Where's the LVM utils? ( Debian - Ubuntu )

[Tim Writer]

Merv Curley <mervc-MwcKTmeKVNQ at public.gmane.org> writes:

> Lots of good advice came my way, but it wasn't enough.
> 
> Tim suggested I play with LVM so I took a hard drive and almost did a Debian 
> Network install  [command Line only].

What version of Debian?

> During the partitioning before the 
> install   Debian created a primary partition for for /boot and the rest of 
> the disk for LVM.

Debian created or you created? For LVM, you will want to do the
partitioning yourself, i.e. don't select "Automatic partitioning" but do
select "Custom" in the partitioner. These aren't the exact names offered in
the menu but you get the idea.

> The logical partition had / [root] and swap volumes [terminology?],
> however I would have liked swap, a 5 gig, /, and another [80 Gig] for
> /data however that didn't seem to be possible at that stage.

It's important to try and get terminology correct so we can better
understand the problems you're having.

If partitioned correctly, you will have one of two possible setups:

    Setup 1
      Primary partition (e.g. /dev/hda1)
        Formatted as ext3, mounted on /boot.
      Primary partition (e.g. /dev/hda2)
        Physical volume (PV) for LVM.

    Setup 2
      Primary partition (e.g. /dev/hda1)
        Formatted as ext3, mounted on /boot.
      Extended partition (e.g. /dev/hda2, or /dev/hda3, or /dev/hda4)
      Logical partition (/dev/hda5)
        Physical volume (PV) for LVM.

In either case, you will have a single Volume Group (VG) comprised of the
single PV. Within that VG, you will have a series of Logical Volumes (LV)
for each of your file systems (/, /home, etc.) and swap.

IIRC, this is done in the Debian/Ubuntu installer, roughly as follows:

First, delete all existing partitions on your desk.

Next, create a partition for /boot, arrange to format it as ext3 and mount
on /boot.

Next, create a partition (using the remaining space) for LVM. Tell the
partitioner to use this as a physical volume for LVM.

Finally, create your logical volumes (for /, swap, /home, etc.), choosing
the format (ext3, swap, etc.) and mount point accordingly.

> After a 30 min session downloading files from York U.  the install died
> during the install of the man package.  Thats my life.

That's unfortunate.

> Next I tried a Cmd line install of Ubuntu, at least I got a system but not 
> quite what I wanted.

What version of Ubuntu?

> It insisted that I couldn't create just a primary for /boot and the rest
> for LVM. I had to also create a primary for / [root partition] and then I
> could use the rest for LVM. In here it created a swap partition.

It sounds to me like you didn't use the partitioner correctly. It will
insist you have a root file system but it won't care if it's on a physical
partition or a logical volume. If it was insisting you needed a root file
system, you must not have created one in a logical volume.

The Debian/Ubuntu partitioner does take some getting used to. IIRC, there's
a separate Configure LVM step. You must create the /boot partition first,
then (I think) the partition for LVM (your single PV), then do the
Configure LVM step. At this point, you'll have a bunch of logical
volumes. You will then have to tell the partitioner how to use each LV,
i.e. format as ext3, mount on /, etc.

> The install proceded and I now have a bootable drive.
> 
> Except I don't have the utilities that I need to work with LVM.  No vgcreate,  
> vgdisplay and so on.

I think this confirms that you didn't setup LVM in the partitioner. If you
had, it would have installed these utilities.

The bottom line is you need to work with the Debian/Ubuntu partitioner
until you're convinced that you have the partitions, logical volumes, file
systems, mount points, etc. exactly as you want them. If you don't, there's
no point in proceeding beyond this step. There's no magic here, it's not
going to create partitions or LVs you didn't tell it to create.

Hope this helps and good luck.

> I installed lvm-common and lvm2 from the Ubuntu 
> repositories but still none of the goodies. Unless I am missing something 
> else that is pretty basic.
> 
> Bottoms up....
> 
> -- 
> Merv Curley
> Toronto, Ont. Can
> 
> SuSE 10.2 Linux    
> Desktop  KDE 3.5.5    KMail 1.9.5
> 
> 
> 
> --
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-- 
tim writer <tim-s/rLXaiAEBtBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org>                                  starnix inc.
647.722.5301                                      toronto, ontario, canada
http://www.starnix.com              professional linux services & products
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists