Arch Linux

aantipop

Member

Registered: 2008-02-15

Posts: 46

cloning arch desktop installation to a laptop

hi!

my installation of archlinux on my desktop is much like i want it to be.
it took some work and time to set it up like that.

now i want to have exactly the same installation on my new laptop.
same packages, same config for all the programs, the kde desktop, etc
different hardware (both 64 bit, but the laptop got intel cpu/ati gpu, the desktop amd cpu, nv gpu)

there must be a way to do this in an elegant and quick way?

would be awesome to get some hints on how to do that..

---

rainbow networks - we bring colour to your gibs

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: cloning arch desktop installation to a laptop

You can try saving the packagelist to a file and feeding pacman that list on your new installation. Remember to use the correct video drivers.
Copy the configs and make necessary modifications.

Last edited by karol (2010-09-23 10:27:49)

Ramses de Norre

Member

From: Leuven - Belgium

Registered: 2007-03-27

Posts: 1,289

Re: cloning arch desktop installation to a laptop

1) dd the data from your desktop to your laptop with a live disc
2) fix fstab, menu.lst, install grub to MBR, ...
3) now you should be able to get to a console and from their you can fix the video drivers etc.

I've done this myself and it worked flawlessly. Make sure to adjust all necessary files in step 2, though.

synthead

Member

Registered: 2006-05-09

Posts: 1,337

Re: cloning arch desktop installation to a laptop

1) dd the data from your desktop to your laptop with a live disc
2) fix fstab, menu.lst, install grub to MBR, ...
3) now you should be able to get to a console and from their you can fix the video drivers etc.

I've done this myself and it worked flawlessly. Make sure to adjust all necessary files in step 2, though.

Exactly.  Pretty much every user-wide setting is stored in hidden directories (starts with a dot) in the home folders, and every system-wide setting is stored in /etc.  If you copy /etc and ~/.* to the other machine and install the packages you want, you should have the same settings.  This will be the case even if you copy the configs first, and install the packages second.

Ramses de Norre

Member

From: Leuven - Belgium

Registered: 2007-03-27

Posts: 1,289

Re: cloning arch desktop installation to a laptop

1) dd the data from your desktop to your laptop with a live disc
2) fix fstab, menu.lst, install grub to MBR, ...
3) now you should be able to get to a console and from their you can fix the video drivers etc.

I've done this myself and it worked flawlessly. Make sure to adjust all necessary files in step 2, though.

Exactly.  Pretty much every user-wide setting is stored in hidden directories (starts with a dot) in the home folders, and every system-wide setting is stored in /etc.  If you copy /etc and ~/.* to the other machine and install the packages you want, you should have the same settings.  This will be the case even if you copy the configs first, and install the packages second.

You don't even have to reinstall packages and such, just copy over the entire root partition and all packages are there and under pacman control exactly as they were on the machine you're copying from.