Robert Heller wrote: >> Is there a standard way of copying a working system >> from one machine to another with different partitions? > After copying the system, you will likely need to remake the initrd on > the target system. Oh, you will need to edit /etc/modprobe.conf: > different SATA driver, different ethernet driver, etc. >> Is this a hopeless enterprise, or can it be done easily? > > It is easy enough to do. There are just a few more things involved > besides copying the data and diddling with grub.conf, /etc/fatab, and > /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts. You just forgot about /etc/modprobe.conf > and forgot to remake the the initrd. Thanks for your response (and the many others). Looking back, I think most of my problems did actually arise from not re-making initrd. (I actually used a kernel and initrd from machine B.) I looked at /etc/modprobe.d/ but not /etc/modprobe.conf . I'll try again, and run kudzu as someone suggested. Actually, I've ordered a huge new disk for machine B (an HP MicroServer), so I probably could use clonezilla. But the whole thing is just an experiment, as I said. The problem is that the partition table on machine A, which is my home server, has been destroyed (through folly on my part), and my hope was to have a substitute machine which could just be plugged in to replace machine A. But I suspect I'll have to get down to re-making the partition table on machine A. I back up everything useful on it each night with backuppc, so hopefully I'm not looking at a disaster in any case. -- Timothy Murphy e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366 s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland