Due to the peculiar way that my root drive is configured (incomplete advance planning for Windows to Linux conversion), I have had thoughts about moving /boot and / to a different place on the drive. Current configuration is: sda1 - 30Gb primary partition (was the E: drive) sda2 - 120 Gb primary partition (was my H: drive) sda3 - 100Mb /boot primary partition sda4 - Extended partition sda5 - 4Gb swap partition sda6 - 145Gb / partition I was thinking about rearranging the disk to a more conventional layout where /boot is first, swap next, / next and the rest after that. It probably isn't necessary since the drive runs fine (well, almost - last night /boot developed a weirdity in its superblock and I had to recover with the install DVD in rescue mode and using the alternate superblock, but it's back up and running, having survived the boot fsck), but I was wondering if anyone had tried something like this before. Besides, having a backup (or new) /boot might not be a bad idea after last night.... Are there any serious advantages/disadvantages to having /boot in the middle of the disk and / after it? I was thinking that I could remove the 1 & 2 partitions, recreate them with a hole in between for a (new/replacement) swap, and copy the original partitions to the new locations, then update the grub.conf and voila! (I would hope....) I'm also wondering about complications from having the swap and / partitions inside the extended partition.... Comments / suggestions / feedback (preferably polite) welcome. Thanks. Mark Hull-Richter, Linux Kernel Engineer DATAllegro (www.datallegro.com) 85 Enterprise, Second Floor, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656 949-680-3082 - Office 949-330-7691 - fax -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/attachments/20070411/4e952a55/attachment-0004.html>
On Wed, Apr 11, 2007 at 10:59:32AM -0700, Mark Hull-Richter wrote:> Due to the peculiar way that my root drive is configured (incomplete advance > planning for Windows to Linux conversion), I have had thoughts about moving > /boot and / to a different place on the drive. Current configuration is: > > sda1 - 30Gb primary partition (was the E: drive) > sda2 - 120 Gb primary partition (was my H: drive) > sda3 - 100Mb /boot primary partition > sda4 - Extended partition > sda5 - 4Gb swap partition > sda6 - 145Gb / partition > > I was thinking about rearranging the disk to a more conventional layout > where /boot is first, swap next, / next and the rest after that. It > probably isn't necessary since the drive runs fine (well, almost - last > night /boot developed a weirdity in its superblock and I had to recover with > the install DVD in rescue mode and using the alternate superblock, but it's > back up and running, having survived the boot fsck), but I was wondering if > anyone had tried something like this before. Besides, having a backup (or > new) /boot might not be a bad idea after last night....If you want, send me privately the contents of /boot and I'll make an iso for you (or just learn how to use mkisofs and isolinux ;).> Are there any serious advantages/disadvantages to having /boot in the middle > of the disk and / after it?Not really, If you're using sata then I suppose your bios isn't limited as the older ones where.> I was thinking that I could remove the 1 & 2 partitions, recreate them with > a hole in between for a (new/replacement) swap, and copy the original > partitions to the new locations, then update the grub.conf and voila! (I > would hope....)Don't forget /etc/fstab and rerun grub-install. Also, printout the output of sfdisk -d.> I'm also wondering about complications from having the swap and / partitions > inside the extended partition....Not really, but don't forget that the lower (ie., near the end) portions of harddisks are the slower ones. -- lfr 0/0 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 189 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/attachments/20070411/4eda7ca8/attachment-0004.sig>
Mark Hull-Richter wrote:> Due to the peculiar way that my root drive is configured (incomplete > advance > planning for Windows to Linux conversion), I have had thoughts about moving > /boot and / to a different place on the drive. Current configuration is: > > sda1 - 30Gb primary partition (was the E: drive) > sda2 - 120 Gb primary partition (was my H: drive) > sda3 - 100Mb /boot primary partition > sda4 - Extended partition > sda5 - 4Gb swap partition > sda6 - 145Gb / partition > > I was thinking about rearranging the disk to a more conventional layoutWhat problem are you trying to solve?> where /boot is first, swap next, / next and the rest after that. It > probably isn't necessary since the drive runs fine (well, almost - last > night /boot developed a weirdity in its superblock and I had to recover > with > the install DVD in rescue mode and using the alternate superblock, but it's > back up and running, having survived the boot fsck), but I was wondering if > anyone had tried something like this before. Besides, having a backup (or > new) /boot might not be a bad idea after last night.... > > Are there any serious advantages/disadvantages to having /boot in the > middle > of the disk and / after it? > > I was thinking that I could remove the 1 & 2 partitions, recreate them with > a hole in between for a (new/replacement) swap, and copy the originalThere is no advantage*, with Linux 2.6 kernels, to having a swap partition over having a swap file. Swap files are more flexible, easier to manage. As a Linux Kernel Engineer, you should know that;-) * unless you're using suspend to disk, I'm not sure about that.> partitions to the new locations, then update the grub.conf and voila! (I > would hope....) > > I'm also wondering about complications from having the swap and / > partitions > inside the extended partition....At one point I had RHEL Beta 5 Client and Server, SLED and SUSE 10.x on the one box. Might have had FC6 too. The only complication was that Anaconda couldn't handle repartitioning the drive. -- Cheers John -- spambait 1aaaaaaa at coco.merseine.nu Z1aaaaaaa at coco.merseine.nu Please do not reply off-list
On Wed, 2007-04-11 at 19:29 +0100, Luciano Miguel Ferreira Rocha wrote:> On Wed, Apr 11, 2007 at 10:59:32AM -0700, Mark Hull-Richter wrote:...> > I was thinking about rearranging the disk to a more conventional layout > > where /boot is first, swap next, / next and the rest after that. It > > probably isn't necessary since the drive runs fine... Restructuring is possible but probably not worth the effort. If it ain't broke... ...> If you want, send me privately the contents of /boot and I'll make an > iso for you (or just learn how to use mkisofs and isolinux ;).See the following post in the archives for a procedure for making a GRUB boot CD: http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2007-January/073835.html Phil