Copying an entire partition to another when both are not of the exact same size (in blocks) can be tricky, especially if that partition includes special files such as /dev/hda and FIFOs.1

Yet, there are several ways to do so:

• 1. Note that was the case especially in the 90's. As of today, things have come a long way and there are command line options one can use with the cp and tar instructions to copy pretty much anything. You will still have problems with some files such as locks, though. But you should not have to copy them!

[vtoc title=Boot Sector; minlevel=1; maxlevel=4;]

Error 16

Today I got an error 16 with GRUB on one of my machines. This had happened before so I did not worry too much. It is just quite annoying.

Ubuntu CD

A Ubuntu boot CD has a cool feature one can use to rescue such a system (i.e. re-install GRUB properly.) More or less, boot the CD, select the rescue mode, let it do its things for a moment (after you select options like keyboard, etc.)

This is a quick note so I can find the command I need to use to list open files.

My search will work this time.

lsof stands exactly for "LiSt Open Files"

That gives you a list of all the files opened by your system, process by process. It can be useful to know if you are developing a program or if you are limited in the number of files opened at once.

By default, a computer system gives each process the same priority level in regard to accessing your hard drive.

With newer versions of Linux, it is possible to use two other priorities: one where I/O is not primordial and thus you do not get it if anyone else wants it, and one where you want to work in realtime and have priority over anyone else.

This is achieved with the ionice command line (or corresponding kernel calls.)