Arch Linux

Flasher

Member

From: Bavaria / Germany

Registered: 2005-04-24

Posts: 126

How to transfer my arch system from one HDD to another

Hello!

I need to transfer my complete arch system from my workstation to my new notebook.

On my laptop I created three partitions:

/dev/sda1 - /boot   --> ext2 ---> 100 MB
/dev/sda2 - /         --> XFS  ---> 120 GB
/dev/sda3 - swap  --> swap ---> 4 GB

My old system has the following configuration:
/dev/sda1 - /boot   --> ext2 ---> 500 MB
/dev/sda2 - /         --> XFS  ---> 160 GB
/dev/sda3 - swap  --> swap ---> 2 GB

Because of the different size of /dev/sda2 I need to copy the system by hand and can't do the job with dd.

Another problem: I can't connect the two HDDs in one my maschine an make a cp -r (...) because I haven't a system with SATA and IDE interfaces. Because of that, I wan't to tar the old system with knoppix and untar the tarball to my new /dev/sda2

The kernel isn't a problem for me. I compile a new one before taring the system.

But I don't know which tar parameters I need to make a exact copy of the system.

Thanks for your help!

Best regards,

Flasher

ralvez

Member

From: Canada

Registered: 2005-12-06

Posts: 1,718

Website

Re: How to transfer my arch system from one HDD to another

Well ... given your situation I think you have two options.
1. If you have a home network transfer your files to whatever network space you have and then retrieve the files into the new machine.
2. Use a DVD to back up and transfer the files.
3.Use a patch cable and transfer the files.

Hope this helps.

R.

Flasher

Member

From: Bavaria / Germany

Registered: 2005-04-24

Posts: 126

Re: How to transfer my arch system from one HDD to another

"1. If you have a home network transfer your files to whatever network space you have and then retrieve the files into the new machine."

This fits my situation. but I don't know the exact tar commando to do this. Which parameters I need? I think all rights have to be transfers in the right way and so on.

Anamn3sis

Member

Registered: 2008-12-30

Posts: 12

Re: How to transfer my arch system from one HDD to another

"1. If you have a home network transfer your files to whatever network space you have and then retrieve the files into the new machine."

This fits my situation. but I don't know the exact tar commando to do this. Which parameters I need? I think all rights have to be transfers in the right way and so on.

I probably won't tar it if its that big, just use

scp -r /home/ user@newmachine:/

Flasher

Member

From: Bavaria / Germany

Registered: 2005-04-24

Posts: 126

Re: How to transfer my arch system from one HDD to another

@ Anamn3sis

The command "scp -r" doesn't keep the ownership (user.group). After copying all files are owned by root :-(

I also tested "scp -rp" but it doesn't help!

Best regards

Flasher

Anamn3sis

Member

Registered: 2008-12-30

Posts: 12

Re: How to transfer my arch system from one HDD to another

Are you doing root@newmachine? If so use a user account. You could also just chown the whole dir with

su 
chown -R user /home/

Flasher

Member

From: Bavaria / Germany

Registered: 2005-04-24

Posts: 126

Re: How to transfer my arch system from one HDD to another

It looks like it's a mounting problem.

I boot my old computer with a arch linux installation cd and mount the three partitions with the following commands:

mount -t xfs /dev/sda2 /mnt/root/
mount -t xfs /dev/sda1 /mnt/root/boot

but all files on the mounted partitions are owned by root (uid 1000)

Best regards

Flasher

Flasher

Member

From: Bavaria / Germany

Registered: 2005-04-24

Posts: 126

Re: How to transfer my arch system from one HDD to another

@ Anamn3sis

I don't want to check and maybe change all files after copying if the ownership is correct. Thats horrible.

I thought there is a better way to copy make a exact copy of all files and not only the home-dir

y0g1

Member

Registered: 2008-09-25

Posts: 13

Re: How to transfer my arch system from one HDD to another

@ Anamn3sis

I don't want to check and maybe change all files after copying if the ownership is correct. Thats horrible.

I thought there is a better way to copy make a exact copy of all files and not only the home-dir

You can use nfs - I did it many times with many distros.