make two ubuntu system identical

Question

I have been using Ubuntu 11.10 on a VMWare for sometime now. I did a lot of customization on it (e.g. remove unity, install my applications etc.).

Last week I managed to get another laptop and installed Ubuntu 11.10 on it. I was wondering if it's possible ot make these two Ubuntu system identical, i.e. move everything (settings, applications etc.) from my VM Ubuntu to my laptop Ubuntu.

Answer 1

You may also be able to create a template of the original VM and move it over to the laptop.

http://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadBody/2664-102-1-2324/V2P.doc

That document discusses V2P migration for linux.

I did this once but it was from a VM to a desktop with almost identical hardware. There were networking issues that were resolved with a simple if down up.

Also if anyone is interested, the windows steps are :

http://www.vmware.com/support/v2p/doc/V2P_TechNote.pdf

Never done them however.

EDIT: This isnt really making a template of the original VM, I guess thats a misnomer. However this worked for me. Making a template and redeploying it on the laptop as a guest OS is also another option however that requires you to have VMware installed, probably not the path youre looking for.

Answer 2

You can get a list of all installed packages on machine A by running:

sudo dpkg --get-selections > packagelist.txt.

On machine B, you can install all those packages by running:

sudo dpkg --set-selections < packagelist.txt

Answer 3

You can try clonezilla. It supports several file systems.

Answer 4

1. boot the laptop with LiveCD
2. Make the apropriate partitions
3. Rsync your files to the laptop, use -AHaXx --numeric-ids
4. mount the target system somewhere: / /boot /proc /dev /sys ...
5. chroot in it
6. grub it
7. done.:)