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trollo
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 2:27 pm    Post subject: Re-partitioning for fresh installation Reply with quote

I'm about to re-install my Gentoo system, mainly because my seperate /usr is giving me more trouble than is worth maintaining, but there are also other reasons for me to want a "fresh start", so don't try to talk me out of it. ;)

My problem now is this: I have seperate /usr /opt /var /tmp and /home, all inside a logical volume, but the root partition is outside the LV (I was told that having root inside a LV isn't a good idea back then) and it is only 2GB, which is sufficient if you have a seperate /usr. Now obviously if I get rid of the seperate /usr, I need that disk space for the root partition. And I'd like to keep my /home, of course.

I'm not really an expert on partitioning or LVM (I just use it), so any ideas how to do this are appreciated. My exact disc layout is below.

Thanks.


Code:
# parted /dev/sda
(parted) print                                                           
Model: ATA TOSHIBA MK5061GS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End     Size    Type      File system     Flags
 1      1049kB  106MB   105MB   primary   fat16
 2      106MB   15.8GB  15.7GB  primary   ntfs            boot
 3      15.8GB  231GB   215GB   primary   ntfs
 4      231GB   500GB   270GB   extended
 5      231GB   231GB   67.1MB  logical   ext2            boot
 6      231GB   235GB   4295MB  logical   linux-swap(v1)
 7      235GB   237GB   2147MB  logical   ext4
 8      237GB   452GB   215GB   logical                   lvm
 9      452GB   500GB   48.3GB  logical


# fdisk /dev/sda
Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x08b233a6

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1            2048      206847      102400    6  FAT16
/dev/sda2   *      206848    30926847    15360000    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3        30926848   450357295   209715224    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4       450357296   976773167   263207936    5  Extended
/dev/sda5   *   450359344   450490415       65536   83  Linux
/dev/sda6       450492464   458881071     4194304   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7       458883120   463077423     2097152   83  Linux
/dev/sda8       463079472   882509871   209715200   8e  Linux LVM
/dev/sda9       882511920   976773167    47130624   83  Linux


# df -h
Filesystem           Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda7            2.0G  276M  1.6G  15% /
devtmpfs             1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /dev
tmpfs                1.9G  136K  1.9G   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs                1.9G  640K  1.9G   1% /run
/dev/mapper/vg-usr    20G   17G  1.8G  91% /usr
cgroup_root           10M     0   10M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/mapper/vg-home  119G   98G   15G  87% /home
/dev/mapper/vg-opt   5.0G  306M  4.4G   7% /opt
/dev/mapper/vg-var   9.9G  568M  8.8G   6% /var
/dev/mapper/vg-tmp   2.0G   68M  1.9G   4% /tmp
/dev/sda5             62M   31M   29M  53% /boot
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eccerr0r
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 4:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'd say for a single user machine, who would kill themselves if they killed the machine (versus kill other people sharing the machine), just use one big partition for Linux.

At least that's what I do, makes it much easier to work with.
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Voltago
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 5:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Even for a single user machine, I'd say a separate /home partition is a good idea. Everything else can indeed be mushed into / without any trouble.
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trollo
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 12:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Voltago wrote:
Even for a single user machine, I'd say a separate /home partition is a good idea. Everything else can indeed be mushed into / without any trouble.


How would I do this in my setup without losing my current /home?
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Voltago
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 5:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

trollo wrote:
Voltago wrote:
Even for a single user machine, I'd say a separate /home partition is a good idea. Everything else can indeed be mushed into / without any trouble.


How would I do this in my setup without losing my current /home?

No idea, frankly. I've never bothered with LVM, or even secondary DOS partitions if I didn't absolutely need to. Backing up to an external drive is probably the easiest thing to do.
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zeek
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 7:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I use a 64GB partition to hold the base system and put everything else in a data partition:

Code:
~ # parted
GNU Parted 3.1
Using /dev/sda
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) print                                                           
Model: DELL PERC H710P (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 7999GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name  Flags
 1      1049kB  68.7GB  68.7GB  xfs
 2      68.7GB  7999GB  7931GB  xfs

(parted) quit                         
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RazielFMX
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 8:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I often opt for a more complex partitioning scheme (note, this is a GPT partitioned disk):

Code:

# parted /dev/sda
GNU Parted 3.1
Using /dev/sda
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) unit mib
(parted) p
Model: ATA ST1000DM003-1CH1 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 953870MiB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number  Start      End        Size       File system     Name      Flags
 1      1.00MiB    513MiB     512MiB     fat32           ESI       boot
 2      513MiB     1025MiB    512MiB     ext4            boot
 3      1025MiB    17409MiB   16384MiB   linux-swap(v1)  swap
 4      17409MiB   148481MiB  131072MiB  ext4            rootfs
 5      148481MiB  181249MiB  32768MiB   jfs             var
 6      181249MiB  476935MiB  295686MiB  jfs             home
 7      476935MiB  493319MiB  16384MiB   jfs             tmp
 8      493319MiB  951820MiB  458501MiB  jfs             extra
 9      951820MiB  953869MiB  2049MiB    fat32           HP_TOOLS

(parted) quit


This is 1TB drive with a partition I called 'extra' for when I need to copy off partitions to defrag or change file systems (I occassionally like messing with file systems to try them out; it's how I discovered I really liked jfs).
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NeddySeagoon
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 9:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

trollo,

I would keep /var/log outside of root. Its very painful if root gets filled up accidently.
You box won't boot any more.

I agree with a separate /home too.

What is the issue with maintaining a separate /usr?
I'm still using the initramfs I made in 2009. It does not contain any kernel modules, so its effectively firmware.
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Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.
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Syl20
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 1:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

trollo wrote:
How would I do this in my setup without losing my current /home?

Backup your data on a separate disk (it is always a good idea, anyway), and then you can repartition your disk from scratch.
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mreff555
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 11, 2014 1:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I see very little merrit in breaking up a desktop partition in to many partitions.
A split /usr system makes many operations more difficult.
A seperate /opt can be useful if it is a multi-usr system. However on a single user system, I generally just keep less posix-compliant software in my home directory.
A seperate /var makes sense if you are running a web/mail server. If not the size isn't going to change much
I do recommend keeping /boot and /home seperate

here is my setup

rootfs 58G
/home 522G
swap 8G
/boot 120M

Yes I know the numbers are weird, I had never heard of a 660G HD but thats how big it is.
120M for boot is excessive. If you run LILO or syslinux and only have one kernel at a time you could get by with 10M, I build a lot of kernels.
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frostschutz
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 11, 2014 1:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

mreff555 wrote:
A split /usr system makes many operations more difficult.


I used to have a separate /usr but got rid of it when the problems started. If you have a partition for everything, your root / partition will be empty and therefore pointless anyway. Doesn't hurt /usr to be merged with a few tiny /etc and /dev files, so your /usr partition is your new root partition. You can still have partitions for everything else if you prefer.

( I repeat myself :lol: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-7447314.html#7447314 )
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cwr
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 11, 2014 3:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In fact my (separate) /var partition is the only one that's ever been corrupted
enough in a power failure to require reformatting. I run separate /boot, /usr
/home, /var and /usr/portage, but that's more for convenience than performance.

A separate /boot is handy for laptops since you don't have to mess with Window's
neurotic attitudes to partitioning, and can just boot through the Windows menu
to grub - once that's set up, you never have to touch it again except to edit
grub.conf. Installing grub makes me nervous.

A separate home is pretty much essential for an easy life, since that's what
really needs regular backups.

I use a separate /usr/portage partition since it has a lot of small files, and
churn, and I share it between builds.

Typically each of those partitions is 16G, with very large data partitions
attached as required under /home

Will
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