson May 24 '23 at 00:41
  • @John MacPherson: I have tested my answer with Ubuntu 22.04 and I think it does what you ask for. Installing gedit is not required with the pre 23.04 versions of Ubuntu. – C.S.Cameron May 25 '23 at 11:28

2 Answers2

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Add a Guest User to Ubuntu 23.04 and Prior

Similar to @Archisman Panigrahi's comment.

  • Install lightdm:

      sudo apt-get install lightdm

  • At popup select lightdm as display manager.

  • For 23.04 install gedit:

       sudo apt install gedit

  • After install run:

      sudo gedit /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-disable-guest.conf

  • Change: allow-guest=true.

  • On next boot there will be a guest user, no changes will be saved during the Guest session.

  • The administrator may change settings and add programs.

Customize Guest Session

  • I also managed to get Guest User working on pre ubuntu 23.04 USB flash drives:

Add Guest user to Persistent flash drive

C.S.Cameron
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Here are some options to consider :

  • Deploy virtual machine images via something like Oracle Virtual Box.
  • Boot from live distributions on USB media (or SD cards for SBC systems).
  • Configure the Ubuntu system to have a read only filesystem.
  • Boot the 10 systems over NFS (again with read only filesystems).
  • Take a look at container solutions such as docker.

If you need the machines to allow temporary modifications, set the login account to use a temporary home filesystem that is erased on reboot.

The best solution will depend partly on what you need people using the machines to be able to do, and just as importantly, what you need to prevent people using the machines from doing that might be problematic.

Try also searching for "kiosk" solutions where you might find some good ideas.

Jaglan Beta
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