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View Full Version : [ubuntu] Distributed Install (on multiple Hard Drives)



paddy.melon
June 11th, 2010, 09:44 AM
Here's Basic idea:
I've got a first-gen SSD with the problems so, I can't write very much or, could break it however, reading works 100% perfectly

So:
Am I able to have some folders (important boot ones) on the SSD that don't ever get touched (except for maybe upgrading) but, are read frequently and the rest on my WD Raptor? How would I install this way...

Thanks so much for your help!

arrange
June 11th, 2010, 10:17 AM
My 2 cents:
* uninstall/disable everything you don't need - important
* typically you don't need to write to any partitions on a regular basis except /var, /home and /tmp. But on my 10.04 system I can see quite regular writes to /etc as well. So place these 4 partitions on the HDD, and the rest you can keep on SSD IMO
* edit your /etc/fstab in a way that you mount your "SSD partitions" as ro (read-only). I would also recommend adding a bootwait option. If you want to upgrade etc you can always remount them as rw later.

I say "my 2 cents" because I haven't done it myself.

srs5694
June 11th, 2010, 06:01 PM
You should never attempt to separate /etc from root (/)! Because /etc contains vital boot files, such as /etc/fstab, it must be accessible as part of the root (/) filesystem. Trying to do otherwise will produce an unbootable system. The same is true for /bin, /sbin, and /lib (or /lib32 and /lib64, if that's how your system configures it).

arrange
June 11th, 2010, 06:23 PM
I'm sorry, you're right of course, to separate /etc from / was a stupid idea, I don't know what I was thinking.

But he should be able to separate the other three I proposed - /var, /home and /tmp, shouldn't he?

srs5694
June 12th, 2010, 02:01 AM
Yes, /var, /home, and /tmp are all safe to put on separate partitions, and this is commonly done for all of them in certain environments.

paddy.melon
June 12th, 2010, 05:07 AM
OK, sounds like an awesome idea: Put /var, /home and /temp... Off to do that now! Thanks guys!

JohnnyC35
June 12th, 2010, 05:11 AM
OK, sounds like an awesome idea: Put /var, /home and /temp... Off to do that now! Thanks guys!

I don't suppose it would be possible to put /var /home and /tmp as tmpfs if you had the RAM available. Or would this cause massive breakage?

paddy.melon
June 12th, 2010, 05:46 AM
I don't suppose it would be possible to put /var /home and /tmp as tmpfs if you had the RAM available. Or would this cause massive breakage?

Why bother? Plus, this is for a MythBox so, the more RAM, the better, none to waste with these videos

JohnnyC35
June 12th, 2010, 03:52 PM
to reduce writes on the SSD if you only have that and not a hard drive

srs5694
June 12th, 2010, 03:58 PM
I don't suppose it would be possible to put /var /home and /tmp as tmpfs if you had the RAM available. Or would this cause massive breakage?

I'm not an expert on tmpfs, but my understanding is that it's volatile -- that is, it disappears between boots. As such, putting /tmp in there might be OK, but putting either /var or /home there is asking for trouble, since files in both directories must be persistent across boots. /home, of course, holds your user data files. Even on a MythTV box, as mentioned in another post, these are important, since the frontend runs as a normal user and some frontend configuration files go there. /var holds various files that should be persistent, including log files and, depending on MythTV configuration, some MythTV database files. You wouldn't want your scheduling data to disappear whenever you reboot!