Re: [gentoo-user] A few questions on trying to install

[Dale]

Dirk Heinrichs wrote:
> Alan E. Davis schrieb:
>
>
>> Now, however, I've tried three or four times to install on an existing
>> partition.  Grub will not install over the ubuntu grub, or else
>> something else is crazy.
>>
>
> Why do you do this at all? Grub is already in your MBR, so why bother
> with it again?
>
>
>> May I ask a few questions?
>>
>>   -  Live CD only installs over a clean partition.  How can I resume
>> an installation?
>>
>
> Boot the CD again, perform the steps to mount your already created
> filesystems (incl. bind-mount of /proc and/dev, enter chroot and start
> with (or after) the last step you finished before.
>
>
>>   -  I only have a unsupported atheros wifi card for connection.  I've
>> been using it for years.  No easy way to connect by wire.  Any ideas?
>>
>
> On x86 they're supported by madwifi, isn't this true for amd64?
>
>
>>   -  I have an 80GB fast SATA drive and three slower 7000 RPM drives.
>> What partitions are best kept on the fast drive to maximize
>> performance (I have basically an all purpose workstation).
>>
>
> I don't think you'll see much difference. However, with a setup like
> this, I would look into using LVM or EVMS logical volumes eventually
> combined with a software RAID5 over the three slower discs (in case
> they're equal in size.
>
>   My /home
>
>> will be about 100GB: is it wiser to split it up into a smaller core
>> /home with several slower archive and storage partitions (Library,
>> Project archives, Videos, Music)?
>>
>
> I usually use one LV for each user's ~ (/home/johndoe, not /home). This
> way, I can increase size for each user individually w/o having to setup
> quota. I can even use different filesystems depending on users needs
> (i.e. large media files are best kept on XFS). In addition, I can also
> setup kernel automounter (autofs), so that they're only mounted when the
> user is really logged in.
>
>
>>   - Advice about UUIDs?  I lost a partition (a large one) over a
>> misidentification of a partition when the Ubuntu scheme started
>> swapping around names of devices.  Old /dev/hda became /dev/sda and
>> old /dev/sda became /dev/sdb.  What a mess that turned out to be.
>>
>
> This can't happen with logical volumes, because they get a unique name
> of the form /dev/<volume group>/<volume>.
>
> Here's my setup:
>
> sda1: /boot (~64M, ext2)
>
> If you don't want to use an initramfs:
>
> sda2: /	(256M, xfs)
> sda3: LVM (to end of disc, no fs)
>
> If you use an initramfs:
>
> sda2: LVM (to end of disc, no fs)
>
> Then create LVs for everything else:
>
> /usr:	/dev/vg-machinename/usr (3G, xfs)
> /var: /dev/vg-machinename/var (1G, xfs)
> /opt: /dev/vg-machinename/opt (1G, xfs)
> /home/user1: /dev/vg-machinename/user1 (1G, xfs)
> /home/user2: /dev/vg-machinename/user2 (1G, xfs)
> swap (if needed): /dev/vg-machinename/swap (twice the RAM)
>
> Some Gentoo related volumes:
> /gentoo/distfiles: /dev/vg-machinename/distfiles (2G, xfs)
> /gentoo/build: /dev/vg-machinename/build (2G, xfs)
> /gentoo/overlays: /dev/vg-machinename/overlays (1G, xfs) (portage tree goes
> into /gentoo/overlays/portage)
>
> However, in your case, I'd use the 80G disc as a system disc with one volume
> group (system-<machinename>) and setup the three slower drives as either RAID
> 5 or JBOD, containing a second VG (data-<machinename>), where the first hosts
> /boot, /, /usr, /var, /opt, swap and the /gentoo volumes, while the seconds
> hosts all the /home volumes and additional data volumes (/data/music,
> /data/photos, ...) which are shared by several users.
>
> HTH...
>
> 	Dirk
>
>
>

Just to add something from experience, if you plan to use XFS, make sure 
you have a UPS.  XFS, at least in my experience, does not like power 
failures.

Dale

:-)  :-)