Transfer configuration from PC running dietpi to Raspberry

General Discussion
1

Hi,

My goal is to move all configuration and files from a x86/64 laptop (a dell latitude) to a raspberry pi 3. I would not like to go again to configure everything (deluge, plex, pihole, wireguard, samba, network rules…) and I have also some other software that I have installed with scripts (for instance jDownloader)

I have seen on the main dietpi page that there ‘s now a DietPi backup (backup/restore) and I wonder if it would work for me. My dietpi in a laptop and it has been running for years. I stopped updating when I faced a bug that won’t allowed the x86 version of dietpi to boot properly afetr an upgrade and now I am not in a late release.

I was going to give a shot by doing

-Upgrade the current system in the PC (runs in the SSD)

-Run the backup and restore against the new SD card where the pi will run

-Boot the raspberry pi

I am not sure if it would work since the architecture and package names would be different. If anyone knows that this wont work I would save time installing everyhing from scratch again on the pi.

Thank you

2

As you already suspected this is not possible because of the architectural differences, dietpi-backup does a full system backup.
Unfortunately you would need to backup your configs etc manually.

But some apps have included backup tools, like pihole.

3

Yes this is not possible at all. As @Jappe already said, no way around manually copy of config files and settings.

4

If instead of the Pi I get another laptop, will the backup restore process will need any additional work? Like updating dietpi to the latest versión?

Can this be done by the network or does the disk need to be local?

5

could be, no guarantee

this doesn’t matter. The restore will overwrite the entire system

best to do the backup on an external dives, and move this disk to the new laptop to be able to do the restore from it.

6

Since those are 2 different laptops with different hardwares drivers are different, will linux take care of them? I run usually in server mode (console, no screen attached, no GUI)

7

just give it a try

8

I managed to get a usb case and did the backup to another drive

                                                                                                                                        
        ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ DietPi-Backup ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────┐        
        │ Current backup and restore location:                                                                                 │        
        │  - /mnt/usbdisk/dietpi-backup                                                                                        │        
        │  - 2025-10-23_09:08:37  Backup completed

Now, should I install dietpi normally in the new laptop and choose restore backup from the usb disk or how to proceed?

I started running it and I am facing the first challenge

Native PC (x86_64) | IP: 192.168.31.52
┌──────────────────────────────┤ DietPi-Backup ├───────────────────────────────┐
│                                                                              │
│ [WARNING] UUIDs of the backup and the current system differ                  │
│                                                                              │
│ The file systems unique identifiers, usually used to mount the drives at     │
│ boot, seem to differ between the backup and the current system.              │
│                                                                              │
│ This usually indicates that you try to restore an old backup onto a newly    │
│ flashed DietPi system.                                                       │
│                                                                              │
│ But we were able to find the boot configuration, where those UUIDs would     │
│ need to be adjusted, to assure that the system will boot.                    │
│                                                                              │
│ It should be hence safe to restore this backup, but if the UUIDs were used   │
│ elsewhere, you might need to adjust it manually.                             │
│                                                                              │
│ Do you want to restore this backup?                                          │
│                                                                              │
│                     <Ok>                         <Cancel>                    │
│                                                                              │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

I guess I need to boot in recovery and adapt uuids

When I trigger it gets some warnings

[ INFO ] DietPi-Backup | Restore from /mnt/usbdisk/dietpi-backup in progress, please wait...
building file list ... 
cannot send file with empty name in "/mnt/usbdisk/dietpi-backup/data/mnt/dietpi_userdata/openmediavault/openmediavault/deb/openmediavault/srv/salt/omv/setup/resolvconf/"
cannot send file with empty name in "/mnt/usbdisk/dietpi-backup/data/usr/lib/modules/4.19.0-21-amd64/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/"
cannot send file with empty name in "/mnt/usbdisk/dietpi-backup/data/usr/share/zoneinfo/America/North_Dakota/"
cannot send file with empty name in "/mnt/usbdisk/dietpi-backup/data/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Media/localhost/b/717d5274932b4c45391897ead87b49dde8087bc.bundle/Contents/Thumbnails/"
done
9

usually the backup script should be able to adjust the UUIDs on it’s own and it should be possible to continue by hitting <ok>

11

before doing a reboot

dmesg -l 0,1,2,3

and check the rsync log on screen for further error messages

12

I decided to change both drives (usb disk and destination hard drive) and now the restore is complete without errors.

After reboot though I am facing a minimal grub prompt

grub> ls
(hd0) (hd0,msdos1)
grub> ls(hd0,msdos1)
        Partition hd0,msdos1: Filesystem type ext* - Label '¬?' unaligned pointer 0x7fdac
Aborted. Press any key to exit.

And yes, I am installing it to a very old x86 laptop (no uefi, just bios)

13

That’s typical in backups, the backup is done… but now restoring it is another different story. I am installing from scratch and copying all configurations, might be easier