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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

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Can I just use dd to clone my laptop to a bootable USB stick? (suppo.fi)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I know about Clonezilla and copy pasting partitions with gparted, but can I just use dd to copy a partition with batocera to a USB stick and will it then boot from the stick? Do I have to set the boot flag or take any other steps?

Thank you for any tips.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

You can just use `# cat /dev/your-disk > /dev/your-stick, no need for a (dd) scalpel there.

If your system uses UUID's in /etc/fstab, you have to change them to match the current partitions to have it bootable. lsblk -o+UUID is nice for that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Wait what? You can use cat like that?! That's dope

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Everything is a file. ☺

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

.. not if you took a blue pill overdose ..

@MonkderZweite @Secret300

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Ok, thanks. That sounds pretty good.

If i want to compress it and save it as a backup can I do

cat /dev/sda3 | gzip -9 > drive.img.gz

[–] kuneho 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

fill up the remaining space on the drive completely with 0s with a dummy file you delete then, before gzipping

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Yes, but like @kuneho said, since "deleted" stuff only is marked as deleted (not wiped), there's always a bunch of random on the "empty" space part of a disk, which compresses badly.

Do cat /dev/zero > /path/to/mounted/partition/zeroes and delete it after cat errored out because no space, to fill the "empty" space with zeroes.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That worked really well! I got a 50gb partition with about 30gb free space into a 10gb zipped image. Is there any way to show progress during the operation like with dd's status=progress?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I often use pv instead of cat for this. And there's some 'hack' where a specific tool looks at some kernel feature to guess progress of cp & co. But i forgot it's name.