On Fri, 8 Mar 2019 23:58:02 +0100, KatolaZ wrote in message
<20190308225802.yzcbcl5e7rfl622a@???>:

> Dear D1rs,
>
> following the discussion about /var/lib/dbus/machine-id, you find a
> new version of dbus in unstable and beowulf. The new version is
> 1.12.12-1+devuan2, and it should hit pkgmaster in the next 10 minutes.
>
> I have added a variable "IDTYPE" in /etc/default/dbus which is set by
> default to "RANDOM". This will result in /var/lib/dbus/machine-id
> being re-generated at boot time (and only at boot time). If IDTYPE is
> set to anything else, /var/lib/dbus/machine-id is preserved across
> subsequent boots. In this way, the sysadmin can choose to have the
> dbus machine-id persist across boots, if they like, but the default
> beaviour will be to have it re-generated at each boot.
>
> Please test it out and report any issue. There is an open bug (#304)
> on bugs.devuan.org. Use that one for comments/updates please.
>
> Regarding /etc/machine-id: it looks like it is installed only by
> systemd, so any devuan installation which originally was a Debian
> might probably have it. My guess is that it should be possible to
> remove it altogether. If any application wants it (somebody mentioned
> chromium) you could replace it with a symlink to
> /var/lib/dbus/machine-id.

..I disagree with this symlink idea.
I have seen no bad effect having
these 2 ID-files differ.

>
> I guess replacing /etc/machine-id every 10 minutes to avoid chromium
> tracking you is not particularly smart: I am pretty sure chromium
> would just read it when it starts, and then keep it in RAM, so you
> might need to restart chromium every 10 minutes as well.

..the bigger problem with chromium et al is we don't really know
much about how they track us, which is why these ID tracker web
browsers should only be run once, in throw-away virtual machines.

--
..med vennlig hilsen = with Kind Regards from Arnt Karlsen
...with a number of polar bear hunters in his ancestry...
Scenarios always come in sets of three:
best case, worst case, and just in case.