I have a dimension 8400 running suse 9.2 and running it well..I've added the packages I want....I've set up the menu's the way I want with all the icons etc....I have a second pc which is a dimension 4550....is there a way I can "clone" my kde config, menu's and the packages installed to the 2nd pc? I've done a system backup on the 8400 but fear doing a "restore" on the other machine would cause issues due to different hardware...the hardware is similar but the hd's are different....SATA on the 8400 and IDE on the 4550....thoughts?

Hi,

what backup method do you use?

i dont think that IDE will make problems on your 4550 because IDE is rather a generic thing that most of all times works without a problem.
If you have no important data on the 4550 machine just give it a try...

Are the two boxes connected via ethernet?

For example you could start the 4550 system from knoppix or perhaps suse live cd (or suse installation media).
In a second step partition the 4550 system properly.
Then create filesystems on 4550 system.
Mount the new filessystem(s)
Then configure network on 4550 and copy everything (/) from 8400 to 4550. (File permissions have to stay unchanged)
Then do a chroot on the 4550 to the directory which will be your new root-Filesystem.
In the chroot environment you will have to adapt your /etc/fstab file and of course have to reconfigure grub (or lilo) (Adapting menu.lst file and installing grub...)
Then you can exit chroot and try to start your cloned system...

This is only a rough plan - i am sure that some not foreseen things will come up.
I have done this often with Kernel 2.4 based systems, not sure if it works exact the same way with 2.6x
...

alternatively you could use netcat to make a clone copy.
partimage is another possibility but i think that partimage needs exact the same partitioning scheme as on the original system.

I used the yast system backup/recovery tool on the d8400 machine....it backed up all the files not from the original install cd's or files updated since installation to a dvd...my theory was to do a base suse 9.2 install on the d4550....apply the restore from the d8400...and then boot into a yast repair session to see if it can fix the partition issues...(going from /dev/sda1 to /dev/hda1) among other things.


Thoughts?

i never tried the suse backup method.
no idea if it is really "a clone" then.

But the method you point out has the advantage that yast can correctly set up every hardware during installation.

you will probably not need the repair session because yast already has applied the right /dev/hda1 ... settings during installation.
The yast backup system only installs packages that are not available at the new system...

i would very much like to hear if it works this way - perhaps i will need this process sometimes by myself...please tell me if it works...

Hate to suggest this but a "Windoze" solution might be in order

This is what I did (Hardware has to be similar even though disks can be different sizes).

1) Using Windoze make a bootable DVD with POWERQUEST DRIVE IMAGE 2002 and Dump the Linux partition to the DVD. (Ghost might work as well but I only have DRIVEIMAGE).

2) Boot the DVD on the target machine and restore the Partition you copied from the ist machine.

2) Now you'll have to insert the SUSE install disk and go for REPAIR SYSTEM.

It'll now re-do GRUB and set the correct mount point and boot image addresses so the system can boot properly.

Cheers
-K

I took the easy way out (was setting up a pc in guest room for company)...realized they didnt need alot of the same things....(no development packages...no compiler)...just games..web browsing...etc..so I did a clean install...sftp'd over my list of RPM's and used yast to "upgrade" them to kde 3.3.2 and associated programs like amarok etc.... worked well although I did have to tweak the kde config on the "guest" account so it more resembled windows...I know I know...dont yell at me...will be windows folks visiting so the layout needed to be "similar" for them to use.