Re: Adding a new boot disk while keeping old disk
On Mon 09 Dec 2024 at 15:23:18 (-0800), Charlie Gibbs wrote:
> Some of you may recall my account of trying to install a new disk (in
> my case a 1TB NVMe stick) for use as a boot device. There has been
> another thread or two from other people dealing with the same issue,
> so it seems to be a hot topic.
>
> I'm still unwilling to give up all my installed packages and
> customizations and rebuild the system from scratch, when all I want
> to do is copy existing directories to a new boot drive. My own data
> files all live in /home, a separate partition - no problem there.
> But many binaries have been installed in places like /usr/bin; their
> configuration files may or may not be in /home, but I'd rather not
> lose them wherever they are.
Why "But …"? Aren't most binaries (those that users run, anyway)
installed in /usr/bin/.
> Here's the process I've been trying so far:
>
> 1. Do a network install on the new drive; to be really belt-and-
> suspenders, make sure everything is completely updated:
> sudo apt update
> sudo apt upgrade
>
> 2. Re-boot from the original drive and update everything:
> sudo apt update
> sudo apt upgrade
> At this point the old and new systems' root partitions should be
> as alike as possible, aside from my own customizations.
At that point, I would compare sorted versions of /etc/passwd
and /etc/group from both machines to make sure that they have
matching lists of user/group names. (The numeric IDs can be
different.) Otherwise rsync could mistranslate ownerships.
> 3. Mount the new drive's root partition somewhere that I can access
> from the original drive:
> sudo mount /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt/backup
>
> 4. Save the new system's /etc/fstab:
> sudo cp -p /mnt/backup/etc/fstab ~
>
> 5. Copy directories from the original drive to the new drive:
> sudo rsync -av /bin /mnt/backup
> sudo rsync -av /etc /mnt/backup
> sudo rsync -av /lib /mnt/backup
> sudo rsync -av /lib64 /mnt/backup
> sudo rsync -av /opt /mnt/backup
> sudo rsync -av /sbin /mnt/backup
> sudo rsync -av /usr /mnt/backup
> sudo rsync -av /var /mnt/backup
> sudo rsync -av /home /mnt/backup
>
> 6. Restore the new drive's /etc/fstab:
> sudo cp -p ~/etc/fstab /mnt/backup/etc
↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑
Where did that file come from? Not step 4.
> 7. Re-boot from the new drive and cross your fingers.
>
> The system comes up with an xfce login window, but I can't log in
> using my regular user ID. Sometimes the screen just goes black,
> then after a couple of seconds re-displays a blank login screen.
> Lately, though, I've been getting a window with the message:
> Xsession: warning: unable to write to /tmp;
> X session may exit with an error.
> Clicking on "okay" makes the screen goes black; after a
> couple of seconds it then returns to an empty login screen.
> However, I can log in as root, which suggests some sort
> of permissions issue, but it doesn't seem to be with /tmp:
>
> drwxrwxrwt 12 root root 4096 Dec 9 11:58 tmp
>
> To further muddy the waters, I can SSH in from another machine
> using my regular user ID.
>
> I'd like to resolve this, but if not I can always fall back to the
> original drive. Anybody wanna buy a lightly used 1TB NVMe SSD?
I've never used DMs and DEs. Do they squirrel away anything
with ownerships attached (either by name or number) that might
be mistranslated, seeing as your two disks likely have different
ideas on the matter.
Cheers,
David.
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