Arch Linux

Squiddles

Member

Registered: 2011-05-31

Posts: 73

Changing the motherboard

I know with Windows it's recommended, and I do, reinstall Windows when I've changed my main-board. But I've never been such an avid user of Linux until I started using Arch and I have a lot of configurations and such that I'd like to keep and I'm not sure how Linux handles hardware on installs. So, my question: Is it advisable to reinstall the OS if I were change out the motherboard? Or would I be find just plugging it in? I'm using the standard kernel from the repositories if that helps.

lijpbasin

Member

Registered: 2011-08-09

Posts: 28

Re: Changing the motherboard

You can just plug the hard disk to the new motherboard and try booting from it
At most times it would work.

PS: I have archlinux installed in a U-Disk and use it to boot many computers including PC, laptop and even a server in my department

Squiddles

Member

Registered: 2011-05-31

Posts: 73

Re: Changing the motherboard

You can just plug the hard disk to the new motherboard and try booting from it
At most times it would work.

PS: I have archlinux installed in a U-Disk and use it to boot many computers including PC, laptop and even a server in my department

Thanks! I'm about to upgrade my system and I figured the kernel would have some basic drivers for an Intel Z68 board.

What would be a precautionary action to take in case I do have to start over? So I can get a quick set up of my....everything, haha.

Awebb

Member

Registered: 2010-05-06

Posts: 6,688

Re: Changing the motherboard

It usually is not a problem, as the Linux kernel comes with most of the drivers. Be careful about a few things though:

1. Drive nodes are likely to change, eg. /dev/sdb might become /dev/sdc. Be prepared to deal with grub directly or use UUID's in your /etc/fstab.
2. Remove any kernel modules specific to the old hardware from the MODULES line in the rc.conf as well as the mkinitcpio files.
3. Both boards should be of the same architecture.

Squiddles

Member

Registered: 2011-05-31

Posts: 73

Re: Changing the motherboard

It usually is not a problem, as the Linux kernel comes with most of the drivers. Be careful about a few things though:

1. Drive nodes are likely to change, eg. /dev/sdb might become /dev/sdc. Be prepared to deal with grub directly or use UUID's in your /etc/fstab.
2. Remove any kernel modules specific to the old hardware from the MODULES line in the rc.conf as well as the mkinitcpio files.
3. Both boards should be of the same architecture.

1. I think I've got the UUID's set up properly:

# <file system>        <dir>         <type>    <options>          <dump> <pass>
devpts                 /dev/pts      devpts    defaults            0      0
shm                    /dev/shm      tmpfs     nodev,nosuid        0      0

/dev/cdrom             /media/cd   auto    ro,user,noauto,unhide   0      0
#/dev/dvd               /media/dvd  auto    ro,user,noauto,unhide   0      0
#/dev/fd0               /media/fl   auto    user,noauto             0      0

UUID=01c226f4-70ba-469f-88e5-2618bb9144be /home ext4 defaults 0 1
UUID=42adbfad-9ce6-4e51-ad72-c6ed4ff4b174 swap swap defaults 0 0
UUID=bdec92b6-c380-4c25-9412-167d5eee9b72 / ext4 defaults 0 1
UUID=d2b0ed75-42f3-4073-b469-6d6dac4a4782 /boot ext2 defaults 0 1
#/dev/sda1 -- STORAGE
UUID=042AEE3A2AEE27FE /media/STORAGE ntfs-3g defaults 0 0

There's only one drive that's not there, but I don't always need it mounted.

2. I think I'm set for the MODULES line as well, I just have uinput in there, which should only be for my Wiimote/Xbox controller.

3. Yup, it's still an x86_64 platform.

I can only assume that I'd run into issues with ALSA and different sound hardware.

Thanks for all the help, I'm loving Linux more and more everyday!

ThunderGod

Member

Registered: 2010-07-31

Posts: 11

Re: Changing the motherboard

I've also recently replaced nearly all my old hardware (but AMD-CPU => AMD-CPU, so no driver issues) and my very first Arch install is still working. However I had the problem that when first trying to boot into Arch, it said that the hard drive could not be found and /dev was almost empty. chrooting from a live system and rebuilding the kernel image fixed it for me.

Sound also worked out of the box despite an entirely new chipset, if you didn't mess around with your alsa configs, there should be no problem at all.

Last edited by ThunderGod (2012-03-26 00:26:17)

Squiddles

Member

Registered: 2011-05-31

Posts: 73

Re: Changing the motherboard

I've also recently replaced nearly all my old hardware (but AMD-CPU => AMD-CPU, so no driver issues) and my very first Arch install is still working. However I had the problem that when first trying to boot into Arch, it said that the hard drive could not be found and /dev was almost empty. chrooting from a live system and rebuilding the kernel image fixed it for me.

Sound also worked out of the box despite an entirely new chipset, if you didn't mess around with your alsa configs, there should be no problem at all.

Thanks for the tip! Hopefully I won't have to go that far!