Q4OS Forum

EBAL

Member

Registered: 2024-02-13

Posts: 27

Cloning a PC running Q4OS to other PCs

HI all,

I'm running Q4OS in an Asus Chromebox as an HTPC. I want to clone the SSD to other Chromeboxes and micro PCs with different hardware to create more HTPCs.

As an experiment, I cloned the SSD containing Q4OS onto another micro PC with the same size SSD (128GB) using FoxClone. The cloned target PC was able to boot up and run all the apps but there is no audio, bluetooth and there's a bunch of error messages being displayed during the boot-up. I suspect these are from mismatched hardware drivers. Is there a way to force Q4OS to update the drivers to match the hardware? Hopefully this will fix the audio, BT and boot-up errors.

If there's no good way, can I re-install Q4OS on the / root partition while keeping the /home partition intact? Will doing so, use all the existing Q4OS and Trinity and user settings in the /home partition? I know I need to reinstall the HTPC apps but I don't want to redo configure Trinity and all the other user settings.

Thanks for any advice.

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 6,093

Website

Re: Cloning a PC running Q4OS to other PCs

We would recommend you to use S4-snapshot https://www.q4os.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4510 and install Q4OS. You get the exact system clone except partitioning.

EBAL

Member

Registered: 2024-02-13

Posts: 27

Re: Cloning a PC running Q4OS to other PCs

Thanks for the tip. I tried the s4-snapshot app - it did create an exact system clone identical to what FoxClone accomplished. So the target PC booted up with all the same errors as the source. The audio and bluetooth did not work as well like after cloning with FoxClone.

I was hoping that s4-snapshot would allow me to install a fresh Q4OS root partition with the correct hardware configuration of the target PC and keep the /home partition the same as source PC.

Anyway, I booted a live USB of Q4OS Aquarius 5.8 with TDE on the target PC (Beelink Mini PC S with N5095 CPU i.e. Jasper Lake). While it boots up without any error messages and runs fine, there is no audio and bluetooth. I cannot figure out how to check and test both audio and bluetooth from the live USB.

In contrast, I booted a live USB of Linux Mint 22.1 Mate on the same target PC and the audio and bluetooth were automatically detected and working fine from the live USB.

Since both are Debian-based, I expected Q4OS to also auto detect audio and BT. Am I missing something?

Thanks.

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 6,093

Website

Re: Cloning a PC running Q4OS to other PCs

Mint is based on Ubuntu, so it could make the difference.

EBAL

Member

Registered: 2024-02-13

Posts: 27

Re: Cloning a PC running Q4OS to other PCs

I see. I thought Ubuntu being Debian based would also mean Q4OS would also work. My guess is Ubuntu already included the Jasper Lake drivers.

After searching other forums, it's been mentioned that Debian 13 with kernel 6.12.41-1 contains the latest Intel firmware and drivers that will fix my audio and BT issues.

Does the Q4OS 6 Trinity testing release have this kernel version?

Thanks!

crosscourt

Banned

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 2,706

Re: Cloning a PC running Q4OS to other PCs

Ubuntu has the AHS or advanced hardware support which is a separate repo  to support newer hardware.  Some kernels come with AHS enabled others don't.

Q4OS uses Debian 13 so whatever kernel that was used at their launch will be used at minimum when Q4OS launches.

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,559

Re: Cloning a PC running Q4OS to other PCs

When you are installing Trinity you are asked to pick a Profile - Live, basic etc. During that process the installer will go off and get a load of stuff and part of that process will include any updates to Debian itself. Debian is now on 6.12.41-1. So therefore your Q4OS - once installed - will be on that kernel.