How to Move a Linux Installation to a New Computer

Date October 6, 2006 Author By kadmin Category Linux

1. Install debian on the new machine from the CD – just do a basic install and don’t bother to configure anything.
2. on the old machine – login as root and type telinit 1 at the prompt to shutdown all services.  This will allow you to copy all of the files because they will not be in use anymore.
3. on the old machine – backup up all of your important files.  This should include /etc /home /var /usr.   Use TAR to compress all of these folders into one file with a command such as this:

   tar –cpf /home/username/tarbackup.tar /etc /home /var /usr

   The first half defines the tar file that will be created, followed by a list of the folders to be included in the tar file.

4. copy the tar file to your new machine via any means you can
5. on the new machine – login as root and type telinit 1 at the prompt to shutdown all services.  This will allow you to copy all of the files because they will not be in use anymore.
6. on the new machine – untar the tar file to a folder

   tar –xpf /home/username/tarbackup.tar

7. on the new machine – copy the files to their final destinations in the root folder.  You should delete the existing /etc /home /var /usr folders before you copy the ones from the old computer.  This will make sure there is no extra junk in these folders that you don’t need.
8. To Delete folders:  rm –r /foldername

   To copy files:

   cp –Rp /source path /

   (the final / is the destination path which in this case is the root folder)

9. Once all of the folders have been copied, restart the computer.  Shutdown –r now

Update:

A better method using System Imager can be found here: http://www.howtoforge.com/howto_linux_systemimager

Key Points:

Important: In new SystemImager versions (I think starting with 3.4) you have to prepend the string “si_” to all commands, so getimage becomes si_getimage, prepareclient becomes si_prepareclient, mkautoinstalldiskette becomes si_mkautoinstalldiskette and so on.

Create an Image:

On the golden client, run the following command:

prepareclient –server 192.168.0.2

On the image server, run

si_getimage -golden-client 192.168.0.100 -image my_golden_client -ip-assignment replicant

where my_golden_client is the name of the image you want to create. -ip-assignment can have one of the following 4 values (see man getimage):

Install an Image:

On the client machine, run

si_updateclient -server 192.168.0.10 -image my_golden_client