[ubuntu-za] Installing Ubuntu Server on SD

[Charl Wentzel]

On Mon, 2010-02-22 at 23:11 +0200, Hannes Coetzee wrote:
> On 22/02/2010 22:47, Charl Wentzel wrote:
> > I was able to copy one SD card to another using: "sudo dd if=/dev/xxx
> > of=/dev/xxxx".  This copied the SD card entirely (including the master
> > boot record) with grub.
> >
> > I was wondering if it was possible to copy the SD card (as a whole
> > including master boot record and not just a partition) to a file using
> > something like dd.  This way I avoid having to keep a master SD card for
> > a quick installation.
> >
> > I'm worried that with partition tools like Clonezilla I would still have
> > to partition the SD, clone the partition and install grub before I have
> > a fully operational SD card.  If you have to setup a couple of systems
> > in one day, this could become rather cumbersome.
> >    
> dd will copy the whole drive if you tell it to, including the mbr and 
> empty sectors.
> example: dd if=/dev/sda of=sd-disk.img and to restore just run dd 
> if=sd-disk.img of=/dev/sda

Thanks.  I created an image on my harddrive I can use for future
reference.

The advantage of dd is that you copy EVERYTHING in one go and you can
use it without any futher fiddling. However, the disadvantage is that
you create an 8GB image for an 8GB SD card, even if you only usse 1GB.

Charl