Re: Aftter this ... a new question about Fedora Core 5
- From: "J.O. Aho" <user@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 19:03:19 +0200
Gremnebulin wrote:
7. Linuxes do not have to be split accross multiple partitions -- they
can be reduced to a single / (root) partition and a swap
partition. (having multiple partitions for multiple unixes quickly
becomes confusing). The motivation for a traditional multi-partiion
layout is partly security and stability. If one partion fills up,
for instance, other are usuable. This approach should be seriously
considered for servers, but is not really necessary for desktop systems.
If you have multiple linuxes, or even just a live CD, you can repair a 100% full file system on one linux using another. Putting everything onto one partition is also space-efficient.
As todays hard drives are far bigger than they used to be, running a fsck on a large slice takes long time, specially if there are much of damage. At the same time it can be good to have different file systems, as some are good at few but large files and others on many small ones, you can that way tune your system for high speed by selecting the best file system for the slice, but yes, the default file systems are all okey for home users.
/home is quite good to place on it's own slice, as you that way have easy access to your private files, regardless which of the distros you boot into.
8. Many linuxes have installers which offer to partition the disk with
fancy graphical interfaces. I have found these to be quite dubious and
best
avoided. Create ready-made partitions and tell the installer where
to put / (root). (I prefer to install a linux all into one partition).
The real danger is letting the installer to slice the hard drive by itself, the graphical ones works well and requires less of the user.
11. During the install process, linux gives you a choice between
installing
a boot loader to the partition ,or for the whole disk (to the MBR).
If you install XP followed by a bunch of linuxes, installing boot
loaders
to the MBR you might up with
a boot loader capable of booting all your OS's. However, it is safer
to install each boot loader searately to a partition, and a master boot
loader to the MBR. (This is more likely to work, since the
master boot loader only has "chain" to the local one, which is bound
to be able to load its "own" linux). I use the SmartBoot loader as a
master
loader, which
can be reconfigurd from within itself, and can recongines newly added
OS's. It cannot load linux directly, only chain, so there must be a
boot loader in each partition.
Draw back is that you will need to reinstall microsoft, which always saves their own boot loader to the MBR.
A warning about GRUB: grub reads it's configuration file "live" from
a file on the linux file system (unlike LILO, which copies the
information in
the file into the boot record). That means that if you are using GRUB
as your
Grub works always after a change in settings, lilo don't work if you forget to reinstall lilo after the change.
> That means that if you are using GRUB
master loader, and that particular linux (typically the last one
installed)
gets corrupted -- you won't be able to boot anything! Hence my
preference for
an independent master boot loader.
You can still use the command line option in grub and boot and as the configuration file is located in /boot and if it has got corrupted it's quite likely that the kernel image too, even lilo wouldn't manage to boot anything if the kernel image is corrupted.
12. During the install process, a Linux will ususally give you the
opportunity
of creating a boot floppy. This should definily be done, as these are
extremely useful
if things go wrong.
Or you can use the install CD and boot into rescue mode and have more tools avail in case something would go wrong.
1B. re-installing GRUB from a booted (eg from a boot floppy) linux.
GRUB keeps its config file in /etc/menu.lst or /boot/grub/menu.lst
Simply run grub-install -/dev/hd?? where /dev/hd is the local
partition. Unlike
LILO, GRUB does not need to be re-installed every time something is
changed.
Most distros sets the boot option in grub.conf, which makes all you need to do is run grub-install without any options and grub will then be reinstalled in the same place as it was the first time.
1D. re-installing GRUB from a un-booted linux.
GRUB keeps its config file in /etc/menu.lst or /boot/grub/menu.lst
grub files in /etc are symlinks to files in /boot/grub and menu.lst is a symlink to grub.conf (menu.lst is used for grub's graphical interface, if the symlink/file isn't there, the default grub.conf is used and grub is command line only).
2. Moving a linux partition. Use cfdisk (preferably for a live CD) to
create a target partition if necessary.
If doing from a mounted slice, then see to unmount /proc and /sys before, if using tar to make a copy, then exclude those two directories.
3. Resizing. Partitions can be resized, up to a point, with parted.
However, it is rather
shaky, and you often need to fsck the partition afterwards to make it
bootable (parted).
Always read the file system documentation before doing any resize, not all file systems supports shrink.
//Aho
.
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