Moving to a new system

English Install/Boot/Login
1

I am not sure if this should be here or in the hardware forum.

My problem is that I need to move a moderately complex system from an old system to a new system. The old system is a core 2 duo running on an asus p5k-se (p35 chipset) M/B, Nvidia 8500 gt, 3 x sata II hard disks, 1 x sata dvd, 1 x ide hd, 4GB ram. It runs opensuse 11.1 kde 4 as a desktop system + samba server, apache server, database server + other non-opensuse software. In addition some of the opensuse software is not the default 11.1 versions as later versions were required. The nvidia driver is from the nvidia repo. There are several file systems, some under LVM.

The new system will be a core5 760, asus p7p55d-e M/b (p55 chipset), nvidia 240, 3 x sata II HD, 1 x sata dvd, 4GB ram and possibly 1 x ide HD. This M/B also includes USB 3 & sata III. I have no USB 3 devices but this may eventually change. I have no plans for sata III and believe that it may be better to attach any sata III SSD to the sata II bus.

What I would like to do is to move the hard disks from old system to the new system. What I would like to know is, if the system is left at 11.1, is the system likely to work with the new hardware. If the answer is no, if the system was upgraded to 11.3, would the transfer of the hard disks then work?

In order to upgrade from 11.1 to 11.3 using the DVD i believe I should get rid of all non-default repos. I assume that I should also get rid of anything that was installed from them, e.g. the nvidia driver and any software versions installed manually outside RPM. Also is there any default 11.1 software that should be removed either before or after the upgrade to 11.3

2

Could you clone your OS, remove extraneous fstab entries and try an experimental boot in the new system.

I recently went from a Nvidia 6600 to a 240 without needing to do anything to get things to boot (Nvidia drivers on OpenSUSE 11.3).

I would guess that LVM would come across with no issues. But depending on how non-LVM partitions and disks are named in the fstab there may be problems if the OS decides to order/name them differently on the new hardware. I generally resolved such issues by first getting the OS going with a reduced fstab and progressively adding my old mounts.

Going from 11.1 to 11.3 may have already been discussed (perhaps search). I upgraded from 11.2 and, as I recall, I think the upgrade removed all non-standard repos and fell back to the standard Nvidia driver.

3

I simply cloned my drive then edited fstab Hashing out the otehr dives and slowly added drives in one at a time until I had all six installed. There is no telling what order the drives will be in is what I discovered.

I went from a dual core Athlon to a quad core Phenom on 11.1 with KDE 3,5.
I eventually just Installed 11.3 with KDE 4.4
I still have my “old” Drive and data safely stored in a ESD envelope in a drawer.

Now I am kind of glad my old MoBo died.

4

On 2010-09-26 00:06, vindevienne wrote:
>
> I am not sure if this should be here or in the hardware forum.
>
> My problem is that I need to move a moderately complex system from an
> old system to a new system. The old system is a core 2 duo running on an
> asus p5k-se (p35 chipset) M/B, Nvidia 8500 gt, 3 x sata II hard disks, 1
> x sata dvd, 1 x ide hd, 4GB ram. It runs opensuse 11.1 kde 4 as a
> desktop system + samba server, apache server, database server + other
> non-opensuse software. In addition some of the opensuse software is not
> the default 11.1 versions as later versions were required. The nvidia
> driver is from the nvidia repo. There are several file systems, some
> under LVM.
>
> The new system will be a core5 760, asus p7p55d-e M/b (p55 chipset),
> nvidia 240, 3 x sata II HD, 1 x sata dvd, 4GB ram and possibly 1 x ide
> HD. This M/B also includes USB 3 & sata III. I have no USB 3 devices but
> this may eventually change. I have no plans for sata III and believe
> that it may be better to attach any sata III SSD to the sata II bus.
>
> What I would like to do is to move the hard disks from old system to
> the new system. What I would like to know is, if the system is left at
> 11.1, is the system likely to work with the new hardware. If the answer
> is no, if the system was upgraded to 11.3, would the transfer of the
> hard disks then work?

There are as many methods as persons :slight_smile:

The system I’m using right now is a “clone” of an older computer. It was 11.0 32bits (upgraded
several times from 8.x). I migrated to the new machine, then upgraded to 11.2 64 bits. Working fine.

I would first create a new small installation on the new system, to test it up. You can try with the
11.1 DVD. If the final system will be, say, 11.3, install that on another small partition, too. Test it.

When happy, then copy over the old system (via network) to new partitions you create using the
“starter” system. When done, try to start that new system, first in text mode. Solve problems one by
one, till everything works.

Then you can attempt to upgrade to another version if you want - but first make a backup so that you
can go back easily and retry if errors.

This way the old machine is available all time, working. You don’t switch system till the
destination is completely ready.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

5

I have been searching the internet and it appears that the core i5 760 may require a minimum of the .33 kernel to work correctly. The 11.1 kernel is at .27. It looks like I will have to go to 11.3 and try to find a kernel that will not trash the system. I could try restoring a backup and then upgrading but I do not know what will happen (if anything) if I try to boot 11.1 on a CPU that is not supported. I also do not have enough spare hard disks to build a complete duplicate system. Having just been reading of kernel updates killing 11.3 systems I am reluctant to try to upgrade the existing system. I am going to have to get 11.3 running configured and at least partially tested on the new machine prior to moving the data disks. It’s time to retest the restore process. This looks like it will be a long hard migration.