Re: [gentoo-user] duplicate gentoo system - errors

[Dale]

Peter Humphrey wrote:
>
> On Tuesday, 24 November 2020 14:18:58 GMT Neil Bothwick wrote:
>
> > On Tue, 24 Nov 2020 09:20:52 +0000, Peter Humphrey wrote:
>
> > > My workstation has one NVMe drive and two SATAs. They're always
>
> > > detected in the same order, so I've no need to render my fstab
>
> > > illegible with UUIDs. I could use labels, but why bother? The old
>
> > > system ain't broke, so I've no need to fix it.
>
> >
>
> > But you can fix it in your own time, waiting until it breaks is never
>
> > convenient.
>
>
> There's nothing to fix, as I said. I'm happy to stick with the
> /dev/sdX syntax for as long as it remains valid. Occam's Razor
> applies: "don't complicate beyond need."
>
>
> > > Can you imagine an fstab with 22 partitions specified with UUIDs?
>
> > > Doesn't bear thinking about.
>
> >
>
> > Can you imagine an fstab with 22 partitions? Doesn't bear thinking
> about.
>
>
> The NVMe drive, the main one, has 18; I could merge some of those and
> delete a couple that aren't used any more. The packages and distfiles
> directories don't need separate partitions, for example. I suppose
> it's a bit like Topsy, who "just growed."
>
>
> --
>
> Regards,
>
> Peter.
>
>

I didn't think I needed to "fix" it either until it hit me and caused
confusion.  Eventually I figured out it was mounting the wrong thing but
it was a head scratcher for a while.  I was about to start over when I
noticed it was mounting the wrong partitions.  I can't recall what
changed the order but suddenly sda and sdb switched.  Believe me, when I
got booted, I started setting it up in a way that can't happen again. 

I might add, the more partitions you have, the more likely this is to
bite you at some point.  You already have a complicated system with
chainloading bootloaders and such so Occam left the building long ago. 
Do you really need for a hard drive to be recognized differently and
create problems?  At the very least, labels would be a much better
option.  Labels like ubuntu-home, ubuntu-usr, or redhat-root, or
redhat-usr.  Those explain what they are and makes them unique.  If you
have more than one version, include part of a version if needed. 

You may recall my hatred of the init thingys.  I still hate them.  I use
them because I want the best chance of my system booting and without it,
that could fail.  It may boot 100 times just fine but then one day, it
breaks and won't boot anymore without a init thingy.  At that point, I
get to sit here, most likely with no way to get help, and figure out how
to fix it.  To me, it's much better to just go ahead and set up using
the thing and not having to worry about that day hitting me.  It seems
bad things always happen at the worst moment too. 

If I can start using a init thingy, using labels should be a easy
thing.  A walk in the park as the saying goes.  ;-)

Just my thoughts and opinions. 

Dale

:-)  :-)