Hardware Migration with Arch ... Too easy !!!!

chicha · 2007-09-28 08:49:35

Hello all,

Yesterday I received my new hardware. I changed everything (Chassis, mother board, CPU, graphic card ...) but my harddisks. I have jumped from the stone age (Intel Celeron 2.6 GHz, the worst CPU ever, 512 Mo ram, old Nvidia video card ...) to the present (Core 2 Duo, 1Go ram ...)

I was wondering how this transition will be managed by Arch ? Will everything work out-of-the-box ?

I first tried a liveCD to see if everything was OK. I did not encountered any problem.
Then I booted on my harddisk. First problem : HD0 became HD1 and vice-versa, but I was prepared to that :-)
Then the kernel did not want to boot and offered me a minimal shell in a ramfs filesystem. What was wrong ?

Well I now really understand how the kernel is managed in Arch, and what kernel-fallback is against kernel :-)

So I booted with kernel-fallback image and it worked like a charm !
I reinstalled the package kernel26 so that a new initrd is generated, i installed the nvidia drivers instead of the legacy one, and that's it !

At first I did not like at all how the kernel was handle at Arch. I did not like the idea that an update removed my previous kernel. In fact I have never had kernel issues, and I think the fallback initrd system is really great !

I just want to say : congratulations to all the dev guys who manage the kernel at Arch, and thank you for providing such a nice distro.

Can you believe I entierly changed my hardware without messing up all my distro ?
Arch ? Too easy

Misfit138 · 2007-09-28 21:16:11

Great story.
I must say, I like the way Arch handles its kernels. I also like using the Arch modular kernel for the very reasons you stated; it's so easy and versatile. Using the default modular kernel cuts down on so much work for me. Having a custom-compiled kernel for my own hardware was kind of cool, but for everyday general usage, the modular kernel is best. Upgrading your motherboard? No problem. Changing CPU's? No problem. Different NIC, different sound card, different machine, a modular kernel will work with very little effort on my part. Recompiling for every little change is just a colossal waste of time for me.
It's nice to know you can slide your hard drive out of one machine and pop it into another and actually have it work with minimal effort.

Arch Linux

#1 2007-09-28 08:49:35

Hardware Migration with Arch ... Too easy !!!!

#2 2007-09-28 21:16:11

Re: Hardware Migration with Arch ... Too easy !!!!

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