Distribute ready to run image to M2 SSD x86 platforms

General Discussion
1

I like to realize this USE Case:

  1. Build up a DietPi system with some of my custom software on a X86 device with M2 SSD
  2. Get an image from the M2 SSD
  3. Copy this image to other X86 devices

Topic 1:
Is alreday done.

Topic 2:
I know and already used dietpi-imager on a Pi4 but would expect the SSD to be connected to another system. Probably this might be emulated by booting the X86 device with a DietPi on a USB stick.
Question: How to build a DietPi Live System on a USB stick?

Topic 3:
In the past I used Balena Etcher to write to SD-Cards. I can’t use it to write to the M2 SSD. Maybe the mentioned DietPi on a USB stick might be also a solution here?
Question: How to write the previously saved image to a M2 SSD?

Did anybody but me also encounter this Use Case and maybe has some hints for me.
I would appreciate that a lot.

Best DrCWO

2

In theory you can just make an image and flash it to any storage medium.

For writing an image to a USB stick etc you can use dd command, or use clonezilla, if you want a more interactive user experience.

To make an image you can use a live linux distro on a machine, connect the drive and run the DietPi imager script, like you already mentioned.
However, CloneZilla provides also an iso image to boot directly into clonezilla.

3

If I understand it right, you have a soecial running DietPi system which you want to duplicate.
This could be done similar to dietpi-imager by minimizing the DietPi partition (see also Moving a running DietPi system to a USB stick/disk or an onboard eMMC – DietPi Blog for some ideas). Then generate an image by dd the disk contents, but dd only the needed size and not the whole disk to get a small image. Details for this could be retreived from dietpi-imager.
Possibly dietpi-imager can help without any change…

4

Thanks’ a lot for your answers. This makes the thing clearer to me.

What I learned:

  1. I need a live Linux with DietPi inserted in my x86 to boot from
  2. With this I access the M2 SSD and make the backup with dietpi-imager
  3. With the same live Linux I boot the destination x86 device and copy the image to its M2 SSD

Question: How to best prepare a USB stick with a X86 Live DietPi?

Best DrCWO

5

Simply flash a DietPi image to USB and boot from USB device

1 Like
6

You can read it there in the DietPi documentation: How to install DietPi - DietPi.com Docs

1 Like
7

Thank you, this is really simple. I followed the installation procedure for x86 until now but that installs to the m2 SSD.
For booting from stick with x86 PC can I flash the iso with BalenaEtcher as I already did for my Raspberry Pi?

8

Theoretically you could flash the Bios image (not the installer) to USB stick.

2 Likes
9

I prefer to use Ventoy :wink: [but yes…burning the img to a USB device is the right method]

1 Like
10

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