To clone or not to clone?

At my level of Linux expertise, I don't want to risk screwing up my shiny new tablet to the point I have to re-flash it. Soon, I will be ready for that . But right now, it is a happy little tablet and I am using it for many work-related tasks.

But, there are some intermediate things I would like to do, that cloning might facilitate. My question is: What is the easiest, safest way for a newbie to accomplish the following goals?

1.] Be able to run apps from the removable card. I'd like to save space on the internal card and the boot partition. I've been able to edit the mmc-mount file and get manually gunzipped and untarred apps to run off of the external card, but I'm confused about how to "auto-install" apps via the application manager to the external card. I'd rather not edit the source and recompile - I'd just goof things up.

1.] Get the "search" function to search the removable card - at present it only searches the internal stuff. This is a minor annoyance, but if I can get this to work, I can move files that need to be searched to the removable card; again, this will save space.

I have read this wiki: http://www.internettablettalk.com/wi...B_Dual-Booting

But I still have questions:

* With my current setup where the external card can at least run apps, am I doomed to frustration that cloning will cure?
* If I clone, do I get a 128 mb vfat, in addition to the ext2, so I can still connect to Windoze and copy files via USB?
* With the bootmenu, can I still boot to the original, internal partition (my life-preserver) ?
* While booted to the internal, will the n810 act the same way it does now - new apps get installed to the internal space, or will I be able to choose where they go? How would I choose?
* Conversely, while booted to the clone on the external card, will the N810 look and feel the same, but with more cool tools available? Would new apps get installed to the external?
* Do I really need becomeroot, or is easyroot good enough for the clone process?

Thanks for the hand-holding. I won't always be this helpless ...

Steve

If on an N810 definitely clone using PB's deb.

It can't get any simpler and then you have a backup.

Then play around with other cloning methods.

ther is a way to back it up...using winimage...maybe even acronis...i redo the winimage backup every coupla days...acronis may work for the n810...i have a n800 i have used the deb from pb...and its very simple.....

Only you can answer that.
I think you're doomed to some frustration, but dual-booting does have it's own frustrations. They can be partially alleviated with chroot, but I don't have that up yet between ITOSes, so I can give no specific guidance... It should be like chrooting for Debian, but easier and smoother.
Using PB's .deb is the easiest way, and will set you up with a vfat.
Absolutely!
Whatever root filesystem you're running on, that's where stuff goes. If you really just want to run the things listed above, and would rather everything was one system, rather than dual-boot schizo, then the thing to do is to make an ext2 (or other UNIXy) filesystem, and mount it on /usr/... Before you mount it, copy everything from /usr/ into the new filesystem, so when you mount it, the system will be exactly the same; you'll also need to do something to ensure it gets fscked on boot, before mounting, which is not trivial. But the results will be pretty good, I think; it'll handle filesystem failures, etc. pretty well too.

If it fails to mount for whatever reason, your system should be usable, because you still have the old /usr/ that was obscured by mounting... Any apps installed afterwards will be broken, but the system should still boot up and work decently, allowing you to recover gracefully from anything like that.
Doesn't really matter. Especially if you use the .deb...[/QUOTE]

Thanks Mucho, Benson!

I have in my hand a shiny new 4 GB SDHC.

I have PenquinBait's install-tools-N810e.deb

I also bought Scott Granneman's "Linux Phrasebook", which is nice because it has both Debian and RH info.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0672328380/

I've pretty much decided to pull the trigger with PenquinBait's .deb this week, just want to make sure I'm ready, so that you guys don't have to put up with a "I tried to clone now my NIT is a brick" posting... instead, I hope to post "Cloning works! Here's my noob tips".

Steve

Cloning works!

After careful reading and preparation, I used Penguinbait's install-tools-N810e.deb from http://www.penguinbait.com to clone my flash-boot partition to my 4GB external SD card. The process was simple; backup the external card, use application manager to run the .deb from flash storage (not from either internal or external SD), wait about 5 minutes while it does its thing, reboot, enjoy the nice boot menu, restore files to the new vfat part on the external SD card. I now have a "recovery partition" - namely my original flash part, which I don't use for installing new applications.



Thanks to all who have helped me climb out of the wet muck of noob-pond... I'm now sitting on the shore, marvelling at the sky above, thinking about flight.

Steve