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#1 2010-06-05 18:58:15

moose jaw
Member
From: Milwaukee
Registered: 2007-08-20
Posts: 104

AIF question: USELVM="yes" not set during configuration

Just installed Arch from the new (2010.05) install images on a new laptop.  Everything working brilliantly, but I have one question.  I set up my system to use LVM on top of dm-crypt, and the AIF tool did a splendid job of auto-configuring everything: /etc/fstab, the hooks in order in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf, and the kernel line in /boot/grub/menu.lst were all automatically configured just right.  The only thing that wasn't automatically set was the value for USELVM in /etc/rc.conf.  I set it to "yes" during the installation, and everything has been working great (with the exception of an error message about file locking initialisation on boot, but elsewhere on the forum I've read that that is a harmless message). 

But I was curious why this value wasn't set automatically by AIF: does AIF simply not mess with /etc/rc.conf at all, is it impossible or unadvisable to do this?  Alternatively, it is actually unnecessary to set USELVM="yes" if you've got LVM on top of dm-crypt?

I am really just curious, since AIF did such a great job of auto-configuring everything else.  I almost second-guessed myself setting USELVM="yes" manually, but as I say, everything is working as it should.

Thanks for any info on this, and thanks devs for an awesome distro and a great installer (even better than my last install a few years ago!)

Edit: capitalization

Last edited by moose jaw (2010-06-05 18:59:34)

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#2 2010-06-06 23:44:25

linuxraptor
Member
Registered: 2009-05-09
Posts: 8

Re: AIF question: USELVM="yes" not set during configuration

In my experience, you are correct.  AIF does not change rc.conf EXCEPT for altering the configuration with network interfaces during installation.  And as you brought up, since the programming is there to parse rc.conf and modify the networking settings in-line with text, why doesn't it set things like LVM automatically in rc.conf?  I believe it is because the code simply isn't there for the LVM creation.  And I think requesting it from Arch is a reasonable request. 

As to your question, I would definitely use USELVM="yes" because I have had problems before when I didn't.  I'm not exactly sure where the setting is actually applied, but I know that rc.conf is parsed during boot right after the initial ramdisk and getting that setting in there at the lowest level during boot is best.

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