I build a lot of similar laptops with nvme m.2 disks. OpenSUSE 15.3 with MATE desktop - many apps and VirtualBox
If I use tar to clone a drive and make all the UUID’s correct and chroot the new drive and install grub - everything appears to be there like the original ,
I sum -r all the files and compare to the original - all the same - even the links, but some applications have weird startup delays like leafpad, virtualbox, and vlc take an extra 30 or so seconds before appearing.
The virtualbox machines run fine. It is the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager that takes forever to appear.
The same thing happens when I use fsarchiver to clone a system. (it does all the stuff I did with a tar backup/restore but hands free) and it also exhibits the same slowness on those same apps.
Ditto with clonezilla. Something happens when the files are not in the same sector of the cloned image.
Any Idea what is causing this to happen. I hate to dd a 1 tb drive to another to copy 300gb of data and apps.
I do not know how all the tools you mention work in detail, but one thing is for sure dd, makes a byte for byte copy. And that is what I would call “cloning” if I ever would use such a terrible word.
Using tar is a perfect way to make e.g. copies of part of the directory tree (can be all on a file system) to another place, but why using the word “cloning” for it, is beyond my understanding.
I remember that I have read about clonezilla that when used on a file system, it interprets the file system (i do not know if it does this with all types) and then concludes that it may leave out pieces that are “free” within the file system. Maybe nice, but that is of course not “cloning”
Do hardware clones work? I would like to use this device to clone a secure OSS 15.3 from 256GB SSD to blank 2TB SSD: https://amzn.to/3f2CXli. What is the procedure? Do I format the target drive first? Thanks in advance?
You do with it just what that page tells you. Stick 2 drives in it, push the buttons, and the target drive gets all the sectors from the source copied first in first out. True cloning has no concept of filesystems or formatting. Anything the target had on it to start with disappears, to the extent there are enough sectors to copy to it to fill it. Using a 250G source and a 2T target, installation of the completed clone in a PC will appear to the PC to be a 250G device. It’s partition table will need to be adjusted to enable access to its remainder, which will still literally contain whatever was on it to start with, if anything.