--On 19 June 2009 16:42:54 -0700 Gregoire Gentil <gregoire@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I need to duplicate a huge number of identical 8GB SD cards on which I
have 1GB of data at the beginning of the disk on various partitions and
then a 7GB ext3 partition which is rather empty (just a few MB of data).
The duplicator device enables me to select which sectors I can
binary-duplicate. I would love to divide by 8 my duplication time, by
duplicating only the first GB and then the beginning of the 7GB ext3
partition.
I am guessing here about your application, but how about:
1. Leave the 7GB partition unformatted in the SD card image, set the
partition type in the partition table to a magic value
2. Make a gzip'd version of a disk image of that partition. Do this by
using a loopback file system on a file the size of the partition
which is initially full of a single magic byte/word. The resultant
file should be tiny as the image will be mostly blocks full of the
magic byte/word. Put this on another partition.
3. In the boot code for the device (I am assuming you can change that
or better still it is on the CF device), put a little bit of code
that
a) checks the partition table for the magic number, and if set,
do this:
b) mounts the partition with the gzip image, extracts it,
writes it (only writing blocks that are not full of the magic
byte/word, so the process will be quick) to the new partition,
then unmounts the partition with the gzip image so the boot
process can continue
c) change the partition table entry to ext3
d) continue the boot process
Of course this only happens on the first boot, and is only writing
a few Mb of data.
4. Only duplicate the first 1GB of the disk
The program described is a few tens of lines of C linked with zlib.
It also gives you a relatively easy way to restore the partition
if you should ever need to (change partition table magic number back,
reboot). If this is the only r/w partition, that might be useful.
--
Alex Bligh
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