add docs/posts/forklift-upgrade-arch-linux-precision-3561.md

docs/posts/forklift-upgrade-arch-linux-precision-3561.md

@@ -0,0 +1,256 @@
+---
+title: "Forklift Upgrade Arch Linux To A Dell Precision 3561"
+date: 2021-10-19
+draft: false
+tags: ["linux", "arch", "luks", "mdadm", "raid", "nvme"]
+summaryimage: fifty-screenFetch-2021-10-19_02-11-50.png
+summaryimagew: 960
+summaryimageh: 540
+authors: ["trent"]
+post: 32
+---
+date: 2021-10-19
+
+## Introduction
+I fork-lift upgraded my luks-encrypted Arch Linux installation from a Lenovo T460
+to a luks-encrypted, software raid1 mirror on a Dell Precision 3561.
+
+It was relatively easy to do.
+
+## The New Laptop
+
+<figure>
+  <img src=../../photos/fifty-screenFetch-2021-10-19_02-11-50.png width="100%" />
+  <figcaption>the Dell Precision 3561 runs Arch Linux flawlessly, btw</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+I ordered a new Dell Precision 3561 with the minimal ram and ssd configuration,
+running Ubuntu 20.04.
+
+The plan was to transfer a luks-encrypted Arch Linux from my Lenovo T460 to a
+luks-encrypted thumbdrive. Then run Arch Linux from the thumbdrive on the new Precision 3561 for
+a few days while I waited for Amazon to deliver some 1tb Samsung 830 nvme ssds.
+And then finally to transfer the Arch installation from the thumbdrive onto an
+luks-encrypted software raid1 mirror on the new Precision 3561.
+
+Everything went according to plan, with not a single stumble or mishap; and so
+I'm documenting here how it went down. The only thing left to do now is to order
+64gb of ram, so I can run Android Studio, and continue working on
+[my Android App](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.trentpalmer.trentreads){target=_blank}
+(which needs some work). And of course update Arch Linux 5 times a day.
+
+I use Arch Linux, btw!
+
+## Creating a Rescue Disk
+The transfer process I came up with involved two thumb drives: one to serve as
+a live disk to work from, and the other to temporarily run Arch on the new laptop.
+
+So why would I not use an Arch install disk as a live disk? Because I cache Arch
+packages on my lan using an Nginx reverse-cacheing proxy, which makes it really
+fast to simply bootstrap (pacstrap) a new Arch installation onto a thumb drive,
+exactly as I would install Arch anywhere else.
+
+## Transfering Arch to USB
+I booted my _old_ T460 from my rescue disk and also plugged the other thumb drive into
+a usb port.
+
+### Formatting the Thumb Drive.
+I opened the target thumbdrive in `gdisk` interactive partition tool, created a new
+gpt partition table by pressing `o`. Then created a 1GB _efi_ partition, type ef00,
+and a single partition for the remainder of the 256gb thumb.
+
+* I formatted the _efi_ parition on the thumbdrive:
+    * `mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sdc1`
+* I luks-encrypted the other partition on the thumbdrive:
+    * `luksFormat -y -v /dev/sdc2`
+* Then I opened the new luks device:
+    * `cryptsetup open /dev/sdc2 cryptroot`
+* And formatted it:
+    * `mkfs.xfs /dev/mapper/cryptroot`
+
+### Copying the _efi_ partition files to Thumb Drive
+More specifically in a typical `systemd-boot` configuration the _efi_ partition 
+contains the entire `/boot` directory.
+
+* I mounted the T460's _efi_ partition for Arch Linux:
+    * `mount /dev/sda5 /mnt2`
+* I mounted the thumbdrive's _efi_ partition:
+    * `mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt`
+* And then copied all the files over:
+    * `cp -av /mnt2/* /mnt/`
+* I then unmounted the _efi_ partitions:
+    * `umount /mnt2 ; umount /mnt`
+
+### Copying the `/` partition files to the Thumb Drive
+* I decrypted the Arch `/` device on the T460
+    * `cryptsetup open /dev/sda6 cryptroot2`
+* And then mounted it:
+    * `mount /dev/mapper/cryptroot2 /mnt2`
+* ...mounted the `/` device for the thumbdrive:
+    * `mount /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mnt`
+* And copied the files:
+    * `rsync -aAXvPH /mnt2/ /mnt/`
+
+## Rescuing The Thumb Drive via _Chroot_
+* I unmounted the T460's `/` device:
+    * `umount /mnt2`
+* Mounted the thumbdrive's _efi_ partition relative to `/mnt`
+    * `mount /dev/sdc /mnt/boot`
+* And entered _chroot_:
+    * `arch-chroot /mnt`
+
+### Updating `fstab` for the Thumb Drive
+* I located the UUID of the thumbdrive's _efi_ partition:
+    * `blkid /dev/sdc1`
+* I located the UUID of the luks device:
+    * `blkid /dev/mapper/cryptroot`
+* And updated `/etc/fstab` accordingly.
+
+```cfg
+# /etc/fstab
+# /dev/mapper/cryptroot
+UUID=391f6062-d8af-4266-a48c-186270d54ef3       /               xfs             rw,relatime,attr2,inode64,logbufs=8,logbsize=32k,noquota        0 1
+
+# /dev/sdc1
+UUID="FACA-0B61"        /boot           vfat            rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro       0 2
+...
+```
+
+### Rebuilding the _Initramfs_ for the Thumb Drive
+Still inside _chroot_ I ran the following command to rebuild the _initramfs_.
+```bash
+mkinitcpio -P
+```
+
+### Updating the `systemd-boot` Entry for the Thumb Drive
+* I located the UUID of `/dev/sdc2` with the following command:
+    * `blkid /dev/sdc2`
+* And updated `/boot/loader/entries/arch.conf` accordingly.
+
+```cfg
+# /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf
+title   arch
+linux   /vmlinuz-linux
+initrd  /intel-ucode.img
+initrd  /initramfs-linux.img
+options cryptdevice=UUID=f8c5062a-849d-4c56-bc98-2c93da85090f:cryptroot root=/dev/mapper/cryptroot rw quiet loglevel=3
+```
+
+## Running Arch from USB
+At this point Arch would boot and run flawlessly on the new Dell Precision 3561.
+I went ahead and changed the hostname, machine-id, ssh-keys, and host_ssh_keys to make it official.
+
+While test-driving the new machine, I worked on my
+[Ansible-KVM Router Lab](https://github.com/TrentSPalmer/router-lab){target=_blank}.
+As configured, the mobile workstation gets great battery life under a light work-load
+of web browser and ssh terminal work.
+
+Satisfied that the new system was going to work out, I ordered a pair of 1tb
+Samsung 830 nvme ssds, and installed them when they arrived.
+
+## Transfering Arch to the New ssds
+After installing new nvme ssds, I booted the Dell Precision 3561 from my rescue disk,
+and also plugged in the thumbdrive on which my Arch system was installed.
+
+### Formatting The New NVME ssds
+I opened each nvme ssd in `gdisk`, created a new _gpt_ partition table,
+an 1GB _efi_ partition (type ef00), and for the remainder of each disk
+created a Linux Raid Parition (type fd00).
+* I formatted one of the _efi_ partitions:
+    * `mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/nvme0n1p1`
+* I created a _raid_ array:
+    * `mdadm --create --verbose --level=1 --metadata=1.2 --raid-devices=2 /dev/md0 /dev/nvme0n1p2 /dev/nvme1n1p2`
+* I luks-encrypted the new _raid_ array:
+    * `luksFormat -y -v /dev/md0`
+* I opened the new luks device:
+    * `cryptsetup open /dev/md0 cryptroot`
+* And then Formatted it:
+    * `mkfs.xfs /dev/mapper/cryptroot`
+
+### Copying the _efi_ partition files to NVME ssd
+* I mounted the thumbdrive's _efi_ partition:
+    * `mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt2`
+* Then I mounted the laptop's _efi_ partition:
+    * `mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt`
+* And copied to files to the new _efi_ partition:
+    * `cp -av /mnt2/* /mnt/`
+* And then I unmounted both _efi_ partitions:
+    * `umount /mnt2 ; umount /mnt`
+    
+### Copying the `/` partition files to the new NVME ssds
+* First I opened the `/` luks device on the thumbdrive:
+    * `cryptsetup open /dev/sdb2 cryptroot2`
+* And then mounted it:
+    * `mount /dev/mapper/cryptroot2 /mnt2`
+* Then I mounted the laptop's `/` luks device:
+    * `mount /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mnt`
+* And `rsynced` the operating system files onto the new laptop:
+    * `rsync -aAXvPH /mnt2/ /mnt/`
+
+## Rescuing The New Laptop via _Chroot_
+* First I unmounted the thumbdrive:
+    * `umount /mnt2`
+* Then I mounted the _efi_ partition relative to `/mnt`:
+    * `mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot`
+* And entered _chroot_;
+    * `arch-chroot /mnt`
+
+### Updating `fstab` for The New Laptop
+* I used to the following command to discover the UUID of the `/` device:
+    * `blkid /dev/mapper/cryptroot`
+* And a similar command to find the UUID of the _efi_ partition:
+    * `blkid /dev/nvme0n1p1`
+* Then I editted `/etc/fstab` to describe the above two UUIDs.
+
+```cfg
+# /etc/fstab
+# /dev/mapper/cryptroot
+UUID=3486b7d1-ccc9-43dc-b8ab-abcf71aea90f       /               xfs             rw,relatime,attr2,inode64,logbufs=8,logbsize=32k,sunit=32,swidth=256,noquota    0 1
+
+# /dev/nvme0n1p1
+UUID=9FE0-2A98          /boot           vfat            rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=ascii,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro   0 2
+...
+```
+
+### Updating `mdadm.conf` and `mkinitcpio.conf`
+When I boot the laptop, the initramfs must assemble the raid array, which requires
+the following configuration details.
+
+I appended a description of the raid array to the bottom of `/etc/mdadm.conf` by
+running the following command.
+```bash
+mdadm --detail --scan >> /etc/mdadm.conf
+```
+
+Then I editted `/etc/mkinitcpio.conf` to require the _mdadm_udev_ hook.
+```cfg
+# /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
+...
+# change this
+HOOKS=(base udev autodetect modconf block encrypt filesystems keyboard fsck)
+# to this
+HOOKS=(base udev autodetect modconf block mdadm_udev encrypt filesystems keyboard fsck)
+...
+```
+And then finally rebuilt the _initramfs_:
+```bash
+mkinitcpio -P
+```
+
+### Updating the `systemd-boot` Entry for the New Laptop
+The final step was to update `/boot/loader/entries/arch.conf`.
+As explained above, the initramfs assembles the raid device,
+so I just need to tell the kernel about it.
+
+I used the following command to discover the UUID of the _raid1_ device:
+
+* `blkid /dev/md0`
+
+And then updated `/boot/loader/entries/arch.conf` accordingly.
+```cfg
+title   arch
+linux   /vmlinuz-linux
+initrd  /intel-ucode.img
+initrd  /initramfs-linux.img
+options cryptdevice=UUID=48f782a9-6c1b-4242-84f9-66b20ff27845:cryptroot root=/dev/mapper/cryptroot rw quiet loglevel=3
+```

mkdocs.yml

@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ markdown_extensions:
 nav:
   - Home:
     - Home: index.md
+    - "Forklift Upgrade Arch Linux To A Dell Precision 3561": posts/forklift-upgrade-arch-linux-precision-3561.md
     - "Ansible KVM Router Lab Part 6": posts/ansible-kvm-router-lab-part-6.md
     - "Ansible KVM Router Lab Part 5": posts/ansible-kvm-router-lab-part-5.md
     - "Ansible KVM Router Lab Part 4": posts/ansible-kvm-router-lab-part-4.md
@@ -69,6 +70,7 @@ nav:
     - FreeCodeCampChallenges: https://trentspalmer.github.io/fcc-challenges/
     - DeviceLayout: https://trentpalmer.work/6a57bbe24d8244289610bf57533d6c6f/
   - Posts:
+    - "Forklift Upgrade Arch Linux To A Dell Precision 3561": posts/forklift-upgrade-arch-linux-precision-3561.md
     - "Ansible KVM Router Lab Part 6": posts/ansible-kvm-router-lab-part-6.md
     - "Ansible KVM Router Lab Part 5": posts/ansible-kvm-router-lab-part-5.md
     - "Ansible KVM Router Lab Part 4": posts/ansible-kvm-router-lab-part-4.md