> I have a Debian based machine I need to clone; actually I have 32 so I don't > want go through the install that many times for identical configurations. > I figured it should be pretty easy using dd but I'm running into some > problems I need help with. > > Any ideas on: > 1) how to make the copy I have now work? > 2) a process other than dd that may be faster?
I've done the same (albeit only for 6 machines). I'm not aware of any faster method then dd, but you might specify larger block-size. I did: dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdc bs=10k However, you have to make sure that disks are the same, and of the same geometry. In my case Linux didn't recognize the correct LBA parameters for hdc, therefore I specified the geometry explicitly in lilo.conf (append="hdc=x,y,z", with appropriate number of cylinders, heads and sectors). Also, I copied in single user mode and afterwards checked the partitions (linux, swap, and non-linux): e2fsck -c -y /dev/hdc2 e2fsck -c -y /dev/hdc4 badblocks -s -v /dev/hdc3 128520 badblocks -s -v /dev/hdc1 2048256 Finally, I mounted the to-be root partition of the second disk, and edited a couple of files, to make it boot-ready (/etc/hostname, /etc/init.d/network, ...). -Igor Mozetic
