Update: Solution found & shared in reply #11; If there is anything that is even better I'd still love to hear of it, please - so long as it is easy to use (as opposed to being complicated like Clonezilla, etc...) and aimed at desktop systems rather than being server oriented. (The 2 solutions I am currently using fit those specs quite well.) Original query follows: ************************ Hi Folks. Without getting overly specific, from years of doing it I know there are a bunch of really super easy & quick tools to clone that 'other' OS basically in a one-and-done manner. (i.e.: 'Drive Snapshot', etc...) Having "graduated" into a happier time of Linux (Ubuntu Mate) use, I have tried to narrow down the choices to some sort of similar solution that is quick, easy & GUI based rather than a whole bunch of strung out DD commands via the CLI. Yes, there are GUIs for DD, and I may end up just using one of those, but I am very much hoping that someone who knows more than myself will point me to something even better ?? For a while there was cloning heaven to be had via 'Redo Backup' - but it now seems abandoned & I've no idea if it will handle anything newer than 12.04 correctly. The back-story here for anyone who has read this far (Thanks !!): After a very busy 20+ year career as an independent consultant, aging & illness forced me to mostly retire. For a while now I have kept serving the needs of just a few hangers-on that became good friends during those other times. Of course all of them have heard of the wonders of using Linux from me over time & naturally became curious. That handful of folks have (all except 1) since become delighted Linux users. Now, the time has arrived for several of them to upgrade a bit & of course that means Ubuntu Mate 18.04 is the basis for all. Given that we're all also great fans of the really minimal & clean way that win2k pro operated, I do a number of small tweaks to sort of minimalize that already very clean OS - always the same tweaks, also: Given that all of our small 'group' use about the same apps for emailing, browsing, making some docs now & then, viewing photos, etc. and zero gaming or online chatting of any sort - I remove the apps that will just sit there unused - again - all the same for the lot of us. No worries about Linux waking up & struggling with driver issues as the h/w we use is not unusual or fancy - also no desire for raging hot speed as it is not needed as much as simplicity & reliability are preferred. (The setup I make has root, home & swap partitions as I've found that is all which we need.) The starting point for me is getting this all set up this way on a single PC - which is already about 98% done. My next desire is to get it sort of 'canned' - then to just blast it onto the other couple of PCs without having to fix GRUB2 as I've had to do in the past. Hopefully...as I said before - someone else here will have some helpful pointers allowing me to accomplish these things more quickly & easily without having to repeat the same actions over & over ?!? Thanks for any helpful replies.
If I am hearing correctly, you want to set it all up on one PC then image the drive and "restore" that to other PCs? My thoughts on that depend on the file system. EXT3 can be done with Acronis True Image 2014+ or Macrium Reflect (free or paid). EXT4 can be a bitch. Acronis and most others I tried will only do a sector by sector, 1:1 (forgot proper terminology) image/clone and it will be huge (a 90GB partition with 8GB used was 40GB) because it images everything, even unused space and all the deleted/overwritten data on it. The latest Macrium Reflect (7.1.3196+) seems to handle EXT4 properly, but I have not tested restoring the ext4 images enough to say I fully trust it. That said, I have made a couple ~2.4GB images and successfully restored them. But it's free and only takes a few minutes to try? Then there is Clonezilla that I have heard can handle it well, but I hate the gui/interface on that, will not use it. Also if you clone the install to another PC, it will have the same UUID, user, and computer/host name and all that I may not have thought of. You'll want to change the host name if they are networked and how you do that varies depending on distro. I think this works on *buntu: Replace "leafpad" and "new-name" with whatever you use. gedit, xed, mousepad, leafpad, etc. (lasts until reboot) sudo hostname new-name (permanent, edit and save the file) **old way pre-18.04: gksudo leafpad /etc/hostname** gksu is no longer in ubuntu 18.04 so I guess this (or whatever replacement you may have found) would work: sudo -i leafpad /etc/hostname if you want a Macrium 7.1.3196 boot ISO (WINPE CDROM) to avoid installing it on Windows and creating your own, I can set you up with that. PM me.
Thanks HUGELY for such a terrific reply Dude Guyman !! (I've sent you a message here...) I forgot to mention that I've selected EXT3, having heard of some problems with EXT4... Also meant to say that I too despise Clonezilla - and not just because of its rotten GUI; it has screwed up on me before & I won't ever trust it again. I've used older versions of ATI before & it was pretty good - but I've used none so new as to support EXT3. It'd be great if someone would revive Redo because it worked so well when it was current enough to get the job done. One thing is certain - for Linux to become more popular as a desktop style OS, things like being able to easily clone it without needing a precise collection of DD commands is very important - if for no other reason than to allow folks like me to roll out PCs for friends who will be delighted with the reliability of Linux. As for the identifiers - those could easily be handled or even just ignored as these PCs will be quite distant from each other & on different ISPs for certain. Thanks Again Dude Guyman !! @LiteOS: I tried RDI sometime back - was not impressed & did not buy it.
You can change uuid too, but as long as he doesn't have two drives with the same uuid in the same pc, I don't think that matters? My concern would have been two PCs on a home network with the same hostname. That's the problem I had once before, it's easily fixed/changed though. EDIT: More thoughts. I have had Macrium spit out and error during the creation of an image before about "failed: could not read disk" or some such crap. No idea what causes it but assuming the file system is healthy, which it was, I just shut down, and try again and all worked fine. Go figure. It's probably a good idea to run a "fschk" to make sure first. Easiest way I've found to do that is: list disks to find the correct one (sda1 = change to whatever your root drive is): sudo blkid check current "Mount count": sudo tune2fs -l /dev/sda1 Set "Maximum mount count" to whatever "Mount Count" was above (assume it was 30) and reboot (FSCHK will run): sudo tune2fs -c 30 /dev/sda1 then run "sudo tune2fs -c 40 /dev/sda1" again to set it back to whatever frequency (40) you want auto fschk to run in the future, or -1 for never.
When doing multiple PCs for offices or business networks with that 'other' OS that was always important & there was at least one very nifty, free utility that did it in a jiffy, but for casual home use with Linux it should be fine & is still easy enough to change. Thanks !!
if i were you? i will first make my dream OS dream distro install and configure and modify everything and make sure it works perfectly as i wanted. and then i will copy all the configuration files and permissions associated with those configuration files like apache.conf or sendmail.cf and the file permissions for a hardened system and create a script and copy those over to a new system and run the script which will put the configurations for desired daemons or programs in their respective directory and the permissions script to make a perfect image. Even better option will be to copy all those configurations and create a livecd and let the livecd just make an exact image of the original setup. YMMV. I will never clone it like that, it never solves the problem. like what if you are copying from one bigger encrypted hard drive to a smaller encrypted hard drive. the UUID and et al will not match and will result in a non-bootable system, i havent spoken about grub and full disk encryption yet. hehe but if i were to apply intelligence, i will set up a git/rsync server in the lan or trusted online location, push/pull all the configurations to it, like, make a skel system and pull/push the files from there. i use livecd and git/rsync approach because i work in a really mind confusing various setup environment and i manage way too many systems in thousands, i can not afford to clone all systems, instead i use a combo of git/rsync and livecd to do it for me and lastly you need to be lazy to be intelligent and vice versa. here is a pro-bono tip: you may use tcl/tk's expect suite to complete automate the entire setup to even more fine tuned. like copying debian/ubuntu system independent files to redhat/suse and vice-versa. but then again my method may not suit yours. you need to apply your intelligence to solve your problems intelligently, my method may require intensive research and testing and most importantly "TIME" which you may lack.
Personally I'm using True Image 2015 Home Edition for years, which came bundled with a €8 SSD mounting frame. ;-) The only drawbacks are, that you need Windows for making the boot image and you have to make all sector backups. My backup is around 6GB, but I've got installed only basic stuff like Steam and some small tools, no games, movies, mp3 and such on my system drive.
I know this is off topic, but I was reading this thread and the quote in your signature made me laugh .
Eight first-class Open source “Disk Cloning/Backup” Softwares for Linux Servers Disk cloning is the approach of copying information from a difficult disk to another one, correctly you are able to do this system by using copy & paste however you won’t be able to copy the hidden documents and folders or the in-use files, that’s why you need a cloning application to do the job, also you can also need the cloning process to save lots of a backup snapshot out of your documents and folders. Linux Disk Cloning instruments 8 Linux Disk Cloning instruments sincerely, the cloning program job is to take all disk information, convert them into a single .Img file and give it to you, so which you could copy it to another hard power, and here we have the first-class 8 Open source Cloning application to do the job for you. 1. Clonezilla Clonezilla is a reside CD founded on Ubuntu & Debian to clone all your hard power data or to take a backup, licensed below GPL 3, it's just like Norton Ghost on windows however more powerful. Aspects help for a lot of filesystems like: ext2, ext3, ext4, btrfs, xfs, and lots of different filesystems. Aid for BIOS and UEFI. Help for MPR and GPT partitions. Capacity to reinstall grub 1 and a pair of on any hooked up rough power. Works on vulnerable computer systems ( 200 MB of RAM is needed handiest). 2. Redo Backup Redo Bakcup also a reside CD tool to clone your drivers with ease, Redo Backup is a free & Open source reside approach licensed beneath GPL 3 to do the job, points are because the website says. Handy GUI boots from CD in lower than a minute. No installation required; runs from a CD-ROM or a USB device. Saves and restores Linux and home windows programs. Mechanically locates nearby community shares. Access records even without login. Recover deleted documents, records, media records rapidly. Internet access with a Chromium browser to down load drivers. Small in size most effective 250MB are living CD. Redo Backup for Linux Redo Backup set up Redo Backup to Clone/Backup Linux systems 3. Mondo Rescue unlike other cloning application, Mondo doesn’t convert your difficult drivers into an .Img file, but it is going to convert them into an .Iso photograph, you can additionally create a custom are living CD with Mondo using “mindi” which is a distinctive software developed through Mondo Rescue to clone your knowledge from the are living CD. It supports most Linux distributions, it also supports FreeBSD, and it's licensed underneath GPL, which you could set up Mondo Rescue via utilising the next link. MondoRescue for Linux MondoRescue set up Mondo Rescue to Clone/Backup Linux systems four. Partimage Partimage is an open-supply software backup, by default it really works beneath Linux approach and available to put in from the package deal supervisor for most Linux distributions, in case you don’t have a Linux approach mounted with the aid of default you should use “SystemRescueCd” which is a reside CD that incorporate Partimage with the aid of default to do the cloning process that you need. Partimage could be very rapid in cloning tough drivers, however the main issue is that it doesn’t support ext4 or btrfs partitions, although that you should use it to clone other filesystems like ext3 and NTFS. Partimage for Linux Partimage 5. FSArchiver FSArchiver is a continuation of Partimage, additionally a excellent software to clone tough disks, it supports cloning Ext4 partitions and NTFS partitions, right here’s a list of facets: points aid for normal file attributes like proprietor, permissions, and so on. Aid for extended attributes like those used by SELinux. Help the elemental fileprocedure attributes (label, uuid, blockmeasurement) for all Linux fileprograms. Help for NTFS partitions of home windows and Ext of Linux and UnixLike. Support for checksums which allows you to examine for knowledge corruption. Ability to revive corrupted archive with the aid of just skipping the corrupted file. Capability to have multiple filesystem in an archive. Ability to compress the archive in lots of formats like lzo, gzip, bzip2, lzma/xz. Capability to separate big records in dimension to a smaller one. That you may down load FSArchiver and install it on your approach, or which you could down load SystemRescueCD which additionally involves FSArchiver. FSArchiver for Linux FSArchiver 6. Partclone Partclone is a free software to clone & fix partitions, written in C in first seemed in 2007, it supports many filesystems like ext2, ext3, ext4, xfs, nfs, reiserfs, reiser4, hfs+, btrfs and it is vitally simple to use. Licensed beneath GPL, it's on hand as a tool in Clonezilla as good, that you would be able to download it as a bundle. Partclone for Linux Partclone 7. G4L G4L is a free live CD method to clone hard disk conveniently, it’s important feature is that you can compress the filesystem, ship it through FTP or CIFS or SSHFS or NFS to any location you wish to have, it additionally supports GPT partitions since variation zero.Forty one, it is licensed below BSD license and on hand to down load for free. G4L for Linux G4L 8. DoClone doClone is also a free program project that is developed to clone Linux process partitions with ease, written in C++, it helps up to 12 unique filesystems, it will probably preform Grub bootloader restoration and might turn into the clone snapshot to an extra computer systems by way of LAN, it additionally helps live cloning which means that you can create a clone from the method even when it's up and running, doClone. DoClone for Linux I am sure one of these option will suerly solve your problem...
@digi123 : 1 - Did you not notice that the article you copied here is aimed at servers ?? 2 - Since it is clearly someone else's work that you copied into here without quotes, it at least should give credit to its author with mention of the original source you got it from. 3 - Of the 8 things mentioned in that article - only Clonezilla is really current enough to be worthy of note, and frankly I despise using it. 4. If you read the entire thread, you would see that I shared the details of my solution here: https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/easiest-quickest-tool-to-clone-linux.77195/#post-1505966 Thanks for this attempt at being helpful all the same.