Most modern Debian/Ubuntu installations support overlayfs : sudo apt install overlayroot #edit the setup script vars sudo nano /etc/overlayroot.conf overlay

Most modern Debian/Ubuntu installations support overlayfs : sudo apt install overlayroot #edit the setup script vars sudo nano /etc/overlayroot.conf overlayroot="tmpfs:swap=1,recurse=0" #set different role contexts for grub sudo nano /etc/default/grub GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true GRUB_DEFAULT=saved GRUB_TIMEOUT=3 GRUB_RECORDFAIL_TIMEOUT=$GRUB_TIMEOUT GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu GRUB_TERMINAL=console GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_READONLY="quiet splash i915.tuxedo_disable_psr2=1 i915.enable_psr=0 " GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash i915.tuxedo_disable_psr2=1 i915.enable_psr=0 overlayroot=disabled fsck.mode=force fsck.repair=yes " #etc... #then insert an auto menu item for the read only OS boot up sudo nano /etc/grub.d/10_linux if [ "x$is_top_level" = xtrue ] && [ "x${GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU}" != xtrue ]; then linux_entry "${OS}" "${version}" simple \ "${GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX} ${GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT}" linux_entry "${OS} READ ONLY OS" "${version}" simple \ "${GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX} ${GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_READONLY}" #etc... #and finally enable the role selection with your current kernel sudo update-grub sudo update-initramfs -u For systems that have enough ram and cheap SSD it ensures the flash memory will last longer. Additionally, running /home on F2FS for workstations can improve long-term hardware health, as Desktop users do not require the OS to be writable in many use-cases. It is not a perfect approach, as silly things done as root can always bork the backing partition. Best of luck =3