Arch Linux

TheGrudge

Member

Registered: 2006-06-15

Posts: 206

Website

Move installation from one laptop to another

My laptop is broken and I want to move my archlinux system to my macbook pro, the installation is available via rsync on a separate USB harddrive.
Normally I just copy everything on the new machine and that's it, but now I'm having problems. The Macbook is a 64 bit system so I guess I need to install Arch64 for that. But the old system is a 32 bit one.
Is there a way to install the 64bit version on the macbook and install all the packages I had on the old computer?
Maybe I can rsync everything on the macbook, change the mirrors to x86_64 and just refetch everything? Will this work? I don't want to install everything from scratch again. Any tips how to get my system onto the 64 architecture?

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digiKam developer - www.digikam.org

.:B:.

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2006-11-26

Posts: 5,819

Website

Re: Move installation from one laptop to another

32 bit OSes just run fine on 64 bit x86 CPUs... There isn't a single 64bit x86 CPU out there that doesn't support running 32 bit code.

You do need special stuff for a Mac though, like a modified bootloader and stuff (rEFIt or sth?), to cope with EFI instead of BIOS. You should check the Mac-related entries in the Arch wiki.

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Got Leenucks? :: Arch: Power in simplicity :: Get Counted! Registered Linux User #392717 :: Blog thingy

TheGrudge

Member

Registered: 2006-06-15

Posts: 206

Website

Re: Move installation from one laptop to another

I always thought that installing an 32 bit OS would slow down everything, or at least a 64 bit OS will perform better... but I will try to install my old environment with rsync, maybe it is working fine...

Thanks!

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digiKam developer - www.digikam.org

TheGrudge

Member

Registered: 2006-06-15

Posts: 206

Website

Re: Move installation from one laptop to another

Woohoo this works just fine! Since Mac is a UNIX underneath, the Macbook seems to be the perfect laptop for Linux as well. I just activated the power controls in KDE and it now suspends perfectly when closing the lid.
Never worked for me with my other laptop. And I don't even need to use special daemons for that, it works just fine with ACPI. Cool.
If lid is closed while amarok is playing, it pauses and will continue when opening the lid again. And even the WLAN still works after that.
This is just as easy as in MacOS.
So I guess MacOS will not be started again... :-) I always liked Linux / KDE better than Mac Software.
Yippee!

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digiKam developer - www.digikam.org