Protect your Pi from unwanted changes. Overlay File System.

Protect your Pi from unwanted changes. Overlay File System.

sudo raspi-config
Performance options

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Overlay File System keeps Raspberry Pi OS in a fresh state. With Overlay File System enabled, any changes you make are saved to RAM instead of storage, and are lost when you reboot.
This is useful for using Raspberry Pi in a public setting where you want people to be able to
use the operating system without making any permanent changes to it. Such as with a Raspberry Pi set up in a store.
Open Raspberry Pi Configuration and choose the Performance tab. Click Configure next to Overlay File System and enable User Overlay.
The write-protect boot partition enables you to lock down the boot partition for even more security

[tensiondriven]

Something you didn’t mention is how the overlay file system can extend the life of a SD card because it won’t have to write to it. This is super useful for embedded situations! I’m going to use this for a time lapse system I’m building.

[AndreVandal]

Cool, we had all the Macintosh computers set like this at school, each time the students left the class the unit were refreshed ready for the next batch.

[redshepard]

Thanks for posting this. I've been thinking about this for a while myself.

[DylanDurdle]

I've been using overlay on all my systems -- pi and otherwise. Helps to protect the integrity of the filesystem. I use it in conjunction with BTRFS snapshots.

On a particular rasberry pi A, that has been in service since the A was a thing, used to have to have the filesystem restored at least once every 6 months from inproper shutdown/etc. After deploying this concept, it hasn't needed re-imaging (so 6+ years now?)

[terrydaktyllus]

If you use an overlay file system then it's probably a good idea to designate another host in your network as a remote syslog server so that the Pi can still output syslog information that you can scrutinise if, say, something bad happens to the Pi. I assume a lot of people have "always on" NAS drives these days and those are ideal for setting up a remote syslog server on, if they are not so proprietary to stop you from setting one up in the first place.

The configuration for remote syslog is, however, extremely straightforward to do.

[andrewheywood]

At timestamp 5:22 the message "unable to flush /var/lib/dpkg/updates/tmp.1 after padding: No space lift on device" Is this the file that holds the local image that is discarded after reboot, rather than use the ram. If it is the the SD card is still been written to.

[brunosurkov]

In task manager, under View uncheck "Show memory used by cache as free". Maybe it will show the memory that is being used by the temp files.

[robertmaxa]

This is how the MX Live system works, or any "Live" system, for that matter. If you have persistence enabled, the session gets saved to ram, and "synced" to storage, if you choose to save the session. This is good for online shopping, or any situation where you don't want sensitive information, to be saved. it's strange to have that feature on an installed system.

[jyvben]

df -h in terminal or command line would show disk spaces for each part, file manager global free space may mislead ...

[christopher]

the 80's called and they want their neon theme back

[RicardoPenders]

you should check the swap file for the temporary memory that's being used, probably the Pi is using that instead of the RAM

[johngay]

An overlay file system uses a file to store the added applications, not memory.
But the changes are in a separate temporary file instead of the root file system.
Also, you can change which desktop you are logged into without having to reboot. You just log out and log back in with a different desktop.

[LKattest]

I believe the files are logged and written to sd and with that not using ram.When you reset the pi the files are deleted (with help of the log). Also: does it works if you hard power down? (disconnect power)

[lfjvs]

Does htop display the actual RAM usage???

[jonsmith]

Should work on Pi0 web scraping to emails; ie no file saving!

[FOSSware_]

Can anyone help me choose whether I should use 32 or 64 bit OS.
I'm using a Raspberry Pi 4 2Gig RAM

[dktol]

Check the /etc/fstab file after you enable overlayfs.

[pavan]

Great feature I didn't knew about this but it's not for me

[jothain]

If doing that to retropie it's worth to remember that you'll also lose save states.

[kychemclass]

You don't want them beating your High Score... Hhahahahhaa :)