On Monday 28 Nov 2016 07:23:06 Richard Owlett wrote: > On 11/28/2016 6:31 AM, ChrisBell@gigl wrote: > > On Monday 28 Nov 2016 04:40:32 Richard Owlett wrote: > >> I have two use cases which demonstrate the problem. > >> > >> First Environment: > >> I have a laptop exclusively dedicated to being a test platform of > >> various Debian configurations [Jessie 8.6.0 currently]. I have > >> limited connectivity, therefore all installs are done from a > >> purchased set of DVDs. At any time there may exist up to 4 > >> installs available, each in its own partition. As only one > >> install is active at any time, a single swap partition should be > >> adequate. > >> > >> *HOWEVER* each install "touches" the swap partition changing its > >> UUID. > >> This causes a problem with using the chronologically earlier in > >> stall. Systemd looks for a swap partition with a specific UUID. > >> The triggered diagnostic takes ~2 minutes while I'm > >> w-a-i-t--n---g for the system to boot. I've NOT investigated > >> whether or not the system actually finds and uses the intended > >> swap partition or not. For THAT PARTICULAR LAPTOP I doubt there > >> are any consequences as for my particular use I doubt any use of > >> swap occurs. I suspect a workaround might be editing /etc/fstab > >> all previous installs when a new install is done. > >> > >> Second Environment: > >> On a second machine [the laptop being out of service due to > >> hardware problems] I attempted to install Debian to a USB flash > >> drive for demonstrating Debian to friends on their machines and > >> testing used machines before purchasing. > >> > >> The was no problem until the partitioning phase. It allowed me to > >> create a ext2 partition on the flash drive for use a / . It > >> allowed me to create a second partition and to designate it as a > >> swap partition. > >> > >> *HOWEVER* the confirmation screen about writing changes to disk > >> essentially said it was going to *TRASH* the existing install of > >> Debian on the machines hard-drive by formatting the hard disk's > >> swap partition [i.e. changing its UUID]. > >> > >> I see no conceivable reason to mess with a perfectly fine install > >> when installing to an unrelated device. > >> > >> Thank you > > > > I often have more than one installation and each new installation includes > > an unchanged /srv partition and lists each previous installation as > > another available partition unchanged but under an amended name, so > > instead of / it may be /wheezyroot. I can then edit the previous > > /etc/fstab to match the new uuids and make all bootable. I also find the > > shared /srv partition useful. Chris Bell > > I don't follow your description. Likely I'm missing something > "obvious" ;/ > I believe you are addressing "First Environment:". > My disk is organized as: > /dev/sda1 A fairly stable (for me) Debian install > /dev/sda2 swap - partition choice a historical accident but > no reason to change > Remaining Debian installs are in logical partitions >= /dev/sda5 . > > I follow the defaults as to putting / et al in a single physical > partition. > > Thank you for responding.
Each installation has its own / partition, regardless of whether it is a physical, logical, RAID, etc. I use "expert" installation with "manual" formatting. If you leave one or more unused spaces for later installations you can still initially name and format each one as a place saver, perhaps /spare1, it will be re-formatted when you decide to use it, but if the new installation lists previous installations unaltered, unformatted, with a partition name like /old1 you will be able to edit /old1/etc/fstab to show the details shown in the latest /etc/fstab and each of the original place-saver names will be able to access later installations. For example I had a demo box with multiple installations, each with a different desktop version, so each place-saver was shown with the desktop name. -- Chris Bell www.chrisbell.org.uk
