Peter Humphrey wrote: > > On Wednesday, 25 November 2020 13:06:49 GMT Dale wrote: > > > Peter Humphrey wrote: > > > > On Tuesday, 24 November 2020 14:18:58 GMT Neil Bothwick wrote: > > > > > On Tue, 24 Nov 2020 09:20:52 +0000, Peter Humphrey wrote: > > > > > > My workstation has one NVMe drive and two SATAs. They're always > > > > > > > > > > > > detected in the same order, so I've no need to render my fstab > > > > > > > > > > > > illegible with UUIDs. I could use labels, but why bother? The old > > > > > > > > > > > > system ain't broke, so I've no need to fix it. > > > > > > > > > > But you can fix it in your own time, waiting until it breaks is > never > > > > > > > > > > convenient. > > > > > > > > There's nothing to fix, as I said. I'm happy to stick with the > > > > /dev/sdX syntax for as long as it remains valid. Occam's Razor > > > > applies: "don't complicate beyond need." > > > > > > > > > > Can you imagine an fstab with 22 partitions specified with UUIDs? > > > > > > > > > > > > Doesn't bear thinking about. > > > > > > > > > > Can you imagine an fstab with 22 partitions? Doesn't bear thinking > > > > > > > > about. > > > > > > > > > > > > The NVMe drive, the main one, has 18; I could merge some of those and > > > > delete a couple that aren't used any more. The packages and distfiles > > > > directories don't need separate partitions, for example. I suppose > > > > it's a bit like Topsy, who "just growed." > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Regards, > > > > > > > > Peter. > > > > > > I didn't think I needed to "fix" it either until it hit me and caused > > > confusion. Eventually I figured out it was mounting the wrong thing but > > > it was a head scratcher for a while. I was about to start over when I > > > noticed it was mounting the wrong partitions. I can't recall what > > > changed the order but suddenly sda and sdb switched. Believe me, when I > > > got booted, I started setting it up in a way that can't happen again. > > > > > > I might add, the more partitions you have, the more likely this is to > > > bite you at some point. You already have a complicated system with > > > chainloading bootloaders and such so Occam left the building long ago. > > > Actually I haven't any of those things. Grub, in particular, will > never have a place in my home. I jusr have EFI boot images in the UEFI > BIOS. Simple. I do take the point, though. > > > > Do you really need for a hard drive to be recognized differently and > > > create problems? At the very least, labels would be a much better > > > option. Labels like ubuntu-home, ubuntu-usr, or redhat-root, or > > > redhat-usr. Those explain what they are and makes them unique. If you > > > have more than one version, include part of a version if needed. > > > I'll think about that the very first time I get sda and sdb reversed. > Honest. :) > > > > You may recall my hatred of the init thingys. I still hate them. > > > I do. Me too. I still don't use one. > > > > I use them because I want the best chance of my system booting and > without > > > it, that could fail. It may boot 100 times just fine but then one > day, it > > > breaks and won't boot anymore without a init thingy. At that point, I > > > get to sit here, most likely with no way to get help, and figure out how > > > to fix it. To me, it's much better to just go ahead and set up using > > > the thing and not having to worry about that day hitting me. It seems > > > bad things always happen at the worst moment too. > > > > > > If I can start using a init thingy, using labels should be a easy > > > thing. A walk in the park as the saying goes. ;-) > > > Quite so. As I said, I haven't needed to yet, but I'll think about it > in due course. :) > > > You may remember my asking why you need a separate /usr partition. You > wouldn't need an init thingy if you merged it into the root partition. > I have /var separate for simplicity of backup and recovery, and to > contain log-file runaways, but not /usr. > > > -- > > Regards, > > Peter. > >
Since I did this install a few years ago, I've had to grow /usr at least twice. I also had to grow /var when I moved the portage tree and such to /var. I have /boot on a plain ext2 partition, root is also on a plain ext4 partition. Everything else, /home, /usr, /var etc is on LVM. I have a very good reason for having a separate /usr. Generally, the only thing a person would need to expand as software grows is /usr. That is where most things go except for things needed to boot. I've also expanded /home many times. Using LVM for that makes it very easy. If I were to build a new system and do a fresh install today, I'd like to have everything possible on LVM, including the root partition if it's doable. If Grub supports /boot on LVM, I'd do that too. If I hadn't had a separate /usr, I would have had to move things around to grow /usr. I've done that in the past and got very tired of doing it the hard way. With LVM, it's just a few commands and is done while in use even. I don't even have to logout, reboot or anything. That's a very good reason for having /usr separate from /. I might add, I installed a couple CAD type programs to do circuit boards with and they are huge. If I ever remove those, I can likely shrink /usr a fair amount if needed. I can't think of a reason not to use labels, at the very least, in most situations. The only one I can think of, a laptop that has only one hard drive. Sort of hard to install two hard drives on a laptop. A external one can be done but never seen one with two spots for internal hard drives. Do they make those??? Of course, one can do things the hard way. I'm just glad I listened when Alan, Neil and several others who recommended LVM to me several years ago. It made my life a lot easier. I might add, I think that is what got me away from sda* and such and using labels and UUIDs. I'm not real big on change at times but when people who have been there explains a better way, I do give it some serious thought. Most of the time, I change and I might add, I'm all the better for it. If something goes wrong with how your drives are seen, you got problems. Given I use labels and UUIDs, I won't have to worry about any of that. Just my thoughts. Trying to help. It's not like I don't ever find myself on the receiving end of that. :-D Dale :-) :-)
