Can you just make a base image and then clone the image across. You would need to change the machine ID but that's pretty easy to do.
Alternatively you could use Ansible pull on a fresh install to set everything up
this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2024
49 points (93.0% liked)
Linux
48376 readers
1646 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
I don't know how clonezilla works, but one thing I've discovered that causes issues when you copy a Linux distro from one machine to another, assuming you do a file system copy and not a raw partition copy so the new file system partition has a different UUID than the old, you need to fix the UUID in both /etc/fstab and /etc/initramfs-tools/resume before it will work properly.
But when you just copy one partition, do you need to do something special for the system to boot?
load more comments
(2 replies)
I'd happily give technical advice but first I need to understand the actual need.
I don't mean "what would be cool" but rather what's the absolute minimum basic that would make a solution acceptable.
Why do I insist so much? Well because installing a distribution, e.g. Debian, takes less than 1h. Assuming you have a separate /home directory, there is no need to "copy" anything, only mounting correctly. If it is on another physical computer then the speed will depend on the your storage capacity and hardware (e.g. SSD vs HDD). Finally "configuring" each piece of software will take a certain amount of time, especially if you didn't save the configuration (which should be the case).
Anyway, my point being that :
- installing the OS takes little time
- copying data across physical devices take a lot more time
- configuring manually specific software takes a bit of time
So, if you repeat the operation several times a week, investing time to find a solution can be useful. If you do this few times a year or less, it's probably NOT actually efficient.
So, again, is this an intellectual endeavor, for the purpose of knowing what an "ideal' scenario would be or is it a genuine need?
Well I don’t distro hop so I don’t think it would be used more than once a year.
The only thing is that I would want the way I’ve configured Gnome, Joplin, Thunderbird, Gnome Calendar (only for the widget), my Gnome extensions, what program is automatically opened on what workspace, etc to be saved so that it could be reproduced on another computer easily.
My documents, pictures, etc are already taken care of so it ain’t a problem.
I know I could do the same thing by writing a tutorial and just spending a couple of hours every time I reinstall. But I would want to just be able to replicate my install/settings if possible.
Someone kindly mentioned SaveDesktop and for now it seems like the way to go since simply cloning with Clonezilla doesn’t seem to work. I just have to make it work.
The only thing is that I would want the way I’ve configured Gnome, Joplin, Thunderbird, Gnome Calendar (only for the widget), my Gnome extensions, what program is automatically opened on what workspace, etc to be saved so that it could be reproduced on another computer easily.
These sound like user settings that don't even exist outside ~/ . Rsync is your friend. So is git, gluster, syncthing, resilio, and a good bunch of others depending on how often you want synch to occur and how much time you have to spend.