Score:0

How to restore Ubuntu 18.04 LTS to "factory settings"

cn flag

I have Ubuntu 18.04 LTS on a computer I am selling. There isn't much on there, but I wanted to do some kind of "factory reset" so it's clean for the next person and remove my name from the admin account etc.

Is the only way to do this by creating an Ubuntu Live USB or is there something I can just do in the system?

user535733 avatar
cn flag
Does this answer your question? [Resetting Ubuntu to factory settings](https://askubuntu.com/questions/591167/resetting-ubuntu-to-factory-settings)
Score:2
ca flag

A reinstall from a "Live USB" will require some 10 minutes with default setting, much faster than anything else; unless you have a lot of setting you wish to keep (hand over).

Note also that a new user might be better off starting from scratch.

Which does mean some work (the negative), but also that any descriptions on the 'net will match what will be shown / happen when trying out that description (the overwhelmingly better positive).

I'd also suggest to "update", at least use 20.04 - which isn't EOL (end of life), as 18.xx is.

cn flag
Okay thank you. I will us a live CD and Update to 20.04. Can you elaborate on when you said that starting from scratch with mean some work? That is what I would like to do.
Fynn avatar
cn flag
@user1551817 if there's no good explicit reason for 20.04, why not just go for the newest LTS (22.04)? Will be supported longer, and less hassle for the person getting the Computer. And if it's in your peer group and you give someone linux, you're their system administrator now, so less hassle is good
Hannu avatar
ca flag
You need to take explicit note of **at least use 20.04 - which isn't EOL (end of life),** which was my way of indicating *THE LEAST.*
Hannu avatar
ca flag
@user1551817 - a fresh OS install usually needs some "work" before it is "comfortable" ;-) - regardless of OS you find quirks that you might wish to change. With Linux you often can, some other OS might stop you from doing that, before you even try.
I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

mangohost

Post an answer

Most people don’t grasp that asking a lot of questions unlocks learning and improves interpersonal bonding. In Alison’s studies, for example, though people could accurately recall how many questions had been asked in their conversations, they didn’t intuit the link between questions and liking. Across four studies, in which participants were engaged in conversations themselves or read transcripts of others’ conversations, people tended not to realize that question asking would influence—or had influenced—the level of amity between the conversationalists.