FreeBSD 11.0-RELEASE-p7 i386 system drive imaging and migration

[David Christensen]

freebsd-questions:

toor at freebsd:/root # freebsd-version; uname -a
11.0-RELEASE-p7
FreeBSD freebsd 11.0-RELEASE-p1 FreeBSD 11.0-RELEASE-p1 #0 r306420: Thu 
Sep 29 03:40:55 UTC 2016 
root at releng2.nyi.freebsd.org:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  i386

toor at freebsd:/root # pkg info xorg | head -n 1
xorg-7.7_2

toor at freebsd:/root # pkg info xfce | head -n 1
xfce-4.12_1


I installed with root on encrypted ZFS.


I've found some useful tricks for system drives on Debian GNU/Linux:

1.  I can copy a Debian system image (partition table, boot partition, 
swap partition, root partition) on a HDD, SDD, or USB flash drive to 
another HDD, SSD, or USB flash drive using 'dd' (e.g. "clone"), and the 
Debian system image on the destination drive will "Just Work".

2.  I can move a HDD, SSD, or USB flash drive with a Debian system image 
(partition table, boot partition, swap partition, root partition) from 
one computer to another computer, and the Debian system image will "Just 
Work" on the destination computer.


I tried the same tricks with a FreeBSD system drive tonight:


1.  Moving a FreeBSD system image from one drive (smaller) to another 
drive (larger) causes  Xfce applications to fail to start.  For example, 
selecting Application Menu -> Terminal Emulator issues a pop-up:

         Failed to execute default Terminal Emulator.

         Input/output error.

     Switching to the console (Ctrl+Alt+F1), I see the following error 
messages:

         vm_fault: pager read error: pid 1023 (python2.7)
         vm_fault: pager read error: pid 1040 (xfce4-terminal)

2.  Moving a drive with a FreeBSD system image from one computer to 
another computer produces the same Xfce problems, plus networking failed 
to come up (I tested with two machines that have different networking 
hardware.  The source has Intel and the destination has Broadcom.  On 
Debian, they are both 'eth0'.  On FreeBSD, the source is 'em0' and the 
destination is 'bfe0'.)


What is the proper way to clone a FreeBSD system image from one drive to 
another?


What is the proper way to move a HDD or SSD with a FreeBSD system image 
from one computer to another computer?


TIA,

David


p.s. STFW I found these, but don't know how relevant they are to FreeBSD 
11.0-RELEASE-p7 i386:

https://github.com/freebsd/crochet/wiki/How-to-Build-a-Disk-Image

https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/11470/

http://georgesfocant.blogspot.com/2009/09/virtualbox-how-to-move-freebsd-to-new.html

https://www.tundraware.com/Software/tbku/Imaging-FreeBSD-With-tbku.html

http://clonezilla.org/