View source for Making copies of the USB key

If you plan to scale up your ubermix deployment to a large deployment of devices, having multiple ubermix keys to use will save a lot of time. To make a copy of an ubermix key, you can take one of two approaches:

=== The Easy Way ===

# Create a master key using the method described under [http://ubermix.org/customization.html Customization] on the ubermix web site.
# Follow the steps on the [http://ubermix.org/download.html Download and Install] to create a bunch of stock keys
# Copy all of the files from the master key to your stock keys, and you will have perfect copies.


=== The Fastest Way ===

If you are feeling particularly adventurous, there is an even faster way. There is an empty key image available that contains just enough info to boot, but no image on it. This will prep a USB key extremely quickly, making it ready to receive your image from your master key. It does require a number of steps, however, so it's recommended for experts only. First, we need to create a new empty key:

# Working from a computer with the ubermix key already installed, download [https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B52M_cKAX2ARNHFuY2hoQ1ZUMWV1R08zdVo4RVRVQQ ubermix-key-empty.img] using either Firefox or Chrome
# Insert your 2Gb+ USB key in any available USB port on your machine. Your ubermix device will automatically mount the key.
# We need to find out what disk the system assigned to the key. To do so, open up a terminal (ctrl-alt-t) and type "mount" followed by the enter key. In the list of disks that appear, you should see your USB key at the bottom, listed as "/dev/sd*1" where * is probably a,b,c,or d.
# Next, unmount the USB key by typing "umount /dev/sdX1" (replacing "X" with the letter you saw in the list on step 3)
# Type in "sudo dd if=Downloads/ubermix-key-empty.img of=/dev/sdX" followed by the enter key, where "X" is the letter you determined in step 3. 
If you want a progress bar with ETA, try this:
dd if=input_file | pv -s `du -bc input_file | cut -f 1 --output-delimiter=" " | head -1` | dd of=output_file

When the command completes (which should be very quickly, you will have an empty USB key. However the key will have a very small partition on it that will need to be expanded to accommodate the image files from your master key. To do this:

# In the same terminal window (reopen with ctrl-alt-t if you closed it) and type "sudo apt-get install gparted". 
# Once installed, close the terminal window and go to "Files and Folders", then eject the USB key by pointing to it and choosing eject.
# Next, reinsert the USB key (so the system can rescan it), and open "GParted" under "System" on your computer.
# In the top right corner of the window that appears, select your ubermix key from the pop-up menu. Note that it will not be explicitly identified - look for a disk that is the same size as your ubermix key and select it.
# In the partition list at the bottom half of the window, locate the partition labeled "UBERMIX" and right-click on it. Select "Unmount" from the menu that appears.
# Right-click again on the partition labeled "UBERMIX" and select "Delete" from the menu that appears
# Right-click on "unallocated" and choose "New", then choose "fat32" from the "File system" pop-up, type "UBERMIX" (all caps) in the "Label" box, and click "Add"
# Click on the "check mark" at the top of the window to Create the new partition.

You now have an empty ubermix key. All you have to do is copy the files from your master key to the new key, and it will be ready to go. I'd recommend copying the files from the master key to a folder on your hard drive first, as the copying process for multiple keys will go much faster.