Creating a live DVD from HDD installation

[Juhele]

Hi,
I have Kubuntu installed on my laptop, but would also like to install it on my desktop computer and on my grandpa's desktop. Those desktops are quite different from my laptop - AMD CPU and nVidia chipset, but I would like to avoid installing all the packages and setting the system again.

The machine specs are here:

1) AMD Phenom X3 8650, MSI K9N2GM-FIH, 2x 1GB Corsair DDR2-800, NVIDIA GeForce 8200, WD Caviar 500 GB
2) AMD Sempron 2200+, 1.5 GB ram, integrated nVidia nForce2 IGP (GeForce4 MX), 80 GB HDD

What tool would you recommend for this task? I already have some experience with mklivecd from PCLOS. I found this tutorial but it looks a little bit complicated. I also heard about Remastersys, but never tried it - but looks promising.

I would like to include all system settings (can move my files from /Home temporarily). Second, I am not sure about the nVidia drivers - am I right if I think that the system should boot at least in VESA mode so I could install the drivers or should I rather install the nVidia driver packages on my laptop first before creating the live media?

thanks

[dmeyer]

dd or dd_rescue might be able to help you but it might be a bit hacky/messy.

[dibl]

The question of architecture needs to be considered -- is your laptop a 64-bit installation?

If you have not previously run

sudo apt-get clean

then all your installed packages are still sitting in /var/cache/apt/archives. In that case, you could run a new installation on the other two computers from the live CD, then copy all the .deb files from that directory into the same directory on the new systems, and run

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

and end up with the same set of installed packages.

Copying your configuration settings from your present /home/user folder strikes me as an invitation to trouble. I know it takes time to configure a system, but given the different hardware capabilities, especially in the video domain, I think you'll avoid trouble by spending the time to install the proper drivers, including non-free firmware if needed, and then configure each system as needed. For example, I would expect the GeForce 8200 to support most Desktop Effects, and to work best with the Nvidia proprietary driver, but I'm not so sure about the nForce2 -- it may have to settle for 2D with the nouveau driver.

[Arran]

Well I use since 12.04 no nVidia drivers any longer. Nouveau is absloutely able to do what I need. Video runs perfect and I switched off all those desktop effects.