Subject: Mass duplication of linux drives

From: [email-masked] (der.hans)
Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2000 16:18:00 -0700 (MST)

Am 26. Aug, 2000 schwäzte Justin so:

> Hey everyone-

> I need to make 40 copies of one harddrive for 40 workstations. This is
> the first time that I have ever had to do this with Linux
> workstations. What I have done in the past with Windows workstations
> is use Partition Magic to copy the partitions, this however is not
> working do to the fact that LILO is in the MBR and I do not know how
> to duplicate the MBR to make the copies bootable. I have checked the

I belive ghost will do everything, but you have to pay for it.

Another option is to use lilo to setup your mbr. One way is to move the
new disk into the new box, use a floppy to boot, then run lilo. Another is
while you've got the disk hooked up to the original, provided the original
is up and running Linux, chroot to the new disk and run lilo.

I believe Nate has recently posted info about running such things via
chroot and know Kevin and JLF know how to do it well. Searching the last
few weeks of the list for chroot should give you the necessary info.

BTW, you could use dd, tar, cpio and a few other things to do what
partition magic is doing. That would also allow you to run customizing
scripts on the new drive before putting it in place.

Also, several dists have quickstart autoloaders that take advantage of the
package management systems they're using, e.g. autoinstall debian from a
local mirror.

ciao,

der.hans
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