"back to clean" install

Good day,

So I was thinking, these days haven’t had much time for doing, so I spent quite some time thinking about the possibility of getting a Haiku install back to a clean state, only keeping user docs and going back to the default settings, just like when you install Haiku for the first time.

Would this be possible? I mean, from an installed system with all apps, config files, hpkgs … get to a state where the system is up to date but just like a clean install.

Regards,
RR

Well anything is possible :wink:

I do think getting Haiku “clean” is easier than most other systems because I think you would just want to get back down to just the base hpkg files, probably delete all previous package states (with some checks to make sure the system is still fine) and then reset all settings, which might be more tricky but probably not that hard. I’m not sure what settings file come by default but I suspect nothing in which case it might be a matter of just deleting all user created settings files.

Of course this is pretty extreme and might “lose” the user quite a bit of time they spent on settings or installing apps but I suppose one would only do this if they knew the result.

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Deleting all settings files should work. If it doesn’t, please file a bugreport

Good day @PulkoMandy ,

Will check that out inside a VM, just in case. Should I understand that deleting the settings files will also make Haiku remove the HPKGs that won’t be in use afterwards?

Regards,
RR

No, settings are in /home/config/settings and even if you have packages in your home folder they are in /home/config/packages.

Best thing if you want to test some packages without messing with your working install, is to boot up a cd and open a live desktop session. There, you can install or try whatever you want it will be lost after reboot.

I try to boot the thumb drive into a live session over a current install, but it defaults every time to the install. No keys to open the boot menu for Haiku work.

Never mind. User error.