From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([69.77.167.62] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1L0CPR-0003qV-0u for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:53:13 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 0A6C5E03AD; Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:53:13 +0000 (UTC) Received: from vimg1.rdg.ac.uk (vimg1.rdg.ac.uk [134.225.1.81]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C50BFE03AD for ; Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:53:12 +0000 (UTC) Received: from vimp2.rdg.ac.uk ([134.225.2.34]) by vimg1.rdg.ac.uk (Exim: outgoing gateway) with esmtp id 1L0CPO-00010v-Mm for gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org; Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:53:10 +0000 Received: from chomsky.acet.rdg.ac.uk ([192.133.244.202] helo=[127.0.0.1]) by vimp2.rdg.ac.uk (Exim: virusscanner) with esmtps id 1L0CPO-0003nq-CC for gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org; Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:53:10 +0000 Message-ID: <491AA747.5090108@computer.org> Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:52:07 +0000 From: Garry Smith User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.12 (X11/20080403) Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Transferring an existing install to new disk References: <87d4h1pfaz.fsf@newsguy.com> <79e3aefb0811112359l63b077d8k858a146af90c5e23@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <79e3aefb0811112359l63b077d8k858a146af90c5e23@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed X-Scan-Signature: 2a81107bb899b8b500f3ff7cc2871d8d Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Archives-Salt: 0f4a3165-e0f7-487a-ad5a-faf29f8b5882 X-Archives-Hash: e0b015e0c28001937117027ada63f62e Dirk Uys wrote: > On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 9:35 AM, Harry Putnam wrot= e: > =20 >> I should know how to do this but so many changes have happened >> recently and I haven't done anything like this for a very long time. >> >> My desktop version of gentoo is pretty far out of date. And I think >> there have been enough changes that I don't even want to try to get it >> cleaned up. >> >> Rather, I'd like to build up a newly installed gentoo to the point >> where it has all the stuff I want. But do it inside a vmware virtual >> machine. >> >> I'm trying to keep my working desktop in place until such time as the >> vmware gentoo setup is ready >> >> Once that install is up to speed with all my preferred apps in place. >> And any kinks worked out... >> Only then use it to overwrite my desktop OS. Or reformat that disk >> and move the vmware gentoo version to it. >> >> The vmware gentoo would be guest on a windows XP pro machine. >> >> I'd like to hear any comments concerning what problems I might run >> into or whether the plan is likely to be a serious mess. >> >> Also wouldn't mind seeing a rough outline of how to make that kind of >> move. >> =20 > > I've thought about this myself, but I think there are some issues. The > hardware that vmware can simulate are limited and may not match your > actual hardware. This does not mean it's impossible, but you may need > to set network, graphics ,etc up again once the system is transferred. > > Guess the steps will be pretty much the same as for transferring > between partitions or similar machines > - make sure all the required modules for the target system is compiled > in the kernel. > - Update /etc/fstab to point to the correct devices. > - Update the grub.conf to pass the correct root. (btw, does anyone use > anything other than grub these days?) > - Use tar (with appropriate flags to keep permissions and symlinks in > place) to transfer all the files > - Install the bootloader on the target MBR > > I may have missed a few things, but that's everything I currently remem= ber. > > > =20 Harry was asking about going between two machines. I did something=20 similar recently ((http://blog.garrysmith.net/?p=3D62#more-62) and used=20 the following command to pass the output from tar directly to the=20 destination machine over SSH: tar -cvzpf - ./bin ./boot ./dev ./etc ./lib ./lost+found ./media ./mnt=20 ./opt ./proc ./root ./sbin ./sys ./usr ./var | ssh -p8889=20 root@192.168.1.69 =E2=80=9Ccd /mnt/gentoo; tar -xzpf -=E2=80=9D Unfortunately the symbolic links all came out as 0 byte files (not sym=20 links), so in the end I fell back on rsync (over SSH) which did the job. How do you normally preserve symlinks using tar piped over SSH? An example of the rsync command I used was: rsync -avpe "ssh -p 8889" /home user@destination.machine:/mnt/gentoo The next time that I do this, I will just use rsync straight away and=20 not use tar. The Gentoo Live CD has rsync (the Gentoo minimal install=20 doesn't), so you should use the former (I booted both machines (one of=20 them within VMWare fusion) from live the CD in order to do the copy. cheers Garry