Move from USB to SSD (Native PC for BIOS/CSM)

General Discussion
1

Hello all. I have installed successfully DietPi on a Native PC for BIOS/CSM using USB. I need it to run from PC SSD is there a guide on how to achieve that?

PS have been trying various linux distros for tha past few days nothing compares to this one. Great job to makers!
Thank you all.

2

Hi,

maybe you can have a look to this post

https://github.com/MichaIng/DietPi/wiki/How-to-create-a-DietPi-image-for-x86_64-PCs-(BIOS)

3

Thank you. It seems a bit complicated but I can try. I was hoping for a solution that will migrate my existing installation from the USB to the SSD since I have already installed and configured some software.

Regards.

4

well the idea is to install a normal Debian on your system and transform it into a DietPi later on.
Another way would be to remove the SSD from your computer and connect it using USB to another computer and flash DietPi directly on the SSD.

But yes this all would mean to run a new installation

If you like to transfer you current installation (boot partition), you could have a look to this post

https://dietpi.com/forum/t/move-boot-partition-to-smaller-sd-card/3687/7

But it was not intended for your case. So some parts would need to adjusted to fit your need. And no guarantee that it will work. Much more clean would be a new install directly on your SSD.

Keep in mind that you currently have 2 partitions. BootFS + RootFS. The RootFS can be transferred later on to a separate partition using Drive Manager.

5

Thanks for the info Joulinar. I will try to create a fresh installation from scratch tomorrow. I don’t mind, with all the coronavirus issue I have a lot of time inside the home. By the way, I have tried like 7-8 different distros the past couple of days DietPi is by far, and I mean it, by far the best solution to a newcomer to Linux.

Great job.

6

Btw, on x86_64 dietpi-drive_manager indeed does not support transferring the rootfs (yet). This is only possible on RPi and Odroids currently, and otherwise needs to be done manually, if possible. Background is that we didn’t find a reliable way to tell grub bootloader to use mount a different device as rootfs. It does not have a related setting, from what I found. I remember tinkering some time ago by editing the config directly, which is otherwise auto-generated by update-grub command, but was not able to make it boot correctly. Also update-grub does again break it. If someone finds time to do some research, I would be happy to implement it. Basically there needs to be a setting somewhere that allows to set a different rootfs and make update-grub auto-creating the config accordingly + flashing to bootloader bits of the drive, if required.

What should be possible in your case is:

  • Mounting the old and the new drive to an external linux distro.
  • In case reduce HDD file system + partition size to match the SSD.
  • Clone the HDD to the SSD via dd.
  • Plug the SSD to the exact same port where the HDD was attached to before.
  • Booting now should work, since the bootloader finds the exact same partitions at the same hardware locations.

But yeah reflashing a fresh DietPi to the SSD directly is the safest solution of course.

7

Thank you very much for the help.