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Throw an hard drive with Debian installation into...

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  Throw an hard drive with Debian installation into... Thomas Anderson <thomas.anderson@little-beak.com> - 2022-02-15 02:00 +0100
    Re: Throw an hard drive with Debian installation into... Polyna-Maude Racicot-Summerside <debian@polynamaude.com> - 2022-02-15 04:40 +0100
    Re: Throw an hard drive with Debian installation into... <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2022-02-15 07:30 +0100
      Re: Throw an hard drive with Debian installation into... Thomas Anderson <thomas.anderson@little-beak.com> - 2022-02-15 09:40 +0100
        Re: Throw an hard drive with Debian installation into... Emanuel Berg <moasenwood@zoho.eu> - 2022-02-15 10:00 +0100
    Re: Throw an hard drive with Debian installation into... Anssi Saari <as@sci.fi> - 2022-02-15 11:40 +0100
      Re: Throw an hard drive with Debian installation into... "Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@einval.com> - 2022-02-15 12:30 +0100

#245395 — Throw an hard drive with Debian installation into...

I am curious, what would happen if I threw a fully functionally,

Linux installation (HDD) into an entirely different hardware configuration:

Different Process AMD->Intel?

Ram/mobo I assume doesn't matter?

I half expect it to boot up, and be fully functional.

But, I have not tested it.

I am not mailing the list this question, as a theoretically. I would 
actually

like to upgrade my hardware, as the gains would be Ok (32GB Ram >16GB),

but would not be drastic, so I wouldn't bother if I had to re-setup all the

software again.

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#245398

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On 2022-02-14 19:58, Thomas Anderson wrote:
> I am curious, what would happen if I threw a fully functionally,
> 
> Linux installation (HDD) into an entirely different hardware configuration:
> 
> Different Process AMD->Intel?
> 
> Ram/mobo I assume doesn't matter?
> 
> I half expect it to boot up, and be fully functional.
> 
> But, I have not tested it.
> 
> I am not mailing the list this question, as a theoretically. I would
> actually
> 
> like to upgrade my hardware, as the gains would be Ok (32GB Ram >16GB),
> 
> but would not be drastic, so I wouldn't bother if I had to re-setup all the
> 
> software again.
> 

If you have the required driver inside your kernel or in the initrd then
you shouldn't have any problem.
As a easy example, you boot using the install DVD/USB stick and a unique
kernel is used for both AMD/Intel x64.

You may need some configuration of network card and other things if
their reference change. That's all...
-- 
Polyna-Maude R.-Summerside
-Be smart, Be wise, Support opensource development

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#245400

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On Tue, Feb 15, 2022 at 01:58:24AM +0100, Thomas Anderson wrote:
> I am curious, what would happen if I threw a fully functionally,
> 
> Linux installation (HDD) into an entirely different hardware configuration:

It depends :-)

It starts with the bootloader: different hardware boots in very
different ways. If you have GRUB (the default with Debian), you
will need either a "traditional BIOS" or UEFI beneath it. That
means MACs, Raspberry Pis and other misc hardware is out.

Then, the kernel is built for a specific architecture family.

A kernel built for x86_64 won't be happy on ARM. Or RISCV. Or...

If your distro has taken those hurdles, you'll still be left with
some funny things. Kernel modules for hardware you hadn't in your
first motherboard. Network scripts might be set up to look for
a specific MAC address which won't "be" in your new machine. Your
fstab might be referencing file systems which have moved around
(this is one of the cases where label based or UUID based file
system referencing clearly "wins").

In the latter cases, chances are good that you'll get enough of
your system up to "fix" things.

Be prepared to invest some time, and to learn a thing or two :-)

Cheers
-- 
t

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#245405

Thanks for replies. It all makes sense once I get the answers. =)


On 2/15/22 07:29, tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 15, 2022 at 01:58:24AM +0100, Thomas Anderson wrote:
>> I am curious, what would happen if I threw a fully functionally,
>>
>> Linux installation (HDD) into an entirely different hardware configuration:
> It depends :-)
>
> It starts with the bootloader: different hardware boots in very
> different ways. If you have GRUB (the default with Debian), you
> will need either a "traditional BIOS" or UEFI beneath it. That
> means MACs, Raspberry Pis and other misc hardware is out.
>
> Then, the kernel is built for a specific architecture family.
>
> A kernel built for x86_64 won't be happy on ARM. Or RISCV. Or...
>
> If your distro has taken those hurdles, you'll still be left with
> some funny things. Kernel modules for hardware you hadn't in your
> first motherboard. Network scripts might be set up to look for
> a specific MAC address which won't "be" in your new machine. Your
> fstab might be referencing file systems which have moved around
> (this is one of the cases where label based or UUID based file
> system referencing clearly "wins").
>
> In the latter cases, chances are good that you'll get enough of
> your system up to "fix" things.
>
> Be prepared to invest some time, and to learn a thing or two :-)
>
> Cheers

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#245406

Thomas Anderson wrote:

> Thanks for replies. It all makes sense once I get the
> answers. =)

Thomas Anderson :)

-- 
underground experts united
https://dataswamp.org/~incal

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#245408

Thomas Anderson <thomas.anderson@little-beak.com> writes:

> I am curious, what would happen if I threw a fully functionally,
>
> Linux installation (HDD) into an entirely different hardware configuration:
>
> Different Process AMD->Intel?
>
> Ram/mobo I assume doesn't matter?
>
> I half expect it to boot up, and be fully functional.

I fully expect this to work. It has for me in the past. Of course, with
no knowledge of your systems the answer is actually "it depends." But
even when I ran a custom kernel with just the drivers I needed, all I
needed to do was add the drivers the new system needed beforehand. This
was the bad old days when there were other common SATA interfaces than
AHCI.

In fact, I have the inner parts for a new desktop waiting as I want to
do more than just clone my old system there. I've come to realize I want
to build the new system in a new case so that I can work on it while
keeping my old system running.

But still, the first step for me is cloning my boot SSD and putting it
in the new system. I'll have little difference in the old and new
desktop. CPU architecture is still x86-64, video is same NVidia, storage
is same old AHCI SATA + NVMe SSD. So it should boot. Networking is
different and will need a firmware package, maybe a newer kernel from
backports. Wifi and bluetooth are new and likely need same. I can
actually do these things beforehand.

Probably some other minor interfaces will need tweaking, sensors is a
thing that's usually different on different motherboards for example.

The second step for me is converting from FAT partition table and BIOS
boot to GPT partition table and UEFI boot. Should be possible but with
Windows 10, Debian and Arch on the drive it's a tiny little bit more
complicated.

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#245409

On Tue, Feb 15, 2022 at 12:31:58PM +0200, Anssi Saari wrote:
> Thomas Anderson <thomas.anderson@little-beak.com> writes:
> 
> > I am curious, what would happen if I threw a fully functionally,
> >
> > Linux installation (HDD) into an entirely different hardware configuration:
> >
> > Different Process AMD->Intel?
> >
> > Ram/mobo I assume doesn't matter?
> >
> > I half expect it to boot up, and be fully functional.
> 
> I fully expect this to work. It has for me in the past. Of course, with
> no knowledge of your systems the answer is actually "it depends." But
> even when I ran a custom kernel with just the drivers I needed, all I
> needed to do was add the drivers the new system needed beforehand. This
> was the bad old days when there were other common SATA interfaces than
> AHCI.
> 
> In fact, I have the inner parts for a new desktop waiting as I want to
> do more than just clone my old system there. I've come to realize I want
> to build the new system in a new case so that I can work on it while
> keeping my old system running.
> 
> But still, the first step for me is cloning my boot SSD and putting it
> in the new system. I'll have little difference in the old and new
> desktop. CPU architecture is still x86-64, video is same NVidia, storage
> is same old AHCI SATA + NVMe SSD. So it should boot. Networking is
> different and will need a firmware package, maybe a newer kernel from
> backports. Wifi and bluetooth are new and likely need same. I can
> actually do these things beforehand.
> 
Maybe don't do this. Maybe do a clean install on new drives to start
a known system. Then you can copy across stuff from old system to new
moving only the data you want. Clean installs mean that the drivers for the 
new motherboard etc. should "just work"

> Probably some other minor interfaces will need tweaking, sensors is a
> thing that's usually different on different motherboards for example.
>

See above.
 
> The second step for me is converting from FAT partition table and BIOS
> boot to GPT partition table and UEFI boot. Should be possible but with
> Windows 10, Debian and Arch on the drive it's a tiny little bit more
> complicated.
> 

Too complicated once you've cloned an MBR - really, don't do this, go
UEFI from the start. Maybe don't install Windows 10 as a main OS but as 
a VM?

All the very best, as ever, 

Andy Cater

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