Cloning a Gentoo System

A quick reference guide for Akili and others

Cloning the filesystem is best done with rsync:

rsync -aHAXxv /mnt/src/ /mnt/dest

The trailing slash on the source will prevent it from making /mnt/dest/src/...

You may be tempted to dd if=/dev/sourcedrive of=/dev/targetdrive bs=446 count=1

Don't.

Boot into the system with a CD, and run the general following:

mount -t proc none /mnt/gentoo/proc

mount -o bind /dev /mnt/gentoo/dev

chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash

grep -v rootfs /proc/mounts > /etc/mtab

grub-install --no-floppy --recheck /dev/sda

And while you are here, make sure that /etc/fstab matches the filesystem you are using on the destination drive, or you will be booting right back to the CD. Yes, this is experience talking.

That should do it.