LE configuration is lost after dd image

1st Official Post

    Hello!

    I'd like to create identical copies of a LE install (for Raspberry Pi3, it has been customized and has services enabled). Problem is after creating an image of it with dd the configuration like SSH is lost, and I believe for this same reason the SSH authorized_keys file is also lost from the user partition. I'm pretty sure the read-only LibreELEC partition is behind this, so my question is where or how does LE store configuration files like SSH and how can I make an identical clone inlcluding these?

    Is there a way to enable/disable services via SSH? (I'm talking about those in LE configuration under services, like SSH itself and SMB).

    Thanks!

    • Official Post

    LE has two partitions; boot files (visible in /flash) and persistent storage (visible in /storage) and you need to make a 'dd' image of the entire card to capture both. However, it is significantly quicker to use the backup/restore functions in the LE settings addon as this only saves the 1-2GB of data in /storage/.cache /storage/.config and /storage/.kodi vs the 8/16GB on a typical SD card. Users frequently obsess over making an 'identical' clone but this really is not important or essential. SSH config lives in /storage/.cache/.ssh.

    Quote from chewitt

    LE has two partitions; boot files (visible in /flash) and persistent storage (visible in /storage) and you need to make a 'dd' image of the entire card to capture both. However, it is significantly quicker to use the backup/restore functions in the LE settings addon as this only saves the 1-2GB of data in /storage/.cache /storage/.config and /storage/.kodi vs the 8/16GB on a typical SD card. Users frequently obsess over making an 'identical' clone but this really is not important or essential. SSH config lives in /storage/.cache/.ssh.

    It's strange since I made an image of the entire card and SSH config was lost. I'll check the cache folder, thanks.

    AFAIK a dd image of full card is a "identical clone" with exactly the same files. A single file cannot be erased when making the copy.

    The only option I can think of is that the files are deleted by some script when booting.