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174 lines
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<TITLE>The Answer Guy 35: Suggestions for Linux Users with Ultra Large Disks</TITLE>
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LINK="#3366FF" VLINK="#A000A0">
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<H4>"The Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"</H4>
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<center>
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<H1><A NAME="answer">
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<img src="../../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" alt="(?)" border="0" align="middle">
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<font color="#B03060">The Answer Guy</font>
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<img src="../../gx/dennis/bbubble.gif" alt="(!)" border="0" align="middle">
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</A></H1>
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<BR>
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<H4>By James T. Dennis,
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<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">linux-questions-only@ssc.com</a><BR>
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Starshine Technical Services,
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<A HREF="http://www.starshine.org/">http://www.starshine.org/</A>
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</H4>
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</center>
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<p><hr><p>
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<H3 align="left"><img src="../../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" height="50" width="60"
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alt="(?) " border="0">Suggestions for Linux Users with Ultra Large Disks</H3>
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<p><strong>From John Newbigin on Fri, 06 Nov 1998
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</strong></p>
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<!-- begin 2 -->
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<P><STRONG>
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In response to your note about Suggestions for Linux Users with Ultra
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Large Disk, here is my suggestion
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</STRONG></P>
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<P><STRONG>
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Create a small partition at the start of the disk, say 10 meg should be
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plenty, you could get away with ~2 if you are stingy. Use this
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partition to store the kernel/kernels used to boot linux. You can then
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create a root partition as large as you like, set lilo up to use the
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kernel from the first partition and away you go. You would only need to
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mount the partition if you are going to add a new kernel or run lilo.
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You could even put kernel modules on the partition if you wanted.
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</STRONG></P>
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<P><STRONG>
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(I have not tried this myself, but I see no reason why it should pose a
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problem)
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</STRONG></P>
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<P><STRONG>
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As for the 8gig limit, I have an 8.4 gig HD, and linux 2.0.34+ don't
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have a problem. They do some kind of translation on boot, but it works
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without any problems.
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</STRONG></P>
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<P><STRONG>
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John.
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<em>UNIX is user friendly. It's just selective about who its friends are.</em>
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</STRONG></P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" alt="(!)"
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HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
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>
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It's an excellent suggestion. I've heard variations of
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it many times --- but many of them haven't explained it as
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clearly as this.
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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Let's say make I create this filesystem (/dev/hda1) and then a
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root filesystem (/dev/hda3 --- we'll say that hda2 is swap).
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I should create a mount point (let's call that <TT>/mnt/kernelfs)</TT>
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which is where I mount <TT>/dev/hda1</TT> when I need to update a
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kernel and/or run <TT>/sbin/lilo</TT> for any reason. The rest of
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the time <TT>/dev/hda1</TT> doesn't have t be mounted. In fact we
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don't need to reserve a special mount point (/mnt/kernelfs)
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for it at all --- that's just a bit of syntactic sugar that
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"self documents" what we're doing in the <TT>/etc/lilo.conf</TT> and
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other configuration files and scripts.
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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I've tried many times to explain that LILO doesn't care
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about filesystems. <TT>/sbin/lilo</TT> needs to see files in order
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to interpret the configuration directives and put the LILO
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boot blocks and maps in the correct places. One of these
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days it will sink into the consiousness of a critical mass
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of Linux users. (Then someone will patch the ext2fs
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superblock to automatically bootstrap kernels by name and
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90%+ of the Linux users won't care about LILO).
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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In any event, I've also suggested that such users actually
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put a whole rootfs unto such a small partition --- an
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"altroot." This can be faster and handier than a boot/root
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diskette and can give you a way to test new kernels more
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easily with less risk.
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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When testing new kernels you sometimes needs to replace some
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utilities. Back in 1.3 to 2.x we had to do the whole procps
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suite recently it's been the 'mount' command, and some
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others. Having the whole original suite on your altroot can
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make for a much easier time of it!
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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Also, the "autorecovery" configuration that I talked about
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last month requires an extra root partition. If you ever
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want to experiment with that --- you want to create that
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"little root" partition from the start.
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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Another advantage of the "altroot" variant of this
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suggestion is that it's actually a little easier to
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implement. Most distribution setup/installation scripts can
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handle a "minimal" installation (in 64Mb or less). So you
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essentially just do your <A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/">Red Hat</A>, <A HREF="http://www.caldera.com/">Caldera</A>, <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/">S.u.S.E.</A> or
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<A HREF="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</A> install twice. Once is the 'short form' to just
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create the altroot. The other is your "real" installation
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(with all the bells and whistles).
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<!-- end 2 -->
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<!--startcut ======================================================= -->
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<H5 align="center"><a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html"
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>Copyright ©</a> 1998, James T. Dennis
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<BR>Published in <I>The Linux Gazette</I> Issue 35 December 1998</H5>
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