Re: Subject: Re: Adding a new boot disk while keeping old disk
On Tue Dec 10 14:05:20 2024 David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> wrote:
> You still haven't said what files cause you concern in /usr/bin/.
There are a lot of them, e.g. xscreensaver, zip, sox...
> All the files belonging to Debian's packages are going to be present,
> because you wrote:
>
>>> At this point the old and new systems' root partitions should be
>>> as alike as possible, aside from my own customizations.
>
> That implies you installed the same set of Debian packages as were
> present on the old disk. Right?
Not quite. See below.
>> Yes, not even zip is present after an installation from scratch -
>> and apt puts it into /usr/bin.
>
> That's irrelevant: it's just part of Step 1.
No, it's not. Step 1 was just a basic network install.
I didn't ask for anything extra.
Digging around in some musty old files, I found some post-installation
notes left over from a previous upgrade. Here's an excerpt:
# apt install zip
# apt install libncurses5-dev
# apt install openssl
# apt install libssl-dev
# apt install dosemu
# echo 1 > /proc/sys/abi/ldt16
# apt install mplayer
# apt install sox
# apt install libsox-fmt-mp3
# apt install lame
# apt install ntp
# apt install rsync
# apt install xpdf
# apt install xscreensaver
# apt install xscreensaver-data
# apt install xscreensaver-data
# apt install xscreensaver-gl
# apt install xscreensaver-gl-extra
# apt install xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
Most of that stuff goes into /usr/bin, but it's not put there
by a basic install from scratch. I have to do it manually.
And then there are the truly non-standard utilities like xv,
the Seamonkey web browser, and all my Steam games. I was
hoping to find ways to bring all that stuff over in an rsync
or two rather than rebuilding it piece by piece.
> What worries me is whether anything was copied by Step 5's:
>
>>> sudo rsync -av /bin /mnt/backup
>>> sudo rsync -av /lib /mnt/backup
>>> sudo rsync -av /lib64 /mnt/backup
>>> sudo rsync -av /sbin /mnt/backup
>>> sudo rsync -av /usr /mnt/backup
>
> That stuff is all Debian's, and everything should already have
> been present and correct after Step 1. Much of /etc and /var too.
>
> But /var/lib/ contains the state of the system, and I would worry that
> any difference in the state of the old disk's system is going to be
> forced onto the new one, even when it's not appropriate.
Yes, I'm concerned that I'm overwriting parts of the new install
(e.g. in /etc and /var) that should be left alone; that's why I
was saving and restoring /etc/fstab, but there are probably other
things that I missed and one of them is no doubt what's biting me.
On the other tentacle, my Usenet archives are in /var/spool/slrnpull,
and I don't want to lose them.
I think it's time to throw in the towel. The only reason I'm spending
so much time on this is that I had knee surgery a few days ago and I'm
sitting here at home, not mobile enough to do much else but putter with
my machines. But I think I'll just forget about that shiny new NVMe
SSD - it was an extra toy I got talked into as part of a motherboard
upgrade but it isn't really necessary. My original hard drive is still
intact and works perfectly well (albeit a bit slower than the SSD),
so I'll just go back to booting from it. If someday my machine has
a meltdown and really does need to be rebuilt from scratch, then I'll
re-visit the matter. It's sort of like normal system updates/upgrades -
usually they work smoothly and I can upgrade from one release to another
without touching anything else. But if things really go south (which
they have done once or twice in the past, but not often), I have enough
backups to put Humpty Dumpty together again - and I'll work the SSD
into the re-build.
Thanks, everyone, for your help.
--
/~\ Charlie Gibbs | Life is perverse.
\ / <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> | It can be beautiful -
X I'm really at ac.dekanfrus | but it won't.
/ \ if you read it the right way. | -- Lily Tomlin
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