Switching Installations

[pfeiffep]

I've been testing raring on my external usb hdd, doing the apt-get update, upgrade, dist-upgrade on a daily basis. I keep it cleaned out also.

Once raring has been 'fully' blessed I'm positive that I'm going to use it vs 12.10 - I really have raring configured exactly how I like it and don't really want to do a fresh install. Since I can access both 12.10 and 13.04 simultaneously I can easily copy any files saved on 12.10 (/dev/sda) to 13.04 (/dev/sdb).

I'm exploring how to 'move' 13.04 from /dev/sdb to /dev/sda. I've successfully used Remastersys to backup and restore /dev/sda; is it possible to do this to move the existing /dev/sdb installation to /dev/sda? Any other suggestions?

TIA

[dino99]

http://www.sudo-juice.com/how-to-clo...-ubuntu-linux/
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MovingLinuxPartition
http://askubuntu.com/questions/10652...hdd-to-another

also see the "partclone" package into the archive (man partclone)

[pfeiffep]

Thanks dino99 - it appears that dd is an option albeit SLOW. I noticed in the askubuntu link Clonezilla was mentioned, since I have experience with Remastersys do you suppose it will work also?

[cariboo]

I'm a huge fan of Clonezilla, I've used it for several years to clone disks and partitions

[oldfred]

Unless you manually had to configure a few hardware settings in /etc, all your settings are in /home.

So I prefer copying /home and a nice shiny new clean copy. Then even if you have housecleaned you can be sure you have only the new version.

I actually have all data in data partitions and just install to new 25GB / (root) partitions. And I script my basic configurations or copy some settings from my old /home, but do not even reuse /home.

[pfeiffep]

@oldfred Thanks, follow on - does /home include software installed via apt-get, software center, and Synaptics? (Maybe I mistakenly thought that software was installed in /etc) If so what steps should I follow - I'm not a prolific scripter.

[oldfred]

If you have installed a lot of apps.

from lovinglinux - use dpkg to list installed apps
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...75&postcount=5
http://kevin.vanzonneveld.net/techbl...selectupgrade/
From old install
dpkg --get-selections > ~/my-packages
From New install
sudo dpkg --set-selections < my-packages
sudo apt-get -y update
sudo apt-get dselect-upgrade

Software is installed to many places in Linux, but the download is here:


Location of downloaded debs
/var/cache/apt/archives/
sudo apt-get install --no-download <package name>
But then you have to be careful of versions.

[ping-wu]

What I often did was:

1. Boot from a LiveUSB (any live USB but NOT the usb you want to copy 13.04 from)

2. Do mkdir /mnt/source and /mnt/target

3. Insert the 13.04 usb and mount the 13.04 usb and the hard drive (preferably after you have created a new partition) onto /mnt/source and /mnt/target, respectively

4. Do: rsync -a /mnt/source/ (there must be a slash!) /mnt/target

5. Do a blkid command from a terminal, write down the UUID of the partition in which you have copied 13.04 to

6. Use gedit to change the UUID of your just copied partition to the correct UUID shown in step 5 in the two files: /mnt/target/etc/fstab and /mnt/target/boot/grub/grub.conf

7. Do chroot to /mnt/target and run the update-grub command

8. Exit chroot, eject the 13.04 USB, and Install the bootloader into MBR by:

sudo grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt/target/boot /dev/sda

9. Restart your machine


I know I am getting you totally confused. I apologize. I will write a more user-friendly version when I have time, but in the meantime, I am sure others will provide an easier solution.

[pfeiffep]

All, I'm thinking now that my proposal of using Remastersys maybe isn't such a good idea ... although I'm wondering what is the major difference between Clonezilla and Remastersys?
I appreciate the input thus far and the lack of direct response to Remastersys is now motivation for me to TRY to use it. This entire laptop is just a throw away anyhow so I have absolutely nothing to loose and experience to gain.

[oldfred]

I thought Remastersys had not been maintained recently, but I do not use it so I am not totally up to date.

But any image copy from one system to another does require changing UUIDs as you cannot have the same UUID in two drives connected at the same time. And then you have to edit fstab with new UUIDs and totally reinstall grub2 so it will reinstall to same drive.