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Cloning encrypted linux install (self.linux)

submitted 4 months ago by k2helix to c/[email protected]

13 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I have Fedora and Windows installed in the same drive in my laptop. The drive has 512GB and it's divided so that each OS has 256GB. Fedora's partition is encrypted using the option it shows in its installer.

Problem is I'm running out of space. I'm considering getting a 1TB drive on which I would move Fedora and then giving Windows the other drive, so on the whole the laptop would run Windows on the 512GB drive and Fedora on the 1TB one. I've already read lots of forums but am still unsure on how to do this without losing any data and messing with Grub (I've had some bad experiences previously). So any help would be appreciated.

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

look up btrfs send and receive. you'll be copying data from the old disk to the new. prior to that you create the same layout on the new disk (efi, boot, btrfs with LUKS, subvolumes root and home). sadly, there aren't any readymade solutions that do this for you. big time NO on clonezilla and friends.

[–] k2helix 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Thanks for your answer. Would Grub still see everything as usual or is any change needed too? Also how would I go about having the same exact layout? Use the Fedora Installer on the new drive and put the same password for encryption, creating the same partitions and giving them the same size?

big time NO on clonezilla and friends.

Can you explain? Another comment recommended clonezilla. I remember reading something like this, but knowing more would be nice.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

CZ and dd and other "it's 1998" tools copy the entire disk. like, you clone a 500 GB SSD with 50 GB used to another disk, guess how much data gets copied? correctomundo, the entire 500 gigs. that's not super-healthy for the new drive and it recreates the same volume UUIDs on the target disk as the source drive, so you're left with a mess if you keep both drives in a system.

you have a modern tool at your disposal, the mentioned btrfs send subvol | btrfs receive subvol that copies only what's used. GRUB (you can use this opportunity to switch to systemd-boot) won't pick up shit, you need to install it to the new drive (and remove it from the old one).

eons ago, macOS had the SuperDuper! tool, a free utility that clones the entire disk, resizing the partition in the process and copies only the data and it does that from within the OS, no booting off USB installers and such. sad to say, nothing close exists over here, you'll just have to get good at doing things manually.

[–] k2helix 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I see, I like this approach. However as Fedora installs Grub (and I don't want to have a headache), I think I'll stick with it. Thanks for sharing all your knowledge!