Mythbuntu Partitioning

[dsbw]

Hey, mythbunters:

I was wondering why the guided MythBuntu setup doesn't encourage a split partition: A small one for OS and the remainder of the disk for data?

Isn't that the preferred approach?

[volkswagner]

My preferred approach is a separate drive for media. Disk activity can hurt video playback when os and media are shared on the same physical hard drive. This is evident with HD content or multiple tuners/frontends.

[dsbw]

My preferred approach is a separate drive for media. Disk activity can hurt video playback when os and media are shared on the same physical hard drive. This is evident with HD content or multiple tuners/frontends.

Well, okay, so you don't think partitioning helps in a single-user combined front/back end situation?

[volkswagner]

Well, okay, so you don't think partitioning helps in a single-user combined front/back end situation?


Let my clarify. I am sort agreeing with you. The mythbuntu guided install is very basic. For the best performance manual partitioning is required. I create separate /home, /data partitions on most any install. With myth systems including installed tuners, I like to have a dedicated drive for media, mostly recordings.

The install CD has to cover a broad range of installs, master, slave, or frontend only.

[tgm4883]

It's my fault. I was in charge of partitioner recipes, got busy, and ultimately failed. 8.10 will have partitioner recipes (I already have them written) for both single and dual disk setups.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

[dsbw]

It's my fault. I was in charge of partitioner recipes, got busy, and ultimately failed. 8.10 will have partitioner recipes (I already have them written) for both single and dual disk setups.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Oh, no problem. Was just curious.

For those of us who would like to set up partitions (OS on 1, data on the other), what would you recommend?

[tgm4883]

Oh, no problem. Was just curious.

For those of us who would like to set up partitions (OS on 1, data on the other), what would you recommend?

The OS drive doesn't need to be that large, that is actually a problem that I have been finding is small enough drives to prevent wasted space (actually, diskless should work pretty well for this)

This is what I usually configure

/ 10-12 GB formatted to EXT3
SWAP 1GB

Second Drive 1 partition XFS


On single drive systems, I usually do

/ 8-10 GB formatted to EXT3
1 GB SWAP
the rest partitioned as XFS for recordings

[LorenzoS]

tgm4883, could you provide a little guidance on the best way to configure Mythbuntu to use the 2nd drive for data, recordings, etc? I've found a few scattered posts with differing recommendations but I still can't quite get it straight.

[dsbw]

the rest partitioned as XFS for recordings

Is that "/var"? Can't remember offhand....

[volkswagner]

The guides I have read suggest the second partition/drive to be mounted as /var. This is how I have it as recommended. I wish I did it as /var/lib/mythtv/recordings. This would be just for tv. If you wanted all media on one drive/partition you could use mount point /var/lib/mythtv. I discovered when trying to backup my system there are a lot of other files und /var. So to perform a system backup I would have to exclude the mythtv folder so it would not include hundreds of gigs of video to get a complete backup.

Please someone correct me if I am wrong. Are the files under /var necessary for an image backup of my system?

Partitioning can be complex depending on how you use your system. My thoughts were to have the recordings on its own partition for the defrag need. If I have a vast media of video and music, I don't think these files will me moved much. So why not keep them on there own partition with no need to defrag? Or certainly not defrag as often as a /recordings partition.

So the next time I create a new install my master backend will look something like this. Please critique so I know if this is not a good Idea.

Disk 1:
/ 12gig
/home 2-50gig depending on planned use and size of actual drive
/var/lib/mythtv remainder of drive
/swap 1gig

Disk 2:
/var/lib/mythtv/recordings 500gig-1TB

How did I do?

My case only holds two hard drives. So I am not sure with the above if LVM would even benefit?

[tgm4883]

Use the second drive for media (recording only if you have a file server).

The default location for recordings is /var/lib/mythtv/recordings . I myself think this is a bad location to have the recordings (/var and all subdirectories have to be formatted on an installation) so if you ever do a clean install instead of upgrade and want to keep your recordings then you must back up your db and all of your recordings to another hard drive (and if you have a spare HD that large, why aren't you already using it for recordings ;) ). IMHO a better location would be in /mythtv/recordings . During reinstalls this partition would remain untouched (provided you didn't click on format it during install). Then just tell mythtv to use that dir for recordings, or symlink it to /var/lib/mythtv/

You can use the second drive for storage and media. The key here is to mount the second drive as /mythtv (or /var/lib/mythtv/ if you are using the defaults) then subdirectories of that mount would be videos, music, recordings, etc.

dsbw: /var/lib/mythtv if you want to follow the guide. I prefer /mythtv/ If you have multiple drives or backends and want to use a network of storage it helps to mount your drives in such a way to be able to easily distinguish what and where they are. The way I do it is /mythtv/hostnamedrivesize/ (i.e. /mythtv/ovit500). Ovit is my backend, 500GB is the drive size. So in this case, I would mount the second drive (or rest of first drive) as /mythtv/ovit500 . Then I could easily add another drive and mount it in /mythtv/ovit1000, or mount an NFS share as /mythtv/ares300

volkswagner: With the addition of storage groups i'm not sure you would need/want LVM. Also, if it is a mythtv only system I don't think you would need a separate /home partition either. In that instance, if the first drive was large enough I would create a recordings directory on their also and use storage groups.

[johnnybirdman]

I have all the OS on one 40GB HD and then on another 320GB HD all the media. I just symlink the files on the large drive (music, video) to the folders in /mythtv/... I just have the media drive mount in media or home (I've tried both and they seem to work)
Is there any reason this setup would be bad? It's a new setup and I'm a first time mythbuntu user. Any suggestions??
J.

[poke4christ]

I bought dual 320 Gig drives for my new mythbox. How would you guys recomend me formating these? Also, is there a detailed guide for manual partitioning? I haven't been able to find one.

[misterspider]

I've tried editing the fstab so that a second drive mounts on bootup at /var/lib/mythtv (but i think i will change that to /mythtv/Samsung500) but i am not sure what options to use.

/dev/sdb1 /mythtv/Samsung500 jfs Whats_best_here? 0 2

Thanks.

[Titus A Duxass]

This is quite an interesting thread.

Many moons ago as a Windows user I used to have two HDDs, one at 5gb for the OS and whatever I had lying around for the data files.

With linux I tried putting / on the 5gb and /home on the other which worked nicely.

Now that 5gb, or even 10gb, HDDs are becoming rare as hens' teeth I am thinking of the following:

An IDE to Compact Flash Converter - approx. 20 euros.
An 8gb Compact Flash Card - approx. 30 euros.

This would hold the / system and a large capacity SATA HDD(0.75Tb - 1.0Tb) for the other partitions.

I would like to go down to a 4gb card for even lower cost, but I think that 4gb may be too small for the / system.

Has anyone any thoughts about this set-up and the partitioning of such a set-up?

[dsbw]

Yes, others have thought of this. :)

Dunno if anyone's been successful yet.

[Dewey_Oxberger]

I'm a relative Linux/Mythtv noob but I've been doing:

A single drive with:
10G Ext3 mounted as /
1G swap
The rest JFS and mounted as /htpc

Then under htpc I make:

/htpc/video
/htpc/video/livetv
/htpc/video/recordings
/htpc/video/library
/htpc/music
/htpc/pictures

And then wire up mythtv to use those directories in place of the /var/lib/mythtv directories.

Seems to work fine.

[ChronicD]

Hello

I was wondering if anyone had any further information on a set up such as this - perhaps a different thread following it?

thanks
D

This is quite an interesting thread.

Many moons ago as a Windows user I used to have two HDDs, one at 5gb for the OS and whatever I had lying around for the data files.

With linux I tried putting / on the 5gb and /home on the other which worked nicely.

Now that 5gb, or even 10gb, HDDs are becoming rare as hens' teeth I am thinking of the following:

An IDE to Compact Flash Converter - approx. 20 euros.
An 8gb Compact Flash Card - approx. 30 euros.

This would hold the / system and a large capacity SATA HDD(0.75Tb - 1.0Tb) for the other partitions.

I would like to go down to a 4gb card for even lower cost, but I think that 4gb may be too small for the / system.

Has anyone any thoughts about this set-up and the partitioning of such a set-up?

[whosmatt]

ugh i hate it when i post before looking at how old the thread is