Create rootfs partition manually

[user100090]

I have a new USB disk, and created a new partition. I already have the rootfs image created on the host (flash.sh --no-flash). How can I manually dump the rootfs onto the new partition?

A few things I could think:

1. dd Linux_for_Tegra/bootloader/system.img to the new partition.
2. create ext4 on the new partition, mount it, and then copy Linux_for_Tegra/rootfs directly to it.

I am not sure if system.img is identical to Linux_for_Tegra/rootfs directly

[linuxdev]

You have to use the “raw” image if working with dd. Check the exact size of “bootloader/system.img.raw”, create a partition on your disk, and then try dd again to that partition.

Using something like rsync (which understands device special files and other things plain cp does not understand), then you could mostly do the same thing with copy to a partition as files. There are some additions to “rootfs/boot/” prior to creating system.img (and system.img.raw), so likely the dd of system.img.raw would be a better choice (though in some cases it will end up identical).

[user100090]

Thanks for the hint of system.img.raw! It is a huge file and I can mount it:

mount -o ro,loop system.img.raw /mnt

df /mnt shows actual disk usage a lot less. I am able to tar it up to a smaller file, transfer to the other machine where USB drive is connected, create ext4 fs on the usb new partition, mount the partition and untar the files to it.