Install on HD for transplant into another machine?

SubGothius · 2009-04-21 10:05:58

Hey there, I've got an old lappy kicking around with a dead optical drive and can't boot from USB, so I was wondering about the feasibility of installing Arch from CD to hard drive on another machine, so I could then transplant that HD into the old lappy?

I reckon it should work in theory, but (see my .sig and) is there anything I should be aware of or attend to, in order to make the HD+OS transplant go smoothly?

Last edited by SubGothius (2009-04-21 10:14:05)

SubGothius · 2009-04-26 05:27:13

Bump? Does anyone know how "portable" an Arch base install might be?

.:B:. · 2009-04-26 05:31:24

It's a pretty basic question - so searching the forum would reveal that to you .

Arch is as portable as can be. Initcpio image needs regeneration and you'll probably need to install extra drivers for your graphics card, other than that all should be fine (of course minor adjustments will have to be made).

3nd3r · 2009-04-26 05:58:48

that and of course your mount points cause of UUID.

R00KIE · 2009-04-26 12:32:28

3nd3r wrote:

that and of course your mount points cause of UUID.

If UUID is used then swapping the disk or cloning it to another disk with dd will work perfectly

bwh1969 · 2009-04-26 12:59:47

Use Chakra live. http://chakra-project.org/

It is Arch with kdemods enabled, so as long as you like kde4, you are good to go. You can still install gnome later. There is a "live" usb image. It boots with all hardware detection, but you can save sessions if you want to save your configuration. You can also boot from the usb image and then install it to the hard drive of the booted machine. I think this is what you are looking for:-)

arch0r · 2009-04-26 13:04:21

bwh1969 wrote:

Use Chakra live. http://chakra-project.org/
It is Arch with kdemods enabled, so as long as you like kde4, you are good to go. You can still install gnome later. There is a "live" usb image. It boots with all hardware detection, but you can save sessions if you want to save your configuration. You can also boot from the usb image and then install it to the hard drive of the booted machine. I think this is what you are looking for:-)

you didn't read the thread, didn't you

3nd3r · 2009-04-26 18:05:39

R00KIE wrote:

3nd3r wrote:
that and of course your mount points cause of UUID.
If UUID is used then swapping the disk or cloning it to another disk with dd will work perfectly

i just re-read the topic and all I can say to myself is DUUUH

I didnt see the HDD swap part, the UUID would be the same xD

SubGothius · 2009-04-26 22:07:40

B wrote:

It's a pretty basic question - so searching the forum would reveal that to you .

I actually did try searching the forum first for quite a while, but apparently I didn't try the magic keywords that would have led to what I was looking for.

Arch is as portable as can be. Initcpio image needs regeneration and you'll probably need to install extra drivers for your graphics card, other than that all should be fine (of course minor adjustments will have to be made).

Thx for confirming this should work and providing tips to help reacclimate Arch to its new host after the drive transplant.

Hm, so about regenerating Initpcio, can I just run 'mkinitcpio' on the new host to perform the same sort of autodetect-and-generate that happened during the original install, or will I likely need to tinker with manual configs as documented in http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Con … mkinitcpio ?

If it depends on hardware differences, what are some key differences that would tell me I'd need to reconfigure /etc/mkinitcpio.conf on the new host before regenerating? FWIW, they're both i686 with IDE/PATA and USB, but different wifi cards. I presume I should boot the new host with /boot/kernel26-fallback.img until I generate a slimmer image tailored to that machine, correct?

Arch Linux

#1 2009-04-21 10:05:58

Install on HD for transplant into another machine?

#2 2009-04-26 05:27:13

Re: Install on HD for transplant into another machine?

#3 2009-04-26 05:31:24

Re: Install on HD for transplant into another machine?

#4 2009-04-26 05:58:48

Re: Install on HD for transplant into another machine?

#5 2009-04-26 12:32:28

Re: Install on HD for transplant into another machine?

#6 2009-04-26 12:59:47

Re: Install on HD for transplant into another machine?

#7 2009-04-26 13:04:21

Re: Install on HD for transplant into another machine?

#8 2009-04-26 18:05:39

Re: Install on HD for transplant into another machine?

#9 2009-04-26 22:07:40

Re: Install on HD for transplant into another machine?

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