cloning a drive with dd

I was looking at way to clone the Bodhi w/Waydroid and the Kindle app onto a usb drive.  The simplest way is dd, its in just about every version linux.  Downside when using default settings its SLOW and doesnt show progress.

So was reading and apparently big contributor to slow speed is the tiny default block size.  Default is like 512 bytes.  I set it to 10M.  For progress used a commandline program called pv.  So ended up with a command like

sudo dd if=/dev/sdb | sudo pv -s 128G | sudo dd of=/dev/sdc bs=10M

The 128G being the size of the ssd being cloned.  But doesnt matter, it shows how much has been transferred, the 128G just lets it give a visual progression.

Oh and since there are two drives it has to access, it wants sudo for both halves.  No idea if it needs sudo for pv, but did it rather than test, then have to start yet again.  You could of course do sudo su, then run the command without the sudo's added.

Its actually pretty fast with 10M block size.  And no problem booting from the "new" usb drive.

I will mention I  booted it on an HP Stream with celeron.  It booted and Bodhi was ok, sure not as speedy as on an i5 or i7 laptop or even the core2duo on my desktop.  And Waydroid loaded Lineage desktop, lot slower than on the i7 laptop of course.  Fine.  BUT the Kindle4Android app stalled at the splash screen of the boy reading under a tree.  No amount time helped it beyond this.  Now I could boot the android version Firefox and surf with it.  Firefox is an x86 android app,  Kindle is an ARM android app.  So not sure if some problem with Houdini translation library on celeron or what.  I would thought the Kindle app would worked, albeit slower.

Now I also booted it on an i5 laptop, yes same usb drive.  On the i5, it had no problem getting past the Kindle splash screen and let me have full access to Kindle library.  So maybe Waydroid or Waydroid using Houdini needs a faster processor????

It is interesting this is an exact copy of the drive on the i7 laptop.  Didnt have to reregister Kindle or anything.  All setting in the software I tried were there.  Desktop exactly same.

Hmm, thinking about it, wonder if Bliss v14 (Android 11 for x86) would be faster on the celeron than linux+waydroid?  Honestly due to that stupid sniff test for either a cell connection or wifi connection, I didnt like running the Kindle app on Bliss.  Using Waydroid it doesnt do this, Waydroid shares the linux connection to the android apps and nobody complains it isnt a particular kind of connection.

However if one has a computer with a slow processor, running Bliss on its own might be best way to go.  Bliss has Houdini built in, so can run the Kindle app.  Lot of these netbook/cloudbook laptops out there.  They arent great laptops, the biggest positive is no fan and long battery life (if you use energy saver settings, meaning dim screen).  So could make decent large screen Kindle reader.  I had installed Tiny10 on the internal eMMC drive on the Stream and its small with that stupid constant updating removed.  It can run native windows Kindle for PC app ok.  Nothing is fast on the Stream but its an ereader, doesnt have to be fast, just has to be stable and functional.  Still rather use non-windows alternative.

Oh somebody did package a virtual machine along with script to download MacOS.  There is a Kindle4MAC.  And HRBLOCK has tax software for MAC  LOL  Sure thats whole lot fun.  But hey might work.....