i want to test debian trixie (13) so i can report bugs and troubleshoot before the release later this year. i thought about simply installing trixie alongside my current bookworm installation, but that won’t be my scenario when the time comes, since i’ve been updating my system instead of reinstalling it since debian jessie (8) and this time it won’t be different. how can i clone my current system so i can simulate an update to trixie? do i simply create a new partition and copy my files over, then chroot to it and install grub?
I would recommend cloning the entire disk to another disk of equal or greater size before, best procedure is to boot to a USB installation, run Gnome-Disk-Utility, create a disk image onto a second larger disk, then restore that image to a third disk which is equal or greater in terms of capacity to your bookworm disk, then unplug your orignal bookwork disk amd then attempt to boot from that third disk (fingers crossed)
If you’re comfortable with the dd command that’s another route to take but if you’re not paying attention you can very easily wipe your own disk!