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I'll get a new computer and I'm curious about what happens if I migrate the old computer's Ubuntu to a new one. Does it crash due to device driver issue or not? If it is, how can I backup my Ubuntu and reinstall it to my new computer successfully?

slava
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ghwns9652
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    Imo, creating a backup on an external drive, installing from scratch and restoring the backup in the new system is by far faster, easier and more reliable. And as a bonus you will have a clean system again. See https://askubuntu.com/questions/9135/how-to-backup-settings-and-list-of-installed-packages – pLumo Mar 07 '19 at 14:32
  • Just install new version and reinstall necessary software as Rovo suggested. – Wouter Mar 07 '19 at 14:42
  • It usually just works. Devices are detected at startup, and proper drivers autoloaded. I've done it many times without problems. – mikewhatever Mar 07 '19 at 15:55

2 Answers2

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Does it crash due to device driver issue or not? I

No. Linux uses generic drivers and on the fly even: drivers get loaded as the hardware/kernel demands it.

The only drivers that can be be an issue are 3rd party drivers and only if you switch to different brand hardware and even then there are two: display nVidia, AMD, etc and your NIC (INTEL, Broadcom, etc). It is best to remove those though that can also be done on the new system from grub rescue or a live session.

I have transplanted more than 100 hard disks from 1 system to another with almost no issues. You can also clone the disk with the "dd" command and move it to the new computer but that can be dangerous.

I do believe a fresh install might be the easiest way though if you can get a hard disk for both systems and do not actually want to use the old hard disk. And then use a network, usb or dvd to copy personal data to the new computer.

Rinzwind
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As suggested in the comments, I would go for the clean install option as well.

Nevertheless, you can try to migrate the system to a new computer by using e.g. the software Timeshift if you want to try that. Using rsync over the network from a live linux might be another option as well if you have to external drive at hand.

In general you can copy your home directory to an external hard drive and put that back to the new installed system. Then, your personal settings will be still there. For the software you can use the suggestion from this blog post or in this asnwer

For backups in general I suggest using Back In Time

freiheitsnetz
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