Upgrading Hardware [solved]

BoBoeBoe · n00b Joined: 17 Feb 2004 Posts: 69

I intend to upgrade the hardware of my current Gentoo server.

Basically I intend to do nothing more than create the same configuration just on up-to-date hardware.

What would be the most convinient way to do this?

1) Rebuild the system from scratch completely optimized for the new hardware

2) Upgrade the system from the current system

If option 2 is applicable what is the most appropriate way to do this?

mose · Guru Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 313 Location: Piacenza

I think that the answer depends on the hardware. Which hardware are you planning to upgrade?

BoBoeBoe · n00b Joined: 17 Feb 2004 Posts: 69

My current Gentoo system runs on an old K6-250 MHz, so its about time to upgrade it

The new machine will be core 2 duo based and with new HD's en so on.

Underdone · Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 2:48 am Post subject:

With how old the other computer is, I would start from scratch with gentoo. Besides with that C2D you can have you system compiled pretty quickly.

mose · Guru Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 313 Location: Piacenza

If you are planning to change cpu it's better start from scratch

steveL · Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 1:54 pm Post subject:

Yes, reinstall from scratch. You don't have to chuck away your distfiles or your portage tree tho, and can copy other stuff like /etc/hosts, your world file, use flags and so on.
I'd recommend setting up your existing server as a local portage tree and distfiles mirror. This is easy with rsync, and makes setting up new machines a lot simpler.

edit: you need ftp to serve the distfiles.

BoBoeBoe · n00b Joined: 17 Feb 2004 Posts: 69

Is there a way to show which packages I installed on the old machine so I can emerge them on the new system without forgetting any of them?

steveL · Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 10:23 pm Post subject:

The easiest way, i think, is to copy across /var/lib/portage/world and then emerge world.

halfgaar · l33t Joined: 22 Feb 2004 Posts: 781 Location: Netherlands

My opinion is somewhat different than that of the others here. I would simply transfer the existing system to a new HD, reconfigure the kernel and be done. This of course only works if the current CFLAGS are general enough, like march=i686. As your new system ages, and you updates packages, those packages will gradually be converted to the new CFLAGS. Using i686 binaries isn't going to slow things down by much.

Remember, when transferring your system, best way to do it, is offline, using a live CD. "cp -a mountpoint/[alldirs] [target]" should work fine. There are a lot of file system aspects you should be aware of when transferring your system. I recommend you read this.
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NewBlackDak · Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 1:08 pm Post subject:

I would rebuild on the new one. That gives you two benefits.
1. The old one is still hot while you're installing
2. You'll have a copy of your config files to look at. You could accomplish this by tarring up /etc though.
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BoBoeBoe · n00b Joined: 17 Feb 2004 Posts: 69

Well I started from scratch and did the copy /usr/lib/portage/world trick which makes life fairly easy.

Make an nfs export on the old system and copied everything to the new box. Copy the relevant files from /etc and well this surely is a hell of a lot faster

halfgaar · l33t Joined: 22 Feb 2004 Posts: 781 Location: Netherlands

fefeh · n00b Joined: 23 Nov 2004 Posts: 43