
Easily replicate/clone your Linux install - mrsareen
http://foxclone.com
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mrsareen
Came across this fantastic utility that is completely FOSS. Intent was to
upgrade my smaller SSD to 1TB. Stumbled upon foxclone.com

Experts from the site :

"FoxClone is a Linux based image backup, restore and clone tool using a simple
point and click interface. Booted from its' own linux system, it takes images
of the partitions on your hard disk (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD) and
stores them for later restoration. Image files can optionally be compressed to
save space."

The software worked blazingly fast as SSD's were employed at both ends that
too without a single error! I booted from the new SSD and was blown away with
the ease of overall process.

The creator of the software has declined my request to reimburse in any way
possible. Hence I'm sharing it with HN for all Linux users.

~~~
Ahch1eep
Thanks for sharing.

It's unclear from reading the site : does it offer anything more than `dd`
would allow, or is the added value primarily to be a ready to use interface
for those less used to unix tools?

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m463
I mostly used dd in the past, but more recently I found learning e2image can
save you a bunch of time copying specific linux partitions.

[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Disk_cloning](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Disk_cloning)

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qalmakka
I haven't reinstalled Linux in years; usually, if I want to migrate my install
somewhere else I use one of the following approaches:

\- `rsync -qaHAXS src dest` \- `btrfs/zfs send/recv`

Lately I standardized around ZFS, so I've moved several times my install using
send and receive (even using SSH) and it's beautiful.

~~~
idclip
Can you write up a tutorial please?

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codethief
I'm not sure I'd ever want to replicate or clone my Linux install, including
all hardware-related settings and all those applications that I installed at
some point via apt and used only once or twice.

What I do need to replicate from time to time (whenever I deal with multiple
machines) are 1) my data and 2) my settings / dotfiles. For the former, I use
Syncthing (and of, course, backups because syncing can easily go wrong). As
for the latter, I've been curating my dotfiles for ten years now and over time
added various install scripts, which not only put the dotfiles in the right
place but also install and set up the software they are for. One install
script e.g. installs zsh, sets it as my default shell and creates a symlink
from `~/.zshrc` to my zsh config. Basically, whenever I set up a new machine,
I just need to run those scripts and I'm good to go within a few minutes.

~~~
BrandoElFollito
An example where such a clone is useful : I run Ubuntu 18.04 and wild like to
switch to 20.04.

Since the 18.04 has a history of experiments more or less successful, I want
to start from scratch.

I want to be able to rollback in case something goes wrong, but I have only
one M2 drive for my system.

So cloning to an external drive, making sure I can boot from it and then
delete the existing system gives me peace of mind.

~~~
codethief
I would counter that by suggesting that you create a second root partition (on
which you then install Ubuntu 20.04) and remove the first partition
(containing Ubuntu 18.04) when you're done. This is similar to how A/B
upgrades work in recent Android versions. (Of course you'd have to have /home
on a separate partition. Personally, I've been doing that for years, anyway,
because I want to be able to reinstall quickly without overriding /home when a
software upgrade happens to mess up my system.)

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compsciphd
when I want to clone my debian based system installations, i generally just
used dpkg --get-selections and dpkg --set-selections.

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mrsareen
Here is a link for the documentation -
[http://foxclone.com/download/foxcloneV12.pdf](http://foxclone.com/download/foxcloneV12.pdf)

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zeepzeep
nix anyone?

~~~
kreetx
Works very well for me :)

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andrewmackrodt
Anyone have experience with how this compares to clonezilla?

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shoulderfake
dont make any effort to make a basic website pvt.pyle

