I’ve just cloned my arch linux installation from my lab pc to my laptop, and it is much easier than I’ve expected. First I packed every thing up into a tar in a removable disk like this: (you need to change sdxx and sdyy below to your corresponding partition)
#mount the backup disk
mkdir /mnt/backup
mount /dev/sdxx /mnt/backup
cd /
tar -cvpzf /mnt/backup/BACKUP_FILE.tar.gz --exclude=/{dev,lost+found,mnt,proc,sys,tmp,}/* /
Then in my laptop:
# boot with arch iso
# mount the dest partition
mkdir /mnt/arch
mount –t ext3 /dev/sdyy /mnt/arch
# mount the backup disk
mkdir /mnt/backup
mount –t vfat /dev/sdxx /mnt/backup
# expand the installation tar
cd /mnt/arch
tar –xvpzf /mnt/backup/BACKUP_FILE.tar.gz
# something necessary to boot
chroot /mnt/arch
cd /dev
mknod -m 660 console c 5 1
mknod -m 660 null c 1 3
# modify the /etc/fstab
# make a new boot ramdisk
mkinitcpio -p kernel26
# install grub
# modify /boot/grub/menu.lst
exit
umount /dev/sdxx
umount /dev/sdyy
shutdown –r now
# have fun
Besides what are listed here, I also changed my video card driver and edited my /etc/xorg.conf file. The workflow works well for Arch Linux, but might not work exactly with other distro(e.g. mkinicpio seems to be Arch-only), in this case you may need to consult the all-mighty adviser – Google ;)
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