Re: transferring boot
On 7/31/25 10:18, Eben King wrote:
I recently got some SSDs, and decided to use one of them (a 256G model)
to boot from. I want the change to be undetectable, in that from a user
perspective, nothing seems different, just faster.
I currently have a 2T HD, partitioned with GPT but booting by MBR. Yes,
that's probably weird. When I installed Debian I was unaware that the
installer would only install grub to boot using the method that the
installer booted. My BIOS/firmware will boot using either method, but
defaults to MBR if both methods work. You can force it to use UEFI on a
one-time basis. I want the SSD to boot using UEFI. Is that possible,
and if so, what's the best method to go about it?
My ideas are:
1. dd / onto the SSD, then modify it to boot UEFI. This sounds hard.
2. Install Debian (the same version I run) onto the SSD, then modify
/etc and whatever else so stuff works. This sounds error-prone.
3. Wait until I upgrade to Trixie, then let the installer hash it out.
On 7/31/25 10:41, Eben King wrote:
> eben@cerberus:~$ lsblk
> NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
> sda 8:0 0 238.5G 0 disk
> └─sda1 8:1 0 238.5G 0 part
> sdb 8:16 0 1.8T 0 disk
> ├─sdb1 8:17 0 953M 0 part /boot
> ├─sdb2 8:18 0 2G 0 part /
> ├─sdb3 8:19 0 20G 0 part /usr
> ├─sdb5 8:21 0 953M 0 part
> ├─sdb6 8:22 0 300G 0 part
> ├─sdb7 8:23 0 30G 0 part /misc/export
> ├─sdb8 8:24 0 130G 0 part /misc/media
> ├─sdb9 8:25 0 165G 0 part /misc/mp3
> ├─sdb10 8:26 0 74G 0 part /misc/torrent
> ├─sdb11 8:27 0 9G 0 part /home
> ├─sdb12 8:28 0 75G 0 part /misc/scratch
> └─sdb13 8:29 0 48G 0 part [SWAP]
> sdc 8:32 0 238.5G 0 disk
> ├─sdc1 8:33 0 5.1G 0 part /var/cache
> └─sdc2 8:34 0 182.7G 0 part /misc/iso
> sdd 8:48 1 0B 0 disk
> sr0 11:0 1 7.5G 0 rom
> 0
> eben@cerberus:~$ df
> Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
> udev 16132328 0 16132328 0% /dev
> tmpfs 3229464 1796 3227668 1% /run
> /dev/sdb2 2047208 802856 1123116 42% /
> /dev/sdb3 20557912 8146532 11439652 42% /usr
> tmpfs 16147316 71380 16075936 1% /dev/shm
> tmpfs 5120 16 5104 1% /run/lock
> /dev/sdc1 5157164 1373336 3501616 29% /var/cache
> /dev/sdc2 187459092 79418636 98445320 45% /misc/iso
> /dev/sdb7 30786644 19419460 9777988 67% /misc/export
> /dev/sdb1 941740 132468 744096 16% /boot
> /dev/sdb8 133589828 122712680 4045076 97% /misc/media
> /dev/sdb12 76832012 43023296 29860172 60% /misc/scratch
> /dev/sdb9 169191044 156127788 4396124 98% /misc/mp3
> /dev/sdb10 75799884 46825720 25078052 66% /misc/torrent
> /dev/sdb11 9278492 7747788 1042472 89% /home
> tmpfs 3229460 2484 3226976 1% /run/user/1000
> nascent:/nfs/Media 1918708224 774040384 1125174848 41%
/mnt/nascent-Media
> 0
> eben@cerberus:~$
>
> sda is the new SSD. sdb is my HD. sdc is another SSD. nascent is a
> NAS. No idea what sdd is:
>
> eben@cerberus:~$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdd
> fdisk: cannot open /dev/sdd: No medium found
I have a SOHO network with a file server, a backup server, and various
Linux, BSD, Windows, macOS, IOT, etc., clients. I keep the client
images small and self-contained (e.g. one SSD), and put as much data as
possible on the file server.
I would:
1. Backup the computer and the NAS.
2. Move as much data as possible from /dev/sdb HDD to the NAS. Leave
home directory login, profile, desktop environment, app configuration/
profile, etc. files local to the HDD. Empty trash, clean caches, remove
scratch files, etc..
3. Run zerofree(8) on all of the HDD file systems.
4. Take a compressed image of the HDD.
5. Disconnect HDD and /dev/sdc SSD.
6. Boot computer into Setup and restore settings to factory defaults.
7. Boot manufacturer diagnostic or live Debian instance, and secure
erase /dev/sda SSD.
8. Install Debian on /dev/sda SSD.
9. Reconnect HDD and /dev/sdc SSD. Restore system configuration and
required data.
10. Take an image of /dev/sda SSD.
11. Backup the computer and the NAS.
The HDD and /dev/sdc SSD can be repurposed afterwards. I would secure
erase /dev/sdc SSD and use it for virtual machines, audio/video editor
scratch files, etc.. If you want to partition the space, use a volume
management solution -- LVM, BTRFS, ZFS, etc.. I would put the HDD into
an external USB enclosure and use it for images and/or backups, or put
the HDD into the NAS.
David
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