[gentoo-user] Re: Partitioning strategy...?

[James]

Pandu Poluan <pandu <at> poluan.info> writes:


> Everytime I read some guide on LVM, my eyes becomes blurry, the room
> starts spinning, and I can hear wolves howling ... :D
> Seriously, LVM looks mighty nice, but it also looks (and is!) mighty complex.

I feel your pain....
I too have had trouble sorting out new installs with raid, GPT, 
and LVM.

Have you seen these guides?

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86+raid+lvm2-quickinstall.xml
http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/

> So, I want to start from something simple.
> Comments, suggestions, are welcome :)

(OK)

Well the problem is multifaceted, imho, with LVM being just 
a singular issue among the mix. Grub is evolving and the old
grub has troubles with RAID. Add mdadm, disk over 2T, UUID and the
issues becomes really murky quickly.

What (IMHO) needs to happen, is the community needs to write some 
install guides, based on notes from several installations, that 
allow for various types of installations (with explicit syntax in-line) 
that starts from simple to complex.

If we keep using  the same installation semantics (examples)
then the only thing that will change is the additional information on
the installation complexity.  We could use the new gentoo wiki 
for development.  I know much of this is redundant with the handbook 
for installation, which would still be the "master reference" for 
installations, but there would be a multiplicative example base 
to compliment the handbook and more specifically focused to the
issues of a given installation. There is precedence for this; The
handbook already has version for different hardware architectures.

So what I'm proposing is that when someone feels motivated, keep notes
on your particular installation details, and post the notes (as
a work in progress) to the gentoo wiki. Then the next time someone
performs an installation, then look at the 'work in progress', use
the example, edit (add more detail) to the example, and update
the wiki. Over time these guides, focused on a particularly specific
example, could be referenced along with the installation handbook,
as a compliment. Just look at the handbook in section 4, Preparing
the disk. Woefully antiquated!


So I would also break it down into (2) main examples. One with a very simple
boot/root/swap scheme and another with many physically separate partitions,
such as (Pandu) seeks.  In the second example of many (maximum) partitions, a
discussion of the merits, such as why /tmp should be on a separate
partition and such could be included. In fact, if only these (2) examples were 
developed, we could removed the parts of the installation 
instructions, such as GPT, or LVM or RAID in order to create 
the other simpler installation instruction guides.  Also how 
you reference the drives (UUID) in the fstab is an 
integral part of the installation landscape, that is changing. 
Not to mention legacy bios and the latest issue of UEFI.


Personally, I've made several attempts to install a new work station
with RAID 1 on boot/root/swap, using 2T seagate drives, some time
ago. I did not want to use LVM and grub would not boot. I think 
I'll give that install another whirl and yes, I'll post to the
wiki, once I get it right.

hth,
James