Arch Linux

ould

Member

Registered: 2007-05-22

Posts: 124

Upgrading my PC, what's the best way to proceed...

Hi everyone,

I have been using Arch for about a month or so and am loving it so far. I am in the process of assembling a new PC, basically going from a P4 to an AMD based system. The only thing I will be harvesting from the old PC are the hard drives. So I am wondering what the best way for me to get my Arch install running on the new system is? Since this is my first PC upgrade in many years and the first while running linux I am not sure if I have to do a fresh install ala windows or if I can somehow migrate my existing setup to run on the new PC.

Thanks,

Kevin

[vEX]

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2006-11-23

Posts: 450

Re: Upgrading my PC, what's the best way to proceed...

If you're running on the Arch provided kernel it might just work right away, if you're compiling your own kernel you need to compile a new one with hardware support for the new parts. I'm not sure exactly what the Arch packaged kernel provide but it should probably boot, you could try and boot the Arch install CD on the new machine before removing the HDDs from the old one and see. If the CD boots so should the HDD since it's the same kernel (at least I think so).

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PC: Antec P182B | Asus P8Z77-V PRO | Intel i5 3570k | 16GB DDR3 | GeForce 450GTS | 4TB HDD | Pioneer BDR-207D | Asus Xonar DX | Altec Lansing CS21 | Eizo EV2736W-BK | Arch Linux x86_64
HTPC: Antec NSK2480 | ASUS M3A78-EM (AMD 780G) | AMD Athlon X3 425 | 8GB DDR2 | GeForce G210 | 2TB HDD | Arch Linux x86_64
Server: Raspberry Pi (model B) | 512MB RAM | 750GB HDD | Arch Linux ARM

klixon

Member

From: Nederland

Registered: 2007-01-17

Posts: 525

Re: Upgrading my PC, what's the best way to proceed...

not necessarily...
You might have to rebuild your initramfs. Especially if you're using the autodetect hook.

step 1: drop the drive into your new box,
step 2: boot from the install-cd,
step 3: mount the partitions on the drive (don't forget the boot-partition),
step 4: bind-mount proc and dev to the appropriate places
step 5: chroot
step 6: check if you're not missing any hooks in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf, necessary for your new hardware and
step 7: do

# mkinitcpio -p kernel26

Last edited by klixon (2007-06-19 21:46:05)

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Stand back, intruder, or i'll blast you out of space! I am Klixon and I don't want any dealings with you human lifeforms. I'm a cyborg!

retsaw

Member

From: London, UK

Registered: 2005-03-22

Posts: 132

Re: Upgrading my PC, what's the best way to proceed...

Actually the fallback image should contain everything needed to boot, so you should be able to boot with the fallback image the first boot on the new hardware, rebuild the initramfs and the regular image should work after that.

klixon

Member

From: Nederland

Registered: 2007-01-17

Posts: 525

Re: Upgrading my PC, what's the best way to proceed...

good point... damned custom kernels... they leech out all habits that have to be ingrained from the get go

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Stand back, intruder, or i'll blast you out of space! I am Klixon and I don't want any dealings with you human lifeforms. I'm a cyborg!

chaosgeisterchen

Member

From: Kefermarkt, Upper Austria

Registered: 2006-11-20

Posts: 550

Re: Upgrading my PC, what's the best way to proceed...

A bit OT but I would suggest a Intel Core2Duo system rather than any current AMD system. The E6300 provides ridiculous power per dollar, AMD is certainly lagging behind at the moment.

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celestary
Intel Core2Duo E6300 @ 1.86 GHz
kernel26
KDEmod current repository

ould

Member

Registered: 2007-05-22

Posts: 124

Re: Upgrading my PC, what's the best way to proceed...

Thanks for the replies guys. I will let you all know how things go once I get all my parts together. Still waiting on my case from UPS(don't ask, it's been over two months. UPS is incompetent).

The reason I went with AMD is because I ordered an HSF for my current machine(along with the aforementioned case which is MIA still, I was just planning to put my current system in a new case with new HSF just to quiet it down) and when I received the HSF there was an AMD dual core processor in the box. So I figured with RAM being dirt cheap and I picked up an abit motherboard for next to nothing, I pretty much have a new system for like $150 in parts.

Kevin

ould

Member

Registered: 2007-05-22

Posts: 124

Re: Upgrading my PC, what's the best way to proceed...

I LOVE Linux!! :D:D:D

I built my new PC this evening(finally got my package from UPS). I swapped in the hard drives, sound card and dvd burner from the old pc into the new, turned the PC worked out a couple small snags(BIOS settings and such) and proceeded to boot the "fallback kernel". Right away I got a kernel panic and thought the worst but low and behold it told me what the problem was, something to do with APIC, I reset the PC and added "noapic" to the grub command and tried again. This time it booted me into a command prompt. I then ran "mkinitcpio -p kernel26" as suggested by you guys. Once that completed I rebooted again this time using my regular boot option. I had to add noapic to the command line once again. It booted to a command prompt again, X failed to load as expected(new video card although it was another nvidia), ran nvidia-xconfig and here I am. Woot Woot!! If this had been an windows box I would still be installing the OS, drivers and all my progs well into tomorrow afternoon. But here I am about half hour after my first power up. :D:D:D

ARCH Rocks!! Although I am sure any distro would have been as easy but my distro of choice presently is ARCH.

Is the "noapic" thing normal for an AMD based system?

Thanks again guys.

Kevin
P.S. I can't believe how quiet my new system is. Fanless 7300gt with Antec P150 case(hard drives rubber band mounted.

Last edited by ould (2007-06-22 01:06:51)