Testing Bluefin on external SSD, then move install to internal

Bluefin
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I decided to follow the tips in the Docs and test and setup my Bluefin on an external SSD (with LUKS) first before commiting. Turns out it works like a charm! Jorge wrote you can then just move that install to the internal disks and it will work. But how exactly? Do i need to create special partitions? Just copy paste the contents of the external SSD like a regular file?

Appreciate the hard work you guys put in!

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I just swapped the disks and everything worked, no configuration needed.
See also Jeorge’s YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DRaYQ6hKU0

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Good to know! I use an external SDD, so no swapping here. But i found a thread on the Fedora Forums on how to clone a drive with GParted.

I decided to test the external setup a bit longer before moving to the internal disk. I will update later on how the transition went.

But yeah, love having a fully setup, ready to go OS on my portable SSD :heart_eyes:

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I started with an external drive as well for about a month (late last year).

I have my home dir backup to NAS automated (for several years now). I created a new rsync share for bluefin and backed it up from the external drive.

Note the internal and external drives are different sizes.

When ready to commit I simply reinstalled to my internal drive and restored my backup. It was completely seamless for me.

EDIT: I should mention I chose automatic partitioning for both installs.

Another option to consider.

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So after quite some time setting up Bluefin on my external SSD and testing for all my apps and use cases, i finally cloned my install to my internal disk and replaced my previous install (Fedora Worksation). This was the smoothest distro change ever! What did i do exactly?

  1. Install Bluefin to external SSD with Full Disk Encryption
  2. Change boot order in BIOS to external SSD
  3. Setup Bluefin & test my use cases
  4. Copy over my files from my internal disk to the external SSD
  5. Then clone the whole external disk with CloneZilla to the internal disk
    NOTE: This works great when internal disk size = external disk size. When your external disk is smaller than your internal, you can expand the partion after cloning. Cloning won’t work if the internal disk is smaller than your partition on your external disk - in that case just do a fresh install.
  6. Smooth sailing
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