Advice for speech-friendly migration

Advice for speech-friendly migration

[Zachary Kline]

Hi,
I have a laptop here which is currently running ArchLinux in a dual boot
with Windows XP.  I believe some of its hardware is failing: I see many
messages like this from the kernel:
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 194526867
This is on my Windows XP partition whenever I mount it.  Fortunately, I
don't notice anything disturbing the Linux side yet.
I have a newer laptop here which I was thinking
of migrating to.  It came with Windows Vista on it, but I don't think I
want to keep that around.  I can set up a virtual machine if I need it.
I was wondering if anybody has some tips for getting my system
bootstrapped?  I was thinking I could back up my home directory on CD or
USB, and possibly /etc as well.  The only installation media I have
available is an old speakup-enabled Arch CD from March or so.
Unfortunately, some hardware in the new machine is different, noteably
the wireless card.  As I recall, it isn't supported by the kernel by
default.  Getting a direct ethernet connection is a bit tricky around
here.
I realize this might be easier than it looks to me, but it's the
first such migration I've had to attempt. I'd be greatful for any
advice.
Thanks much,
Zack.

Re: Advice for speech-friendly migrationy

[David Csercsics]

I usually don't back up /etc because package updates change it a lot
but definitely backing up /home and restoring it after your install
should be good enough. You probably want to either bootstrap with GRML
or the talking Arch live CD. I think there's an article on the Arch wiki
about that.

Re: Advice for speech-friendly migrationy

[Pia]

I would add also to restore /usr/local/ and as far as /etc there are some 
scripts I hand modify and so of course back up those.  Also /root as well 
as /home  You also may want to use your package manager to dump a list of 
installed packages so you can get the new system up and running the same 
way the old system was with all the desired software.

I think the best thing to do is to make a back up of the old drive on DVD 
or whatever you have that can hold it and then install a clean install. 
After the install, then restore whatever you want from the backups.  I 
don't know how big your Linux partition is and so not sure how feasible 
that is for you.

On Sat, 8 Aug 2009, David Csercsics wrote:

> I usually don't back up /etc because package updates change it a lot
> but definitely backing up /home and restoring it after your install
> should be good enough. You probably want to either bootstrap with GRML
> or the talking Arch live CD. I think there's an article on the Arch wiki
> about that.
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: Advice for speech-friendly migrationy

[Gregory Nowak]

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Just to add to this, when possible, what I do is to make a backup of
the entire old system, and keep it around for a few months. That way,
if I discover say 2 months from now that I screwed up, and didn't
migrate something from the old system to the new, I have that backup
to go back to, and get from it whatever I need. I usually keep such a
backup for about half a year. I figure that if I use the new system
extensively, I probably would have gotten whatever I need from the old
system in 6 months of use.

Greg


On Sat, Aug 08, 2009 at 05:15:35PM -0400, Pia wrote:
> I would add also to restore /usr/local/ and as far as /etc there are some 
> scripts I hand modify and so of course back up those.  Also /root as well 
> as /home  You also may want to use your package manager to dump a list of 
> installed packages so you can get the new system up and running the same  
> way the old system was with all the desired software.
>
> I think the best thing to do is to make a back up of the old drive on DVD 
> or whatever you have that can hold it and then install a clean install.  
> After the install, then restore whatever you want from the backups.  I  
> don't know how big your Linux partition is and so not sure how feasible  
> that is for you.
>


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Re: Advice for speech-friendly migration

[Chris Brannon]

Zachary Kline wrote:
> Unfortunately, some hardware in the new machine is different, noteably
> the wireless card.  As I recall, it isn't supported by the kernel by
> default.  Getting a direct ethernet connection is a bit tricky

Have you tried ndiswrapper?
I've used ndiswrapper while the system is booted from CD.
The trick is to copy your firmware to USB storage of some sort.  Load
it from there.
Of course, your bootable CD environment needs to be using unionfs for
this to work.  The talking ArchLinux disk does, as does Grml.

Perhaps this would work for you.

-- Chris