On 2021-01-14 at 10:41, Jesper Dybdal wrote: > I backup my Buster server simply as a (compressed, encrypted) cpio > archive. > > Restoring it to a BIOS-based machine is simple: boot a rescue cd, > partition the disk, restore all files, fix fstab if necessary, run > update-grub and grub-install in a chroot environment. That works. > > But if the machine should some day die and I can only find/buy a > UEFI-only machine to restore it to, how do I do that? And are there > any precautions I should take in advance (on the BIOS system, before > creating backups that may be needed on a future UEFI system) in order > to make it easier to restore to a UEFI machine? > > (My knowledge of UEFI is almost non-existent, and my knowledge of > grub is very limited.) If my understanding is correct, a lot will depend on whether the machine you're trying to restore it on is using a motherboard with a newer Intel chipset or something else (an older one or, at least as far as I've been able to determine to date, any AMD chipset). Newer-model Intel chipsets specifically prohibit booting to internal hard drives in "legacy boot" mode, i.e. (at least as far as I can determine) to drives whose boot information is specified in the MBR rather than with EFI partitions on GPT[1]. Older ones, and AMD chipsets as a whole as far as I can determine, don't. If you're trying to restore on a machine with that restriction attached, you're probably going to need to convert the install which is being restored from backup from MBR-style partitioning to GPT-style partitioning - which is likely to include making changes to the boot-configuration settings that are present in the backup (files under /boot, if nothing else). I don't have enough experience with that to give good guidance, unfortunately. If you're trying to restore on a machine without that restriction, then as long as you set the UEFI to boot the computer in "legacy" mode, I'd expect things should be as straightforward as always. [1] Yes, this is vague and probably not entirely accurate. My browser just crashed and will take a while to bring back up, so I don't care to do the research to resolve that fuzziness before sending this. -- The Wanderer The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw
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