Arch Linux

GCN

Member

From: France

Registered: 2005-06-29

Posts: 14

Website

LVM question !

Hi !

The howto about LVM says you have to create at least: /, /boot and swap and then create the remaining space as a LVM partition.

Some other distros (like Mdk or Fedora) make it possible to have a single /boot partition and a big LVM partition containing the other FS (swap, /, /home, etc...).

Sorry for the lame question but I'm just curious about why the same thing isn't possible with Arch ?

Cotton

Member

From: Cornwall, UK

Registered: 2004-09-17

Posts: 568

Re: LVM question !

It is possible, I think you need to have an initrd file.

This link may help:

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … vm2+initrd

There aren't that many lvm archers, although as luck would have it Judd (apeiro) is one of them

Try asking on the Arch IRC channel (more than once, if necessary).

apeiro

Daddy

From: Victoria, BC, Canada

Registered: 2002-08-12

Posts: 771

Website

Re: LVM question !

Yes, to have an LVM'ed root, you need an initrd.  Otherwise, there's no way the system can activate the LVM volumes.  Activation requires the lvm utility, and the lvm utility is buried in /usr, which can't be accessed until the LVM volume is activated.  Chicken and egg.  An initrd is required to solve these sort of chicken-and-egg bootup problems.

I'm going to be looking into including a standard initrd with the Arch kernels to ease this process for LVM users and encrypted filesystem users.  No promises yet, though.

batistuta

Member

Registered: 2007-05-13

Posts: 11

Re: LVM question !

apeiro, could you please provide me the status on this? Does Arch include lvm/EVMS in the standard initrd or do we need a special custom made image? Any link/hints/general directions would be appreciated. I'm new to Arch but not to Linux so I don't need step-by-sep instructions, just some overview of how Arch handles this. Thanks

mouse256

Member

From: Antwerpen, Belgium

Registered: 2005-08-24

Posts: 247

Re: LVM question !

what an old thread :-)
I'm not using lvm myself, but according to the wiki it's no problem

Ramses de Norre

Member

From: Leuven - Belgium

Registered: 2007-03-27

Posts: 1,289

Re: LVM question !

apeiro, could you please provide me the status on this? Does Arch include lvm/EVMS in the standard initrd or do we need a special custom made image? Any link/hints/general directions would be appreciated. I'm new to Arch but not to Linux so I don't need step-by-sep instructions, just some overview of how Arch handles this. Thanks

If it's not in there by default, you need to add "lvm2" to the "HOOKS" line in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf.

batistuta

Member

Registered: 2007-05-13

Posts: 11

Re: LVM question !

I see.. this mkinitcpio tool is what arch uses to create the initrd. That's exactly what I was looking for. I see a hook for lvm2 but not for evms, so I might have to stick to lvm, but that's ok with me. Thank you guys

Last edited by batistuta (2007-05-13 23:28:07)