moving my chimera linux install

i'm switching laptops and wanted to bring my chimera linux setup

normally i would just do a fresh install then rsync /home/ over, but since ZFS supports syncing, i figured it would be fun to give that a shot

booted chimera linux off a liveusb... let's get started!

DISCLAIMER: take responsibility of your system! though, if something goes wrong, please reach out so that i can amend the steps ^^

setup

chimera linux docs for reference

live ISO images come with ZFS support

if you have a device-specifc ISO, you'll need to install ZFS. follow the steps in the "Preparation" section ^^

partitioning for rEFInd and ZFSBootMenu with encrypted ZFS

i'll be using rEFInd as my bootloader so no separate /boot partition for me

continue following the steps...

mkdir /media/root
zpool create
  -o ashift=12 \
  -O acltype=posixacl \
  -O canmount=off \
  -O dnodesize=auto \
  -O relatime=on \
  -O xattr=sa \
  -O encryption=on -O keyformat=passphrase -O keylocation=prompt \  # add these
  -O mountpoint=/ \
  -R /media/root \
  rpool ${PARTITION}

now if you're doing a fresh install, you can continue with the zfs create stuff and proceed to installing chimera, then when it asks you to setup GRUB you can come back and install rEFInd instead

as for you weirdos... don't create the volumes just yet! we're gonna sync them over :P

importing the chimera install

make a snapshot:

ssh root@"$REMOTE" zfs snapshot -r rpool@snap1

transfer it:

ssh root@"$REMOTE" zfs send -R rpool@snap1 | pv | zfs recv rpool

if you're on a LAN, you can avoid this ssh'ing around by using netcat:

# receiver
nc -l $PORT | pv | zfs recv rpool

# sender
zfs send rpool@snap1 | nc $RECEIVER_IP $PORT

might take a while so sit back and relax :P

once it's done, run zfs list to make sure that your volumes are as expected!

mounting

the mountpoint info got lost, so i had to set it again:

zfs set mountpoint=/ canmount=noauto rpool/root
zfs set mountpoint=/home rpool/home

now mount the volumes:

zfs mount rpool/root
zfs mount rpool/home

chroot in

check that everything's in order:

chimera-chroot /media/root

you should be able to su into your user, then cd and check that all your stuff is present

installing rEFInd

still in the chroot, but as root again:

apk add refind

if it succeeds, then that means chimera linux has packaged rEFInd, and you can skip ahead to setting it up

if not then we gotta borrow it from alpine repos

stealing rEFInd from alpine

alpine rEFInd depends on lsblk, but chimera doesn't have it because it's packaged under util-linux-mount instead... virtual packages to the rescue!

apk add -t lsblk util-linux-mount

this tells apk to imagine a package called lsblk that depends on util-linux-mount, effectively acting as an alias!

on to the hacky part:

apk add -X http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/testing --allow-untrusted refind

now we have the rEFInd package installed!

setting up rEFInd

mount the EFI partition:

mkdir -p /boot/efi
mount /dev/disk/by-label/ESP /boot/efi

run the install script:

refind-install

installing and setting up ZFSBootMenu

refer to their guide:

apk add --no-interactive curl
mkdir -p /boot/efi/EFI/ZBM
curl -o /boot/efi/EFI/ZBM/VMLINUZ.EFI -L https://get.zfsbootmenu.org/efi
cp /boot/efi/EFI/ZBM/VMLINUZ.EFI /boot/efi/EFI/ZBM/VMLINUZ-BACKUP.EFI

now ZFSBootMenu should be installed in /boot/efi/EFI/ZBM

getting rEFInd to recognize ZFSBootMenu

thankfully they also have a guide for this

cat << EOF > /boot/efi/EFI/ZBM/refind_linux.conf
"Boot default"  "zbm.prefer=rpool ro quiet loglevel=0 zbm.skip"
"Boot to menu"  "zbm.prefer=rpool ro quiet loglevel=0 zbm.show"
EOF

BONUS: keep passphrase in initramfs so you don't have to enter it twice

echo "${PASSPHRASE}" > /etc/zfs/rpool.key
zfs set keylocation=file:///etc/zfs/rpool.key rpool

that's all :)

reboot and enjoy your system ^^