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[Solved] I need to duplicate my laptop onto a usb stick
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2018 2:27 pm
by yonnie
How can I put my present system settings and OS onto a bootable USB stick and go use it on another same model laptop?
I have several same model laptops, it took me a couple days to get the hardware to work and i would like to take what I have working and put it onto the others so they will work too. This should be easy, but I can't remember how and am having trouble with finding a solution on google. I thought ddcopy would do this, but it's not in the repos.
Re: I need to duplicate my laptop onto a usb stick
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2018 2:33 pm
by kukamuumuka
Grsync does the job.
PS. Use linux filesystem like ext3 in the USB-stick when using Grsync.
Re: I need to duplicate my laptop onto a usb stick
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2018 5:37 pm
by yonnie
haven't used grsync before. I installed it from the repos. While watching a video about it, I noticed it just does backup, nothing about it being a bootable OS with an installer and retaining setting info from original laptop. I want to stick a usb into another laptop (several) and install Linux mint and have them start working without multiple hours each with trying to get the hardware working. Did I miss something?
Re: I need to duplicate my laptop onto a usb stick
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2018 11:48 pm
by kukamuumuka
yonnie wrote: ⤴Thu Apr 12, 2018 5:37 pm
haven't used grsync before. I installed it from the repos. While watching a video about it, I noticed it just does backup, nothing about it being a bootable OS with an installer and retaining setting info from original laptop. I want to stick a usb into another laptop (several) and install Linux mint and have them start working without multiple hours each with trying to get the hardware working. Did I miss something?
If you want a whole copy with bootloader,
Clonezilla is quite easy and fast program for that.
https://clonezilla.org/downloads.php
Re: I need to duplicate my laptop onto a usb stick
Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 2:34 pm
by vansloneker
^ what he says
If you have a system where you can have the drives of both laptops in, simply do a disk to disk copy with Clonezilla. If you have to copy to usb first clone a disk image to the usb, then to the new system.
Re: I need to duplicate my laptop onto a usb stick
Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2018 11:57 am
by darethehair
Not sure if this addresses the OP's question, but I have successfully been able to pre-partition a USB stick, install GRUB2 onto it, use 'dd' command to copy an unmounted Linux install, and then point grub to the new partition for booting -- all using CLI commands.
Re: I need to duplicate my laptop onto a usb stick
Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2018 12:04 pm
by kukamuumuka
darethehair wrote: ⤴Sat Apr 14, 2018 11:57 am
Not sure if this addresses the OP's question, but I have successfully been able to pre-partition a USB stick, install GRUB2 onto it, use 'dd' command to copy an unmounted Linux install, and then point grub to the new partition for booting -- all using CLI commands.
It works that way too. Using
Etcher it is very easy to do.
https://etcher.io/
Re: I need to duplicate my laptop onto a usb stick
Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2018 12:47 pm
by darethehair
I think Etcher is cool as well! But I have only used it for making bootable USB sticks with OS images/ISOs -- can it also copy a regular Linux partition and make it bootable on a USB stick?
Re: I need to duplicate my laptop onto a usb stick
Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 1:47 am
by kukamuumuka
darethehair wrote: ⤴Sat Apr 14, 2018 12:47 pm
I think Etcher is cool as well! But I have only used it for making bootable USB sticks with OS images/ISOs -- can it also copy a regular Linux partition and make it bootable on a USB stick?
Yes, when you allow hard drive copy also (bypass the Etcher system drive protection layer).
Re: I need to duplicate my laptop onto a usb stick
Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 1:24 pm
by yonnie
I tried most of the above and didn't really get what I needed (wifi doesn't work after usb boot). I got several working laptops running winxp, they are all dell d630 model and none of them will work the wifi on Linux, even after following instructions. I got one to run ubuntu 16.04lts and i found a somewhere a fix that actually got the wifi to work after a reboot. It was complicated and required purging the bcm something or other and installing something else. I have found the web location again for the 2nd try with LM 18.3, works great after reboot and oops, the FF wasn't set to remember and I have not been able to re-find what worked. hwinfo says i have a bcm5755 wifi.
Live usb creator doesn't show an option to create working copy of the working laptop. ditto for unetbootin, couldn't get etcher working.
So here i am, trying to figure out how to get a bootable usb installer that will retain the hardware drivers from a working laptop and put them onto another same model laptop. This is above my paygrade, can someone tell me what will do this or is this asking too much?
Re: I need to duplicate my laptop onto a usb stick
Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 1:41 pm
by vansloneker
Re: I need to duplicate my laptop onto a usb stick
Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 3:01 pm
by darethehair
If you can find a working wifi driver solution for your Dell laptops, that is clearly the way to go -- especially since you would then be free to try other distros, and run upgrades, etc. without jeopardizing your working solution.
That being said, I'll again state that with appropriate Linux CLI commands and skills, it is definitely possible to copy a working Linux installed partition from one hard drive (or USB stick) to another -- including a different machine -- and configure GRUB2 to boot that cloned partition as the default choice. I have done this myself. But seek the simplest/best solution (e.g. wifi driver) first
Re: I need to duplicate my laptop onto a usb stick
Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2018 1:23 am
by asinoro
yonnie wrote: ⤴Fri Apr 27, 2018 1:24 pm
I tried most of the above and didn't really get what I needed (wifi doesn't work after usb boot). I got several working laptops running winxp, they are all dell d630 model and none of them will work the wifi on Linux, even after following instructions. I got one to run ubuntu 16.04lts and i found a somewhere a fix that actually got the wifi to work after a reboot. It was complicated and required purging the bcm something or other and installing something else. I have found the web location again for the 2nd try with LM 18.3, works great after reboot and oops, the FF wasn't set to remember and I have not been able to re-find what worked. hwinfo says i have a bcm5755 wifi.
Live usb creator doesn't show an option to create working copy of the working laptop. ditto for unetbootin, couldn't get etcher working.
So here i am, trying to figure out how to get a bootable usb installer that will
retain the hardware drivers from a working laptop and put them onto another same model laptop. This is above my paygrade, can someone tell me what will do this or is this asking too much?
I think what your title should say is.
I need to duplicate my laptop onto another laptop with the same hardware.
Re: I need to duplicate my laptop onto a usb stick
Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2018 8:11 pm
by yonnie
Wow, 18.3 after updates today just started working. Not sure why. Thank you repo guys!!