I'm not sure I'd ever want to replicate or clone my Linux install, including all hardware-related settings and all those applications that I installed at some point via apt and used only once or twice. What I do need to replicate from time to time (whenever I deal with multiple machines) are 1) my data and 2) my settings / dotfiles. For the former, I use Syncthing (and of, course, backups because syncing can easily g…
An example where such a clone is useful : I run Ubuntu 18.04 and wild like to switch to 20.04. Since the 18.04 has a history of experiments more or less successful, I want to start from scratch. I want to be able to rollback in case something goes wrong, but I have only one M2 drive for my system. So cloning to an external drive, making sure I can boot from it and then delete the existing system gives me peace of min…
Re: Easily replicate/clone your Linux install
#21I would counter that by suggesting that you create a second root partition (on which you then install Ubuntu 20.04) and remove the first partition (containing Ubuntu 18.04) when you're done. This is similar to how A/B upgrades work in recent Android versions. (Of course you'd have to have /home on a separate partition. Personally, I've been doing that for years, anyway, because I want to be able to reinstall quickly without overriding /home when a software upgrade happens to mess up my system.)