I wanted to try how foolproof is this system is, so I ran rm -rf /* in an abroot shell. I presumed, it wouldn't kill my system, in the worst case a reboot would solve it, but nope, the system is not bootable. Shouldn't the two root partition layout, and ABRoot prevent these kinds of problems? Perhaps the /boot partition is not protected? Or is it normal it didn't prevent it, or just a bug? What's the intended behaviour in this matter?
#Pushing the limits of immutability
hollow escarp
tall pike
When in ABRoot shell, you have full control of your system. You basically removed everything in the future root partition.
hollow escarp
Of course I know that. That's why I did it.
Because I have 2 root partitions. In this case, shouldn't this be overwritten by the current, unaltered root partition, as a failed transaction? (Because it did fail).
lofty plank
Haha, indeed, abroot doesn't guarantee you won't be able to kill your system, only that you'll do it in one shot 😉
spark compass
Of course I know that. That's why I did it.
Because I have 2 root partitions. I...
No worries, You can boot to the other partition/state now, i.e press Esc upon boot then select on the other state. Within the other state start sudo abroot rollback (if you on latest version of ABRoot) or else start a transaction using sudo ABRoot shell type something like echo hi now wait for the transaction to sync with the broken partition.
This is the exact reason why ABRoot doesn't mount home by default because you can't recover the data back upon rm -rf.
spark compass
Haha, indeed, abroot doesn't guarantee you won't be able to kill your system, on...
Yep, ABRoot can only rollback to the past state not farther than it.
For example, let's say you removed gnome-session from A, now the system is borked.You can boot into B by pressing Esc immediately after switching on. Then type sudo abroot rollback this will revert the changes made previously in the transaction in A state and sync it with B.
hollow escarp
Yep, ABRoot can only rollback to the past state not farther than it.
For examp...
Yes this makes sense.
hollow escarp
No worries, You can boot to the other partition/state now, i.e press Esc upon bo...
Now the problem is, I can't boot it.
spark compass
Now the problem is, I can't boot it.
Can you see GRUB?
hollow escarp
Can you see GRUB?
No I don't even get that.
That's why u was thinking my boot partition is affected.
spark compass
Oh, I will nuke my VM later today and let you know the results.
tall pike
No I don't even get that.
That's why u was thinking my boot partition is affect...
Btw the full command is
sudo rm -rf /* --no-preserve-root
https://media.tenor.com/HxDyev3mE2sAAAAM/kill-remove.gif
And yeah, it's good to test how good the immutability is
Ofc use a spare PC or vm