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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.

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Should I back up perfectly set up distros and restore them on another computer with Clonezilla? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) by Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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Hi everyone!

I now have 4 computers running Linux, each with an almost perfectly set up distro (which took days to perfect) and would want to create backups so that I can move and restore these between all of my computers.

Here is a list of my computers:

Surface Go 1 128gb SSD 8gb of Ram running Fedora Silverblue

MacBook Pro 2012 (upgraded with 512gb SSD and 16gb of Ram) running Pop!_OS

NUC7i3DNB 128gb SSD 8gb of Ram running LibreELEC

Steam Deck LCD 256 SSD 16gb of Ram running Steam OS

I was planning on using Clonezilla to create backups of these, store them somewhere (kDrive and external hard drive) and be able to restore these between each of these (and my future) computers if needed.

I've succesfully used Clonezilla in the past, but I've also encountered a dead end issue when trying to restore my Surface Go 1 backup on an old Acer (probably 5737Z) I had lying around. I don't remember what the problem was, but something related to UEFI and EFI legacy stuff I think..

So, as all these computers are quite different and not all of them so Linux friendly, I wanted to know if you think I'll encounter issues when trying to move installs between them or not.

In order to save space, I'd probably shrink every partition so that it's the same size as the data it contains and then extend it again once restored on another computer.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Edit: Thanks for your help. In the end, I think I’ll keep building installation tutorials for myselt to be able to reproduce my distros and might one day try NixOs on one of my computers

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[–] obelisk_complex@piefed.ca 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

What do you do when you need to restore from failure, for one of those specific tasks? Just build from scratch every time?

[–] fozid@lem.radiantfig.fyi 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

What sort of failure? A harddrive failure? I have never had a disk completely fail where every bit of data is unreadable.

[–] obelisk_complex@piefed.ca 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Oh good, so that means it can never happen to you. Excellent DR strategy, carry on.

[–] fozid@lem.radiantfig.fyi 0 points 1 day ago

good response 👍 bad questioning though 👎 i have a nas, with a raid1 array split out with lvm for separate partitions and users on my server, holding 2x2tb ssd's. This backs up every night to 2x8tb HDD's. I have a script that i invoke on my machines manually, that runs rsync on important data, and a backup to the nas raid1 array, overwriting the previous invocation. the HDD's hold out of sync versions running back to 2 months, which i can dip into any time to recover something. so if something does fail, i wont lose anything. I dont hold offsite backups, so if a nuke lands on my house, i will lose everything. Im comfortable with that level of risk, but i know some people arent. however the op wasnt specifically asking about data backup, they were asking about replication, and how to preserve the initial install and setup to be able to revert and replicate. there are better ways to achieve this than just cloning the disk. Build your own actual distro is the best solution and burn it to a usb as a live disk that is easily installed. or just save a list of packages and configs. cloning a disk is a huge amount of out of date data.