HOORAY! Success at cloning OS2008 to a 4GB SanDisk card in my N800.

Now I have two questions:

1. Is there a simple way to make an exact copy of that card, like a simple format followed by creation and transfer of a disk image? (Please make any reply responsive to someone who doesn't know Linux and, pathetic as this may sound to many of you, is at a level where he's really proud of himself for a near-painless cloning.) I'd like to have one card for my usual operating system and programs and another for putting in different stuff I may want for other purposes or for experimenting. I'm happy to buy exactly the same Sandisk card to clone from the first.

2. Is there a simpler way to change the boot choice than to go into root (sudo gainroot) and enter "reboot"? (Some post seemed to indicate that on starting up you can hold the menu button and get a boot choice, but I don't find that to be the case.) (There isn't, btw, a soft way from the desktop to reboot or to turn off the NIT, is there? I always just push the hardare On button.)

And now just a string of THANKS (with links, in order of helpfulness in my case, to help the next stumbling Newbie):
Fanoush (of course!),
Milhouse (http://www.internettablettalk.com/fo...light=milhouse),
TXFI (http://www.internettablettalk.com/fo...553#post134553),
Pronuke (http://www.thisweekinnuclear.com/KDEonN800.html), and
Dan (http://www.internettablettalk.com/fo...761#post130761)

(The range of helpfulness was from Absolutely Indispensable to just plain out Very Very Helpful.)

I love these simple instructions!! Keep up the good work! I have a question. I am now at step 7.2 performing ./nupgrade.sh 3 and I am seeing some errors like ./var/lib/dpkg/info/osso-applet-memory-110n-dadk.list: Cannot open: Input/output error.

Did I miss a step somewhere or is this expected? There were files that were copied correctly at the beginning.

Thanks!

I can't help you much, but I can tell you I didn't get any errors like that.

I am finally down to step 7 and I am hoping someone can explain what is happening. When I ran the final steps of

sudo gainroot
umount /media/mmc2
cd bin
./nupgrade.sh wipe yes

it would ran and hang at different spots. Sometime the last file I see will be a MP3, some times it is a file with extension ".so". The initial files seems to go by so fast and then it just stops.

Hope someone can guide me. I am so close now :-) I can see the dual boot menu and all. Thanks!

please help, i've been reading all night about how to do this. My confusion is that i'm using a n810 and want to clone the os to my 8gb card. I have problems trying to partition the drive, i'm afraid by following the instructions I will partition the 2gb internal memory. When I tried to unmount the disk, it says there is nothing mounted, run sfdisk (/dev/mmcblk0) is says that the disk is in use and that it's not a good idea to format. I got through step 4 with no problems. I'm tired of being confused.
So my question exactly is: on my n810, how do i begin the process of partitioning the external sd card to clone my os over? Also, is there any other considerations or changes that need to be made to clone the os to the external memory card?

sorry, no experience with linux, if someone could walk me through the process that would be great, but not necessary.

Open/slide out the rubber card door (which should unmount the card), leave the card in and run sfdisk on /dev/mmcblk1, you should see no errors about card being busy when door is opened, close door after exiting sfdisk and system should re-read parttition table and no reboot should be needed

thanks that cleared up my understanding of it all. I just wanted to be confident i was doing the right thing. so now (sorry) i was actually trying to do it but not working for me. I tried to follow the instructions here (http://www.internettablettalk.com/fo...1635#post81635)
for the 8gb card. But it keeps telling me illegal type:
#sfdisk /dev/mmcblk1 -uM

/dev/mmcblk0p1: 0, 7300, 0C
Illegal type

what am i doing now. Do i have to delete the partition (how to) first are am i overlooking something else. what would be the next command?

****EDIT:Wait, typing it in wrong, I got it. Repartitioned the card and formatted the partition. I think i can move on now. more questions sure to come, but i'll search extensively next time

ok, so i did everything and I think it worked. I see the 513MB on the device memory so what happens when i install programs now, will the be put on the external memory card? i don't see anything there now. just looking for a way to confirm success. I don't have a lot of juice after the flash so i won't install anything until i get home. Thanks for everyone who replied and helped me out. I started the process last night around 10pm and was up until 3am to now 5:30 the next day. It was a great learning experience on working with linux command line.

a. Use a third party software, mirror copy the first disk to a 2nd disk, Acronis Ture Image Home is one (30 days free trial).

b. plug the 2nd card into your tablet, and repeat the whole process. If you are using the automated process of Milhouse's scripts, it is a piece of cake. i made 3 cards of the same OS and then change to different progs of my like.

c. use a zip function to zip the whole OS and files into a big file, and unzip the big file into a different SD card. i think this came from Fanoush, search for it under his name.

I am sure there is a more elegant way of doing it, for the time being, that is what I would do.


bun

Partition problem. Quick fix, use panasonic low level formatter, then repeat the cloning process:http://www.internettablettalk.com/fo...+failed&page=2, thread #15.

Not Quick fix, use some disk utility program to check your partiton, you can try www.gronmayer.com/it and dl DiskUsage.

Post back if questions,

bun