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This tutorial will help anyone who wishs to setup their desktop using logical volumes on a fresh install of Ubuntu Desktop only. You can use the Ubuntu Alternate image to complete this as well but you will need to set it up in a TUI (Text based-User-Interface).
What is LVM?
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LVM stands for Logical Volume Manager (or Logical Volume Management). Instead of using all physical volumes for your system (hard to change, static), take one (or many) disk(s) and have that drive logically divided for expandability, better monitoring and all around better disk management on your computer. If you wish to learn more, please refer to the links below:
http://www.redhat.com/magazine/009jul05/features/lvm2/
http://sourceware.org/lvm2/
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Versions tested on:
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Ubuntu 10.04
Ubuntu 10.10
Ubuntu 11.04
Ubuntu 11.10
Ubuntu 12.04 (current)
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Preparation:
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Ubuntu Desktop ISO (http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download)
CD or USB
A Computer
Hands
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Table of Contents
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1. How to burn an ISO
2. Start up Ubuntu Live
3. Install lvm2
4. Setup hard drive partions
5. pvcreate, vgcreate, lvcreate, mkfs
6. Ubuntu Installation
7. Install lvm2 onto your new Ubuntu Install
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1. How to burn an ISO
There are many guides on how to get your Ubuntu ISO going and it doesn't matter if you use a CD or a USB, either one will work.
CD Install - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto
USB Install - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/In...n/FromUSBStick
2. Start up Ubuntu Live
Once you have your Ubuntu Live CD or USB ready, start up that computer/laptop, go into your BIOS (usually its F2 but this link can help if it doesn't work: http://www.cyberwalker.com/article/28) and make sure your 'Boot Sequence' is set to CDROM or USB (if its supported). Save your BIOS setting and watch Ubuntu startup in front of your eyes. Later, you should see two options of "Try Ubuntu" and "Install Ubuntu" (11.04). Select "Try Ubuntu" and let it load into the Ubuntu 11.04.
3. Install lvm2
Now that Ubuntu is booted up, now we will need a terminal by selecting the following:
Applications >> Accessories >> Terminal
Once the terminal in front of you, run the following command:
Code:
sudo apt-get -y install lvm2
This command will install lvm2 onto your Live CD session only but will help with the rest of this tutorial.
4. Setup hard drive partions
Keep the terminal open as we will be creating partitions using the command fdisk. In the example below, I will be setting up my desktop using the /dev/sda patition (to find yours, do the command 'sudo fdisk -l' and make sure you know much your storage is on the machine so you can figure out what physical device you want to use):
Code:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sda
Device contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSF disklabel
Building a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0x568311d6.
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
After that, of course, the previous content won't be recoverable.
Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)
WARNING: DOS-compatible mode is deprecated. It's strongly recommended to
switch off the mode (command 'c') and change display units to
sectors (command 'u').
Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-5221, default 1):
Using default value 1
Last cylinder, +cylinders or +size{K,M,G} (1-5221, default 5221): +1G
Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 2
First cylinder (133-5221, default 133):
Using default value 133
Last cylinder, +cylinders or +size{K,M,G} (133-5221, default 5221):
Using default value 5221
Command (m for help): t
Partition number (1-4): 2
Hex code (type L to list codes): 8e
Changed system type of partition 2 to 8e (Linux LVM)
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 42.9 GB, 42949672960 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 5221 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x568311d6
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 132 1060258+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 133 5221 40877392+ 8e Linux LVM
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.
The reason for this setup is explained below:
/dev/sda1 -- This partition has been created for /boot of the installation. It always a good thing to make your /boot the first partion of any Linux system
/dev/sda2 -- This is the LVM physical parition that will be used to create the rest of the system before installation.
NOTE: In the following setup, I will be using a LVM swap partition instead of making it through fdisk. Having swap as a LVM partition might cause overhead. You can make a new partition before you make your LVM partition as a swap partition. Make sure you know how much you need since you will not be able to increase the swap size easily. The table id for swap is 82 (Linux swap / Solaris).
5. pvcreate, vgcreate, lvcreate, mkfs
This part will help setup your logical volumes for your desktop. In this example, there will be three different logical volumes using one volume group and one physical volume:
Create the physical volume:
Code:
sudo pvcreate /dev/sda2
^
PV
This gives the LVM an understand of what physical volumes it has to offer for volume groups and logical volumes during your setup.
Create a group using our newly create physical volume:
Code:
sudo vgcreate sysvg /dev/sda2
^ ^
name PV
This part creates a new volume group which is tided to a physical volume. A physical disk can not be can not be used on multiple violume groups (unless you partition that disk before hand like we did above). The name of this volume group is 'sysvg' but you can name it whatever you wish.
Create the swap logical volume using the newly create sysvg group:
Code:
sudo lvcreate -L 1G -n lvswap sysvg
^ ^ ^
size(GB) name VG
I need a swap for the system so 1GB will do in this case (you can change the size to whatever you want). The name can be whatever you want it to be but I like to keep a naming scheme when creating VG's and LV's. Then assign it to a VG group that you made from before and you will have your first LV done.
Create the root logical volume using the newly create sysvg group:
Code:
sudo lvcreate -L 20G -n lvroot sysvg
^ ^ ^
size(GB) name VG
Again, like the swap but this will be used for my root file system. The size and name is up to you and make sure you point it to your VG that was created above.
Create the home logical volume using the newly create sysvg group:
Code:
sudo lvcreate -l 100%FREE -n lvhome sysvg
^ ^ ^
extents(%) name VG
Without getting into a lot of details, this will create a logical volume called 'home' using 100% of whats left on my VG. The percentage and name is up to you and make sure you point it to your VG that was created above. You do not need to use the rest of your disk space on home or any of the above created.
NOTE - Please use any of the above commands if you want to make a seperate LV for tmp, var, etc...
View the create logical volumes:
You don't need to do this but its always nice to see the work as a whole.
Display only your free space on your volume group:
Code:
sudo vgdisplay | grep -i free
This is just important if you didn't use the rest of the disk on a LV. This will show how much you have to expand current LV's or create new ones at a later date.
Build linux file systems for all newly created logical volumes:
Code:
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/sysvg-lvroot
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/sysvg-lvhome
sudo mkswap -f /dev/mapper/sysvg-lvswap
This will help the installation process know that each LV is selectable and usable as a partition point.
6. Ubuntu Installation
Now its time to get your computer setup. Double click on "Install Ubuntu 11.04" icon on the desktop and get where picture 1.0 is below:
picture 1.0
On the "Preparing to install Ubuntu" screen, you can select both "Download updates while installing" and "Install this third-party software" (this is optional). Now move to picture 1.1 for the next part:
picture 1.1
On the "Allocate drive space" screen, make sure you select 'Something else' before pressing the 'Forward' button. After you press the 'Forward' button, go to picture 1.3 for what you should see when manually setting up your partitions:
picture 1.3
The "Allocated drive space" should look different now showing you a list of your logical volumes and the /dev/sda partitions near the bottom. Scroll down the list to the bottom and highlight /dev/sda1 and press the "Change..." button. See picture 1.4 on what the change window should look like for /dev/sda1:
picture 1.4
The partition /dev/sda1 will be the /boot partition for your system and you can select whatever file system you wish (I would advise on ext4 or better). Now lets scroll up to the top and highlight the /dev/mapper/sysvg-lvhome partition that has the "ext4" next to it. Press the "Change..." button and see picture 1.5 for what this partition should look like:
picture 1.5
This will be the /home directory for my system using ext4. Again, the file system is your choice and doesn't need to be ext4. Do this same process for /dev/mapper/sysvg-root and /dev/mapper/sysvg-lvswap by highlighting them and pressing the "Change..." button. See pictures 1.6 and 1.7 for what you should setup for both:
picture 1.6
picture 1.7
If you are all setup for your system to have all proper logical volumes, you press the "Install Now" button to start the installation process. This installation will ask for you additional information like your timezone, username, etc... please fill that in with what you want for your system. Once you are done, you can sit back and wait for the whole thing to comeplete. Once the installation process is complete, you will see picture 1.8 in front of you:
picture 1.8
Make sure you DO NOT PRESS "Restart Now". You want to press the "Continue Testing" so you can continue to step 7.
7. Install lvm2 onto your new Ubuntu Install
Your system is almost ready to use LVM2 but the only problem is LVM2 isn't a package that is installed by default (oh noes!!). To fix that we need to install it onto your newly setup Ubuntu instance. The commands below will help do this.
Mount your system into /mnt/:
Code:
sudo mount /dev/mapper/sysvg-lvroot /mnt
sudo mount /dev/mapper/sysvg-lvhome /mnt/home/
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
We need to first mount your root file system to /mnt. Mounting your home file system probably isn't necessary but doesn't hurt to do. We do need your boot file system mounted to /mnt/boot to have this work so make sure you have at least your root and boot file systems mounted.
Change your root to /mnt/
This command allows you to change your root file system so you can manage that new file system. Doing this will make any installations and changes perminant onto your changed root filesystem. Now that we are on your Ubuntu instance, you will noticed that you are now root and the symbole after 'root@ubuntu:' has changed to a #. That is a good thing as we are not on the live CD's root file system but on your instance of Ubuntu. We will need to run the following command to allow your file system to boot into your LVM create partitions.
---OPTIONAL---
Load LVM modules on startup
If you want some additional functionality once your system is setup, MarioSchmidtSoftware suggests running these commands below before you install the package lvm2 (not needed but wouldn't hurt if you plan on using LVM for more then just the basics):
Code:
echo "dm-mod" >> /etc/modules
echo "dm-snapshot" >> /etc/modules
echo "dm-mirror" >> /etc/modules
echo "dm-mod" >> /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
echo "dm-snapshot" >> /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
echo "dm-mirror" >> /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
---OPTIONAL---
Install LVM2 onto your chroot file system:
Code:
root@ubuntu:/# apt-get -y install lvm2
Just like in step 3, we install lvm2 onto your instance of Ubuntu instead of the live instance. I want to point out some of the output that is import to why you need to install lvm2 onto your instance of Ubuntu:
Code:
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
Setting up lvm2 (2.02.66-4ubuntu2) ...
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic
If you see this during your installation of lvm2, this means, in a nutshell, your initrd image will now be able to use LVM based partitions at startup. If lvm2 was not installed on your computer and you started to start it up, you computer would complain about not being able to find /dev/mapper/sysvg-lvroot and so on...
Your computer is now setup with Ubuntu and logical volumes by using the Ubuntu Desktop image.
References:
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http://www.redhat.com/magazine/009jul05/features/lvm2/
http://sourceware.org/lvm2/
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/In...n/FromUSBStick
http://www.cyberwalker.com/article/28
http://man.he.net/man8/initramfs-tools
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Adv Reply
Originally Posted by pcas
). The reboot forced me to then rediscover the volume group...
Re: HowTo: Setup Ubuntu Desktop with LVM Partitions
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