Re: Clone root partition
- From: Timothy Murphy <tim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2006 20:26:00 +0000
* Tong * wrote:
Hi,
I'm trying to compile a comprehensive document on cloning root partitions.
My immediate goal is to clone my current working Linux to external USB HD,
so that I can use it wherever I go.
By comprehensive I mean it should not be as simple minded as
dd if=/dev/hda2 of=/dev/sda2
or
cp -a / /mnt/point
or
tar -p -m cf - / | (cd /mnt/point; tar xf - )
I know they work, but there are so many things have been left out. By
comprehensive, I mean I want to know all relevant things that need to be
considered.
For example for dd, let alone its rigid limitation, if you use it, at
least the 'conv=sync,noerror bs=4k' options should be used: sync,noerror
just means continue and zero fill any error blocks, bs=4k just writes 4k
at a time which will speed things up a lot. For cp, at least 'cp -ax'
should be used.
But there are still much more to it.
First, directories that don't need to copy over, like /tmp, /proc. With
modern Linux that uses udev, the /dev and /sys don't need to be copied
either. Anything else (besides distro specifics like
/var/cache/apt/archives)?
2nd, the clone partition should be made bootable, by grub or lilo.
Anything else? Like the concerns of /etc/fstab...
Last, with all the above concerns, how to achieve them with various tools?
Keywords: tar rsync find cpio dd
thanks
I'm not an expert in this area,
but I would have thought it was advisable
not to clone / while it is mounted;
I would run knoppix, or something like that, and then copy with "cp -a".
--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
.
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