Repurposing computer equipment: Difference between revisions
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I have a standard procedure when receiving computers that are to be repurposed e.g. for family or school etc. | I have a standard procedure when receiving computers that are to be repurposed e.g. for family or school etc. | ||
With pre-prepared live boot thumb drives: | |||
* lubuntu <ref>ubuntu https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop</ref> downloaded from https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop | |||
* written with dd | |||
dd if=lubuntu.img bs=512M of=/dev/<thumb-drive-device> status=progress oflags=sync | |||
* or with Rufus <ref>Rufus https://rufus.ie/en/</ref> see reference for instructions. | |||
Before assigning the machines to people I perform the following: | Before assigning the machines to people I perform the following: | ||
* alter the BIOS / EFI settings to temporarily disable Secure Boot<ref group="note">On DELL F2 and Intel NUC holding down F2 during boot takes you to the BIOS. F10 on NUC and F12 on DELL takes you to the boot menu.</ref> | * alter the BIOS / EFI settings to temporarily disable Secure Boot<ref group="note">On DELL F2 and Intel NUC holding down F2 during boot takes you to the BIOS. F10 on NUC and F12 on DELL takes you to the boot menu.</ref> | ||
* live boot Linux from a ThumbDrive <ref group="note">I have PXE boot working in my laboratory and will be able to launch live images from there instead of media boot. My collection of images are not quite there yet and in this case PXE network booting would need to be enabled in the laptops.</ref> | * live boot Ubuntu Linux <ref>download ubuntu https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop</ref> from a ThumbDrive <ref group="note">I have PXE boot working in my laboratory and will be able to launch live images from there instead of media boot. My collection of images are not quite there yet and in this case PXE network booting would need to be enabled in the laptops.</ref> | ||
* install lz4 a block compression algorithm | |||
sudo apt update | |||
sudo apt install lz4 | |||
* plug in a large external USB drive.<ref group="note">I prefer an ext4 formatted NVME disk caddy I purchased from Ugren and a 2 TB NVME M.2 disk for performance and size.</ref> | * plug in a large external USB drive.<ref group="note">I prefer an ext4 formatted NVME disk caddy I purchased from Ugren and a 2 TB NVME M.2 disk for performance and size.</ref> | ||
* identify the computer disks with | * identify the computer disks with | ||
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dd if=/dev/sda2 bs=512 | lz4 > /media/user/transfer-disk/2025-09-19-sda2.lz4 | dd if=/dev/sda2 bs=512 | lz4 > /media/user/transfer-disk/2025-09-19-sda2.lz4 | ||
dd if=/dev/sda3 bs=512 | lz4 > /media/user/transfer-disk/2025-09-19-sda3.lz4 | dd if=/dev/sda3 bs=512 | lz4 > /media/user/transfer-disk/2025-09-19-sda3.lz4 | ||
* | * Now I test via: | ||
* live boot of Linux (e.g. lubuntu as it seems to have latest drivers) | * live boot of Linux (e.g. lubuntu as it seems to have latest drivers) | ||
Revision as of 10:10, 20 August 2025
Repurposing and recycling e-waste is good for the planet, and the pocket.
I have a standard procedure when receiving computers that are to be repurposed e.g. for family or school etc.
With pre-prepared live boot thumb drives:
- lubuntu [1] downloaded from https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop
- written with dd
dd if=lubuntu.img bs=512M of=/dev/<thumb-drive-device> status=progress oflags=sync
- or with Rufus [2] see reference for instructions.
Before assigning the machines to people I perform the following:
- alter the BIOS / EFI settings to temporarily disable Secure Boot[note 1]
- live boot Ubuntu Linux [3] from a ThumbDrive [note 2]
- install lz4 a block compression algorithm
sudo apt update sudo apt install lz4
- plug in a large external USB drive.[note 3]
- identify the computer disks with
lsblk
- map the drive partitions to text file for later use
sudo sfdisk -L > /media/user/transfer-disk/2025-09-19-hostname-fdisk.txt
- backup the computer disk drive images for NVME disk
dd if=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=512 | lz4 > /media/user/transfer-disk/2025-09-19-hostname.lz4
- backup hard disks drives e.g.
dd if=/dev/sda bs=512 | lz4 > /media/user/transfer-disk/2025-09-19-sda.lz4
- alternatively backup partitions such as the boot/efi, os e.g. <ref group="note">Backing up the whole disk is easier to use for restoration but slower of course. If you have plenty of storage a complete image makes sense. I store my backups in a NAS and I have 56T Bytes of capacity (or I used to),M.ref>
dd if=/dev/sda1 bs=512 | lz4 > /media/user/transfer-disk/2025-09-19-sda1.lz4 dd if=/dev/sda2 bs=512 | lz4 > /media/user/transfer-disk/2025-09-19-sda2.lz4 dd if=/dev/sda3 bs=512 | lz4 > /media/user/transfer-disk/2025-09-19-sda3.lz4
- Now I test via:
- live boot of Linux (e.g. lubuntu as it seems to have latest drivers)
- phoronex test suit
notes
- ↑ On DELL F2 and Intel NUC holding down F2 during boot takes you to the BIOS. F10 on NUC and F12 on DELL takes you to the boot menu.
- ↑ I have PXE boot working in my laboratory and will be able to launch live images from there instead of media boot. My collection of images are not quite there yet and in this case PXE network booting would need to be enabled in the laptops.
- ↑ I prefer an ext4 formatted NVME disk caddy I purchased from Ugren and a 2 TB NVME M.2 disk for performance and size.
references
- ↑ ubuntu https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop
- ↑ Rufus https://rufus.ie/en/
- ↑ download ubuntu https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop