On Fri, 25 Jul 2014 10:04:18 +0300 David Baron <d_ba...@012.net.il> wrote:
> On Thursday 24 July 2014 22:49:01 > debian-user-digest-requ...@lists.debian.org wrote: > > Going by the subject, I'd say "wipe your system drive and do > > another install, using what you have learned to do it better." > > > > > > A better option is to install onto a spare drive, so that you can > > boot the old drive in case you forgot something. The old drive > > then becomes your spare for the next go-around. > > > > > Yes, indeed. I previously complained about its partitioning with > > > little capability to revise it! (I did not use LVM because it > > > put everything in one big physical partition which I also did not > > > like.) > > > > I use the "manual" partitioning option in the Debian installer. > > > > > > I have a SOHO with several Wheezy Xfce machines. I don't use LVM, > > ZFS, RAID, etc., because my needs don't require them, and because > > I've found that the administrative complexities outweigh the > > operational benefits. > > > > > So, want to install a more recent kernel? No room. > > > > That means the partition containing /boot is full, or nearly so. > > You need to allocate more space to /boot and/or / (root) when you > > re-install. It's actually /lib/modules that takes up the space, and of course this has to be under / for booting. I have a server in this position, which had an adequately-sized / and separate /usr and /var when installed. 350MB used to be more than enough for a / which didn't contain /home, /usr or /var. I don't normally keep more than one previous kernel around, but there have been occasions where I have wanted to. I understand now that a separate /usr is a no-no, unless I want to add even more complication to grub2 (see below), so sizing / won't be an issue in future. > > > > > > My system drives are partitioned as follows. I don't need to save > > core dumps in swap, so it is smaller than RAM. I tried running > > without swap, but my machines crashed under heavy RAM loads: > > > > primary #1 - 0.5 GB bootable ext4 /boot > > primary #2 - 0.5 GB random encrypted swap > > primary #3 - 8.0 GB encrypted ext4 / > > > > > > My bulk data fits on one encrypted ext4 drive, which is in one > > machine and is shared via Samba. The same drive and machine also > > provides Approx and CVS services. My backups, archives, and system > > images are on various encrypted ext4 drives that I can plug into > > any machine (via mobile docks/ caddies and/or external drives). I > > keep my desktop very light and install Xfce on all the machines, so > > I can move my desktop to another machine easily. > > This is very good and sound advice, actually. Problem is, I tried > selecting manual partitioning on the install and saw no interface to > actually do it. (If I set up partitions beforehand, will the > installation simply respect them?) Yes, either way will work, you need to get the hang of the drive allocation part of the installer, which isn't quite intuitive enough. Basically, it shows you the existing partitions and you have the option to allocate mount points, delete them, make new ones etc. If you're familiar with (*)fdisk or parted, make the partitions with it and then allocate the mount points in the installer. > > Question: How do I tell grub about new /, new /boot, etc.?? Seems to > be mostly automatic with little documentation. Or do I go back to > lilo which I at least know how to configure :-)? > > If you're reinstalling, you specify the mount points at the partitioning stage, and you just tell the installer where you want the boot code, which is normally the MBR if you have a single-boot system. If you're mucking about with an existing system and need to update the existing grub installation, it's a bit harder. I find that quite unpleasant, I don't get on at all well with grub2. It used to be trivial with the mature LiLo, before the days of initrd, udev etc. -- Joe -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20140725101549.430bf...@jretrading.com
