>> I have 2 machines: one is a laptop, the other is an old desktop. >> Neither has a CD/DVD burner nor do I have broadband internet access >> yet however both machines have NIC cards so I thought I could buy a >> few feet of CAT5 ethernet cable and connect them to transfer >> everything from the laptop to the desktop (which has an extra 50GB >> hard disk that is empty and would be perfect for this task).
What is the purpose of the transfer? Depending on the purpose, you might want to do it differently. >> The laptop has 2 partitions: /hda1 for Win32 and /hda2 for Linux. >> >> Both machines are running Debian testing release. The laptop machine >> is up to date howver the dekstop has not been updated in 3 years and > I started to respond on how to do this, but -------------^^^^^^^^^ > ouch. do you happen to have nfs-kernel-server installed on either of > these machines? basically, you need to share one or the other disk > across your network so that you can copy files. I wouldn't want to use NFS for this task. It's designed for file sharing, not for file transfer. >> I've never hooked up ethernet or setup a LAN nor transferred a hard >> disk image from one machine to another. I want to transfer the Win32 >> AND Linux partitions from the laptop over to the desktop extra hard >> disk. > probably the easiest thing is to get whats called a crossover cable. that > allows two nics to be plugged into each other directly. If you think > you'll be setting up a lan in the next little while, go ahead and spring > for the network switch and a couple regular patch cables -- they'll be > more useful in the long run, probably. Actually, there's a good chance that any random ethernet cable will do. So get yourself an ethernet cable and try with that first. If it doesn't work, it's OK: you'll need the cable anyway. >> After that is working what should I do to get the 2 machines talking >> to one another. Configure the interfaces. I'm not sure how the GUIs would do it, but on the command lines, do something like: ifconfig eth0 192.168.2.3 on one side and ifconfig eth0 192.168.2.4 on the other. The 192.168.2.N is now the same of the respective machine. You can then transfer a partition with tar clf - -C <partition> . | ssh 192.168.2.<other> tar xpf - -C <dest> I wouldn't use `dd' because you'd then end up copying the empty parts of the partition as well, and you're forced to use the exact same size, etc... Stefan -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]