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I have no monitor and I'm planning to do this:

  1. Install Ubuntu server on laptop.
  2. Move HDD to headless server (hoping it will work).

Is there anything I should worry about?

I imagine that I need to check /etc/fstab to make sure that the right HDD is mounted on startup because on the laptop it might have a different name than on the server.

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3 Answers 3

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Nope, don't think you'll need to modify fstab. Partitions are mounted by their UUIDs, not by names, so, no problems there. If there are several HDD (physical hard disk devices) on the server, you may need to reinstall GRUB.

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  • ubuntu with GRUB will gon on usb. Which is first device to boot from selected in bios. server has sataii 1tb drive> Do I still need to reinstall grub? Since I don't have monitor, how do I do that?
    – user25389
    Oct 14, 2011 at 9:03
  • It depends on what other devices are present on both the laptop and the server. For example, one of my laptops has an SD card slot which is recognized as /dev/sdb, and so a USB device will become /dev/sdc. These are important to GRUB and may not be the same on different computers. If a mismatch happens, it's going to be tough figuring it out without a monitor.
    – mikewhatever
    Oct 14, 2011 at 9:19
  • If I disconnect everything extra from laptop and server. And than attach usb + server 1tb hdd to laptop install like this. And than move both to server, in theory it shouldn't get confused anymore? p.s. laptop sd card is reconginzed as /mbgl901 so I doubt that will change anything.
    – user25389
    Oct 14, 2011 at 9:36
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You shouldn't use device names for filesystems in /etc/fstab. You should use UUIDs instead. That way, the system will work fine if /dev/sda3 becomes /dev/sdb3 for instance. In any case, if this is a single-disk system, it won't matter at all, as long as the BIOS knows which disk to boot from. You may want to setup a static IP address, though, since the new network interface will probably mean you'll get a different IP address. Other than that, I don't think you should have any problems just moving the disk.

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  • Thanks. Yes I get it, good tip to use UUIDS. it isnt a single disk system, I also have second hdd 1tb. I run ubuntu from usb.
    – user25389
    Oct 14, 2011 at 9:37
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Also, I think the new network card will get a different interface name, so it would be a good idea to prepare for that. For example add auto eth1 and iface eth1 inet dhcp to /etc/netork/interfaces, if you have an eth0 named interface in your notebook, and you want your headless server to get an IP via DHCP.

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