[lug] Favorite Utility/Rescue Image: LVM For Multi-Boot

Wed Nov 22 19:54:33 MST 2017

It is multi-boot...in part because Ubuntu 14.04 is outdated. There is software which runs only on 14.04. Not an option. Other boot options are for real work :P

The hard disk is small, and amount of space to be used may require changing which partition gets how much. Thus, LVM. I don't have a problem creating root partitions with ordinary partition types, it's LVM for which I want the "rescue" tool to set it up on that system without removing the hard drive and putting it in another computer. I expect semi-temporary files may take up to 75GB, and then the requirement goes down to 30GB for a while...then back up. The hard drive size is set in stone, and cannot change.

I guess I'm looking for a thumb drive image to do all this from while the drive is not mounted. I figured someone here has favorites...I'm working on system rescue cd (the name of one such rescue image) to see how that works.

----- Original Message -----From: Davide Del Vento <davide.del.vento at gmail.com>To: Boulder (Colorado) Linux Users Group -- General Mailing List <lug at lug.boulder.co.us>Sent: Thu, 23 Nov 2017 02:22:36 -0000 (UTC)Subject: Re: [lug] Favorite Utility/Rescue Image: LVM For Multi-Boot

Not really an answer to your question but some food for thought. 

1) why 14.04 which for which support will "soon" be discontinued? Go with 16.04 instead.

2) in all the install I make, I always install linux only, often two of them. I use manual partitioning which (I think) gparted (or whatever the install provides). I make one swap (shared by all the linux installs), plus one root for each OS, plus (very important!) at least one spare "root", plus everything else that I may need, for example home (but I **never** share homes among different OS, we do that at work and it's a nightmare). If I have separate homes, I have one for each OS plus the same number of spares. If I do things like /tmp, /opt or /scratch and the likes, I make them as I see fit, which often is just one for the whole machine (not one for each OS like the previous). The spare(s) "root" and "home" are used for "dist-upgrades" which I always do as fresh install, mounting the thing that I am "upgrading" as "oldroot" and "oldhome" (if appropriate). I manually move from the old install whatever data I need, when I need it.

This has served me well, and the partition tool coming from all the OS I've tried always worked out of the box for the purpose (as long as you select: "I decide the partitions, forget about the dumb install script making such choices on its own").

On Wed, Nov 22, 2017 at 4:46 PM, <stimits at comcast.net> wrote:

Hi,

I was just given an old laptop and am trying to figure out how to satisfy some requests for multi-boot among at least two Linux distributions (no Windows involved). One distribution must be Ubuntu 14.04.

I am experimenting with some LVM installs since currently it is ok to lose it all and start over, it's just testing. However, I see a need to get some sort of small footprint (it's a slow and old laptop) rescue image capable of working with LVM. The Ubuntu and other installers do not seem to be capable of dealing with LVM unless they wipe out other operating systems. I'm thinking I either need to yank the drive and format it on my desktop PC, or else get a better method to manipulate LVM/ext4/ext2/boot partitions from a thumb drive (this laptop has no CD). Does anyone here have a favorite rescue type image which works with LVM and can be put on a thumb drive?

Does anyone have some other recommendation on how to get multiple Linux operating systems installed with LVM and not wiping out each other?

Thanks!
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