We tossed systemd out the window on our Debian. Stuff broke when we removed /etc/machine-id.
Turns out dbus ALSO uses it, but if it’s not in /etc, it makes its own at /var/lib/dbus/machine-id (which was symlinked to /etc/machine-id on our system).
So we just wrote 00000000000000000000000000000000 to it instead. 🙃
Honestly not sure. I wouldn’t be surprised if it breaks something with D-Bus based on skimming the man pages, but I’ve never dug into it. Its not exposed in containers I run though, and I haven’t run into anything that broke there as a result… 🤷️
Does it follow me after Linux install?
Well, there is
/etc/machine-idon Linux…Just want to point out that
/etc/machine-idis unique to systemd systems. AlpineLinux, for example, doesn’t generate this file on install.We tossed systemd out the window on our Debian. Stuff broke when we removed /etc/machine-id.
Turns out dbus ALSO uses it, but if it’s not in /etc, it makes its own at /var/lib/dbus/machine-id (which was symlinked to /etc/machine-id on our system).
So we just wrote 00000000000000000000000000000000 to it instead. 🙃
– Frost
What happens if you erase it though? System32 moment?
You can check the man pages for this file, but in short it gets regenerated. It’s used to determine whether this is the first boot or not.
Honestly not sure. I wouldn’t be surprised if it breaks something with D-Bus based on skimming the man pages, but I’ve never dug into it. Its not exposed in containers I run though, and I haven’t run into anything that broke there as a result… 🤷️