Arch Linux

random.bits

Member

From: Ottawa Canada

Registered: 2004-07-18

Posts: 39

Cloning an Arch install

Yes, I am pretty sure this has been asked before, and is even mentioned in the install doc, but even after checking Wiki and other documentation, I am not sure how to do the following.

What is the best way to clone an Arch system so I can install it on many other systems?

I have installed Arch successfully on one system and added all required packages plus some custom software. Since this is a automated system, only one user is required and various programs start up using that account.

I guess I could put two drives in the same machine and copy the disk, but that seems a little unelegant. Network copy? Not much better.

Should I just tar up all important directories and overlay this on a basic install of Arch (which is pretty fast)?

I apologize if there is a multipage document that I missed that would answer this question. Please just point me in the right direction, and I'll apologize profusely, but in a quiet/low bandwidth manner.

Thank you.

Dusty

Schwag Merchant

From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

Registered: 2004-01-18

Posts: 5,986

Website

Re: Cloning an Arch install

You should be able to tar up the entire root directory, I think. Only thing I'm not sure if they would copy properly is the /dev devices. Oh, and there's those option to make sure symlinks and permissions are kept when you tar.

Try it and see if it doesn't work. :-D

Dusty

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ravster

Member

From: Queen's U, Kingston, Canada

Registered: 2004-05-02

Posts: 285

Website

Re: Cloning an Arch install

You might be able to make an iso image of your hd/partitions. Google it, there are enough guides to help you at that. Making an iso image might help in keeping the paths and everything alright, and all you'll need to do is 'dd' the image onto the harddrive you wish to make the copy on. Using an iso does the copy on a bit-by-bit basis.

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ravidesai.com

potentials

Member

Registered: 2004-01-04

Posts: 130

Re: Cloning an Arch install

Use partimage, you can use it to make an image of your root partition, its different than dd in that it doesn't make a bit-by-bit image, it only backs the data, so a 3 Gb partition with 2 Gb of data will be backed up in 500 Mb image file.

You can use sysrescuecd which is a livecd containing partimage along with other tools making it a very good backing/restoring tool
http://www.sysresccd.org/