Re: LVM partition full (was:what is /command directory?)
On Mon, Aug 27, 2007 at 07:34:15AM +0100, Richard Lyons wrote:
> On Mon, August 27, 2007 01:44, Douglas A. Tutty wrote:
> > On Sun, Aug 26, 2007 at 05:38:27PM +0100, Richard Lyons wrote:
> > Here there be dragons. Remember that your initrd will be set up to
> > start your LVM system so that it can find the root device for the
> > kernel. Since I've never had to tweak an initramfs it could get
> > interesting. So with / on LVM, lvm will be started before init even
> > gets a chance to run anything in /etc/rc*.d.
> >
>
> You are right of course. I'll have to re-install from scratch in
> order to get a working initrd. And then copy back the /home and /usr
> partitions and most of the / partition...
>
> Or just maybe there is a rescue boot on the netinstall disk which
> just maybe will allow me to create a new initrd...
The post-inst script of the kernel packages (and perhaps other packages)
rebuilds the initrd. Once you get things moved over to a non-lvm setup
(on your spare drive), you could chroot to it from your working LVM
setup, use aptitude to remove all the LVM packages, fix fstab, etc.
Then run dpkg-reconfigure [kernel package name] and perhaps it would
regenerate the initrd. You could then add this non-lvm setup to the
grub menu of the LVM setup. This way you can test the new setup without
killing the old one.
>
> > As for LVM being complicated and warnings of "if something goes wrong",
> > remember that you are dealing with your data on disk. A HOWTO for any
> > regular partitioner would also be full of warnings. Be sober and well
> > rested before you touch your partitions of whatever stripe (so to
> > speak). The other thing to remember is that things are layered. You
> > have files in filesystems on logical partitions in volume groups made up
> > of one or more physical volumes. The concept can be complicated but the
> > design of those concepts is well tested in real-life use on many OSs.
> > Linux implimentation of those concepts is somewhat newer but it does
> > work.
> >
> > However, I do agree that from the user/admin's perspective it is
> > complicated. It offers many advantages to compensate for that. The
> > most obvious is that you do have at your fingertips the ability to tweak
> > the sizes of your partitions which you would not have with normal
> > partitions.
>
> I've always found it easy and quick with fdisk and parted. But maybe
> the new way is easier than it looks in the documents. Perhaps I should
> try first, just for the experience.
Once you have a working non-LVM installation on the spare drive (which
shouldn't take too long), go ahead an try the LVM resizing stuff. Then
decide which way you want to go and remove the one you don't want.
For moving files from the old install to the new one, I've always had
great luck with mc (midnight commander). I used to do this a lot before
I switched to LVM, what with hard disks dying, needing to change which
drive was in which box, etc. (drives are cheap but I'm cheaper).
Good luck.
Doug.
Reply to: