Re: Intended question - was {Re: Forgot name of Debian "configuration" {wrong word?} file}

[john doe <johndoe65534@mail.com>]

On 6/16/2019 9:17 PM, Richard Owlett wrote:
> On 06/16/2019 11:03 AM, David Wright wrote:
>> On Sat 15 Jun 2019 at 08:15:24 (-0500), Richard Owlett wrote:
>>> On 06/14/2019 06:10 AM, Richard Owlett wrote:
>>>> I can't remember the name of the file which identifies the
>>>> association between a directory (i.e. \home) and which physical
>>>> partition it is on. The file I'm looking for also identifies which
>>>> partition is used for swap.
>>>
>>> The filename I had forgotten was /etc/fstab .
>>>
>>> Background:
>>> I have one laptop explicitly set aside for experimenting with Debian
>>> in order to determine *MY* ideal system. To this end I may have a half
>>> dozen copies of Debian to chose from at boot.
>>>
>>> For my purposes, the Debian installer has two annoyances:
>>>    1. swap area designation.
>>>       Everything is fine on the 1st installation.
>>>       On following installations, when the existing swap partition is
>>>       is to be used its UUID is changed. This causes grief for the
>>>       other installations by making swap area appear missing. My
>>>       personally preferred solution is to activate swap only of the
>>>       initial installation. For subsequent installs actually requiring
>>>       a swap partition, I edit its /etc/fstab .
>>
>> It's rather easy to work around this problem in one of two ways (at
>> least):
>
> Ways on order of {# users}**N { N < world_population} ;/
>
>>
>>    With a reasonable amount of memory (not a problam nowadays), just tell
>>    the d-i to leave the existing swap file alone and do without one. Then
>>    manually add the old UUID into the new installation's /etc/fstab
>
> *ROFL* !!!!
> Been doing that forever. However, had not done it recently.
> I had forgotten the filename was "/etc/fstab"  ;<
>
>> and /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/resume when it's up and running.
>
> Never hear of that file. Will research after sending this message.
>
>>    (If you're only installing as an experiment in installation,
>
> I'm not experimenting with the installation process, but with what I
> want the result to be.
>
>> I suspect
>>    you won't even need to bother, because you'll be overwriting it
>> shortly.
>>    Does  top  show much use of swap anyway?)
>
> Not a parameter of my experiment's protocol.
> As I do not "know" how much swap space I require, I provide swap space
> based on conservative estimates of _typical_ requirements. That
> logically leads to my preference for a SINGLE large swap vs multiple
> small swap areas. *YMMV* !!!
>
>>
>> or, even easier,
>>
>>    Use a LABEL to indicate the swap partition in all your own
>>    /etc/fstab files, eg:
>>    LABEL=swan10          none           swap        sw
>>    and in /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/resume.
>>    The d-i will of course overwrite the swap partition UUID/LABEL
>>    as usual, but it's trivial to reset your LABEL at the end.
>>    When the d-i reaches the UTC question at the end, switch to VC2
>>    and type (with the appropriate values):
>>      # /target/sbin/swaplabel -L LLLLLL /dev/sdXN

Or use a preseed file with something  like:

d-i preseed/late_command string ...

Or as kernel boot parameter.

>>    before answering the UTC question. The newly installed system
>>    will boot via its fresh UUID, but all your old systems will
>>    carry on using your LABEL as usual. (I assume that if you're
>>    going to keep the new system for any length of time, you will
>>    be editing its /etc/fstab anyway, and can set your usual LABEL
>>    there, as in the example above.)
>
> I can't parse that.
>

D-i allows customisation of the system to be installed to your liking by
use of 'kernel boot parameter' or a 'preseed' file.

--
John Doe