Migrate Umbrel os from raspberry pi to x86

Migrate Umbrel os from raspberry pi to x86

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  5. 2 min read

I was running UmbrelOS on Raspberry Pi, with an external 1TB SSD disk. The machine is obviously underpowered and started to show weakness. So I decided to migrate to a Dell mini-PC, Wyse 5070.

I need to re-use the same SSD disk because the Wyse 5070 doesn’t have enough storage by itself (500GB). Ideally, I can keep all the blockchain data and setup, so that I don’t have to re-sync everything and re-setup everything.

While this may sound like a common question, I did not find many answers on the internet. The closest one is this one. However, UmbrelOS is currently at v1.x. A lot of it doesn’t apply anymore.

Below is how I did it.

Prepare SSD disk

  1. Upgrade Raspberry Pi to the latest UmbrelOS v1.3.
  2. Shut it down via Umbrel Settings and unplug SSD disk.

Prepare PC

  1. Follow the instruction to install UmbrelOS on PC. You can find the detailed steps here.
  2. Don’t install any apps.

Migrate SSD disk over

  1. Plug SSD disk into PC. Permanently mount it at /mnt/umbrel-ssd.
    sudo blkid  # Find the UUID of the SSD
    sudo nano /etc/fstab  # Edit fstab to add the mount entry
    
    Add the following line to /etc/fstab (replace UUID=e9ae3217-6a06-4721-b725-78e6524b4272 with the actual UUID of your SSD from blkid command):
    UUID=e9ae3217-6a06-4721-b725-78e6524b4272 /mnt/umbrel-ssd ext4 defaults 0 0
    
    Then, mount the SSD:
    sudo mount -a
    
  2. Run the following commands:
    sudo systemctl stop umbrel
    cd /home/umbrel; mv umbrel umbrel.bak; ln -s /mnt/umbrel-ssd/umbrel umbrel
    sudo systemctl start umbrel
    

It will take a long time to re-start Umbrel since it will fetch various containers, etc. But it will use the same blockchain and other app-specific settings you had before on the SSD disk. After a couple of coffee breaks, you will be all set!

UmbrelOS Raspberry Pi x86 Bitcoin Lightning