Installation Opinion Request

JimW · 2017-05-21 15:35

I am currently running Orion. However, due to game camera video's and other things my 500 gig hard drive is filling up. I have ordered a 1 terabyte drive to replace it with.

So -
would you recommend cloning the Orion drive to the new drive, then expanding to use all the space
or
Install Scorpion on the new drive then transfer the data I wish to keep from the old drive to the new?

I am leaning toward waiting for the Scorpion release and installing it, but thought I would get the opinion of some of the users who have been running the experimental release.

Do you think it would be worthwhile to wait the few days until Scorpion release comes out?

I know some of the answer is probably personal preferences, but just looking for a general response.

I can use the old drive as a USB drive. So, after setting up the new drive I can reformat the old drive to use for storage/backup.

Dai_trying · 2017-05-21 16:32

What I would do is install Scorpion to your new Hdd as an external drive but also install grub to the same drive, that way you can try it out to make sure everything is running sweet and then if/when you are happy with it you can transfer your data over to it and replace original Hdd with new one in machine and everything should work without issue. The good thing is you can test it out to make sure it all works without commiting anything away from your current installation.

crosscourt · 2017-05-21 16:45

Agree with Dai as thats exactly what I would do and tend to do with my pcs presently. Ive already got Scorpion and Orion running on the same pc on two different drives in anticipation of changes down the road.

JimW · 2017-05-21 17:31

Ok, thanks! I was hoping you two would respond since I knew you both were testing Scorpion.
If I set up Scorpion on the external then switch it to internal do I have to make changes to the system? fstab or anything? It would seem that some things would be dev dependent and switching them could cause problems. That is the main reason I did not decide to try that. The other option would be to put the new drive in as main with the current drive as external and install grub with Scorpion on the new drive. Then when/if I decide to keep Scorpion all I have to do is format/remove the external drive and update grub.

crosscourt · 2017-05-21 18:55

I installed Scorpion on a drive that was internal initially and had it in a USB external box for awhile before I eventually added it to my system along side Orion.

Depends on what kind of external drive/box your going to use as the speed isnt anywhere near as good as running a drive internally.

Having Orion as the external drive is also an option and using Scorpion as the main is definitely an option. Just be sure Scorpion is happy with your system and its overall configuration, but youve still got Orion to fall back on.

Dai_trying · 2017-05-21 19:10

As CC said it does really depend on how your external is seen by the Pc, If you can boot from it then you could perform an install onto it and so long as you install grub to the same device it should be ok to simply swap the drive when you are happy with it. With grub on the mbr of the hdd and the installation also on the hdd it should work just the same as swapping drives between two machines, which is something that is almost (but not quite) impossible for Ms systems

And I have two external drives one is usb2, the other usb3 and installing to the second one makes the system run as good as if it were the internal hdd! The only problem I have is making it capable of booting mbr and uefi without enabling bios compatibility mode, but I gave up on that a while back .

crosscourt · 2017-05-21 19:16

USB 3 and ESata are definitely quick enough but you wont see anything close to the advertised speed in real world use and each has its own advantages/ disadvantages with different tasks.

Thats one of the things I love about Linux as i can take my Q4OS drive and move it to another pc and it works like a charm. I swap drives out between systems all the time and it amazes most Windows users who have suffered at the hands of Microsoft for years.

Last edited by crosscourt (2017-05-21 19:28)

JimW · 2017-05-22 00:01

I'm not sure if I can boot from it or not. It's been a while since I used it. Since it will be a few days before I do anything I have time to experiment.

About that other OS - at least with Linux you don't have to pay for each install! You download it once and install it however many times you want. (or until your CD wears out!) If you have the cash and feel like it (and really like the distro you are using) you CAN donate to the developers, but it is not a jailable offense if you don't.
Also with Linux you can learn as much as you want about it, even down to the source code, if you want to go that far. Or as little as possible. You might have a bit of a learning curve at first, but distro's like Q4OS are even cutting that down!

crosscourt · 2017-05-22 00:33

So many times when I was running Windows I tried to to move the drive to identical systems and even with being careful and doing the right things, most of the time it wouldnt boot. Linux I can have multiple drives with the same install or move a single drive to more than one system. Its a dream come true for those of us who do a lot of hardware testing.

JimW · 2017-05-27 21:20

Just an update -
I got my new drive and installed Scorpion. Works great! However....my external adapter is not working. I think plugging in a 16 volt power pack instead of 12 volts may have fried it. Look before ya leap!!! I put the old drive back in and copied the Firefox and Thunderbird data (the two major things) to usb, then switched back to the new drive. That's what I am on now. I've ordered a new external adapter to put my old drive on to finish transferring the other data, after which it will be my drive for backups. Still have a bit of configuring to do on Scorpion, but so far everything is going smoothly.
I know I'm taking a chance with a testing release, but since this is not a production environment I'll take the chance and make backups for just in case. In addition, it's been out for quite a while, so most of the bugs are probably fixed. Anything happens that I loose data then it is my own fault!!

Dai_trying · 2017-05-27 21:28

I think you made the right choice (albeit almost forcibly due to your hw failure) and Stretch has now been given the release date of June 17th WOOHOO!!! so your only just short of it being oficially "stable".

And it's good that your Hdd didn't get fried along with your enclosure! although I have taken a few apart and they have voltage regulators built into the Hdd so that would have saved you.

crosscourt · 2017-05-27 22:39

Definitely made the right choice but Dai and I have been running Scorpion quite awhile with no major issues.

JimW · 2017-06-05 03:27

Ok, I've gotten the external drive interface. However - it don't work!! It mounts my old drive, but not bootable. And it only mounts the 45 Mb grub directory! Or that is all I can see. Using Gparted I can see the entire drive and the data portion is lvm2 - does that make any difference? I tried running grub-update but it did not see the drive either, a reboot only shows Scorpion and no Orion.

First time I've had this kind of problem, usually when I connect the old drive in a linux system I have full access to it. So I'm a bit lost at this time. Any suggestions?

Dai_trying · 2017-06-05 09:14

A bit strange this... Are you sure your usb port is bootable? I have an old machine that has usb ports but cannot boot from them. Also is there an option in the bios to allow booting from usb? and is it enabled?
What machine are you running this on?

JimW · 2017-06-05 12:27

I can boot from an external CD drive plugged into the same port, however not using the same adapter. In fact it is what I used to install Scorpion. This is an HP Omni 100. The drive is shown in systray as a thumb drive while if I connect the external CD drive, with a CD, it shows as a CD drive.

This is all I get when I connect the drive -

jim@arcadia:/media/jim/a5a6eba2-7886-4014-b415-a176bd1c3b71$ ls -al
total 36171
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 1024 May 8 07:19 .
drwxr-x---+ 3 root root 4096 Jun 4 20:37 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 157786 Apr 30 10:32 config-3.16.0-4-amd64
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 1024 May 8 07:19 grub
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 30531923 May 8 07:19 initrd.img-3.16.0-4-amd64
drwx------ 2 root root 12288 May 1 2016 lost+found
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 182704 Sep 10 2014 memtest86+.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 184840 Sep 10 2014 memtest86+_multiboot.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2681668 Apr 30 10:32 System.map-3.16.0-4-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3128768 Apr 30 10:31 vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-amd64
jim@arcadia:/media/jim/a5a6eba2-7886-4014-b415-a176bd1c3b71$

nothing else listed, no other directories or files.

Dai_trying · 2017-06-05 12:38

My guess at this point would be something to do with LVM but as I don't use it I cannot offer advice to regain it.

A quick google gave me this page which advises to install lvm2 which should give you access to the partition, although booting from that drive may need some other tweaks that I'm currently unaware of...

JimW · 2017-06-05 14:23

Okay!! That seems to have helped some. I went to synaptic package manager and searched for lvm2 and installed it from there. Immediately had the other drives pop up, but they were unable to be mounted. I may have to reboot to let the system recognise the drive properly. I haven't done that yet because I'm doing other things (one of the benefits and downfalls of Linux! lol ). If nothing else it is a step in the correct direction (I think!).
Thanks!
I would have thought lvm2 would have been installed automatically, but I guess not. lol

=============================
Later -

Ok - partial success.
Grub now recognises it and I can boot from it. Slow due to being on USB, but usable. However, when in Scorpion I still cannot access the data - I get this on the data drive -

Unable to mount this device.
Potential reasons include:
Improper device and/or user privilege level
Corrupt data on storage device
Technical details:
org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: No such interface 'org.freedesktop.UDisks2.Filesystem' on object at path /org/freedesktop/UDisks2/block_devices/sdd

and attempting to open it just shows a blank window.
Oh - checking with gparted shows the lvm is active.

Last edited by JimW (2017-06-05 14:48)

Dai_trying · 2017-06-05 15:36

I'm afraid I'm going to be of no help on this as I don't use (and never have) LVM... Sorry...

JimW · 2017-06-05 15:50

Thanks for trying Dia! (LOL) (glad you didn't dia! we need you around!!!)

I'll keep working at it, a bit at a time till I find some way. At least I can finish transferring things I want to keep (non vital data) by booting to the old drive and writing it to an SD card to re-write to the new drive.

Dai_trying · 2017-06-05 15:56

If you are swapping out your Orion drive to boot it into your machine you could put your Scorpion drive into the enclosure to transfer everything in one hit, might save a little time and effort.

JimW · 2017-06-05 16:41

No, haven't tried that. Got other things going on today, but may try it at some time. Presently have the Scorpion in the computer and the Orion in the external. When I boot the Orion it does not see the Scorpion, but that may be because the Orion is in the USB drive.
I'll give the swap a try when I get the time. Thanks for all your help DIa!!

Q4OS Forum

#1 2017-05-21 15:35

Installation Opinion Request

#2 2017-05-21 16:32

Re: Installation Opinion Request

#3 2017-05-21 16:45

Re: Installation Opinion Request

#4 2017-05-21 17:31

Re: Installation Opinion Request

#5 2017-05-21 18:55

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#6 2017-05-21 19:10

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#7 2017-05-21 19:16

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#8 2017-05-22 00:01

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#9 2017-05-22 00:33

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#10 2017-05-27 21:20

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#11 2017-05-27 21:28

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#12 2017-05-27 22:39

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#13 2017-06-05 03:27

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#14 2017-06-05 09:14

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#15 2017-06-05 12:27

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#16 2017-06-05 12:38

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