[ubuntu-za] Installing Ubuntu Server on SD

[Charl Wentzel]

On Fri, 2010-02-19 at 15:40 +0200, Josh Brodrick wrote:

>         I was wondering if an alternative approach could work:
>         
>         - Create a small partition on my harddrive.
>         - Install Ubuntu Server Edition on this partition
>         - Copy the partion to the SD card
>         - Install grub on the SD card
>         
>         Something like this.  Is this possible?  Which "tools" can I
>         use?
>         
> 
> Im not 100% sure about all the technicalities, but I know the program
> FSArchiver might be able to do something like this. Its similar to
> clonezilla in the sense that it can copy / backup a partition, but
> instead of working on the block level it works at a filesystem level.
> This allows it to move data from an existing partition to not a only a
> different sized partition on another disk, but also to a new partition
> that uses a different filesystem to the original partition. It states
> it can backup grup as well.

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.

Regards
Charl