Arch Linux

ratcheer

Member

Registered: 2011-10-09

Posts: 924

[Solved] New PC: Host migration questions

I am getting a new PC today. My basic question is, should I copy my Arch Linux installation from my old PC or do a fresh installation and then migrate stuff from backups?

The old PC has an Intel i5 and an AMD graphics card, both from early 2011. The new one has a Ryzen 9 and an nVidia card. Would the differences be too great for a copy-over, or would it be simple to make any needed adjustments for the differing hardware?

My old system has much customization, such as hand-written systemd scripts for static wired networking. I would not look forward to trying to reproduce all of that on a fresh installation. Maybe I should just walk away from all of that and let the new system be "modern". I think the new system might even have wifi built in.

Thanks

Last edited by ratcheer (2020-08-19 14:46:42)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,372

Re: [Solved] New PC: Host migration questions

We have an entire wiki article with a guideline on how to do that: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mi … w_hardware

Generally it really is pretty much a non issue to copy the same config, the only thing you will likely have to actively adjust is the fstab (unless you do a disk clone, but I'm assuming you likely have different space constraints...), and maybe throw away amd specific xorg configuration to set up the same for an nvidia system and reinstall/reconfigure the boot loader.

Maybe the particular example for networking might need identifier adjustments as there are potentially different interface names but that's all pretty small things to adjust.

But in the end that's up to you, I personally did take the opportunity to clean up old system files and get rid of unused packages and the like by doing a fresh install when I last migrated and only actively carried over the user data on the /home parition.

Last edited by V1del (2020-08-19 13:43:46)

ratcheer

Member

Registered: 2011-10-09

Posts: 924

Re: [Solved] New PC: Host migration questions

Thank you. I know I have to make my own decision. I appreciate your input.

PS - That is an excellent Wiki article. Thank you for pointing it out. I will mark the thread Solved, but I still don't mind getting more advice.

Last edited by ratcheer (2020-08-19 14:46:24)