[GTALUG] Boot setup issues

[o1bigtenor]

On Sun, Sep 16, 2018 at 12:10 AM, D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk
<talk at gtalug.org> wrote:
> | From: o1bigtenor via talk <talk at gtalug.org>
>
> Note: I am only an amateur sysadmin.

And I am not even that good - - - grin but i'se a learning that too!
>
> | One of my linux mentors, who calls himself a linux dinosaur (started on
> | a System V on a pc)
>
> Picky picky: System V isn't Linux.  It's UNIX.

Ja ja - - - got it. but it were unix before linux, although today one
might wonder
listening to some.
>
> I first used UNIX seriously with 4th or 5th Edition in 1975.  But I
> first became strongly interested in 1974 from reading "The UNIX
> Time-Sharing System" in the Communications of the ACM.
>
> I think that a number of GTALUG folks used Linux before I did.  I
> switched my desktop from Solaris on SPARC to Linux about 1997 (I
> played with Linux before that).
>
> | even advocates for a separate partition for /var/log
> | to forestall any software issues choking off disk usage.
>
> Good point.  What causes disk-full events for you?  If you can isolate
> them to separate filesystems, that's good.

Well - - - its one thing I haven't done yet. Haven't been bit by it yet either.
Likely would do after the first instance - - - grin.
>
> Here are the ones that have hit me:
>
> - too many log messages (/var/log).  That can easily be cured by
>   log system settings.

As I'm finding log message useful (strange for someone with a background
primarily as a 'user') I think I would rather have more here than less although
some of the messages are quite - - - -carefully now - - - useless (when there
are a few thousand lines exactly the same in a row) but none the less I would
rather enhance than truncate this function.
>
> - too much email (/var/spool)

Today I get maybe 30 to 75 emails. I remember a time when I could get over
a thousand. Today I would be quite a bit more into the deleting than I was
then too.
>
> - too many saved update packages (due to a PackageKit / dnf bug)
>   (/var/cache)
>
> - too many packages installed (/)
>
> - too many core dumps (/var/spool/abrt)
>   A firefox dump usually takes 4GiB or so on my system.
>
> HDDs are so big and cheap these days that the simplest solution is to
> wildly over-allocate for each partition.
>
> Unfortunately, SSDs are so much faster that you ought to use them and
> their capacity costs more.  I use both.  I haven't bothered to put any
> problematic directories on the HDD.
>
> |  One of my frustrations with linux has
> | been that it can be very difficult to find clear understandable information
> | on many parts of the system. Much of the documentation seems to be
> | written for someone who is well versed in things and is looking for a clue
> | or a reminder on 'how things work'.
>
> There are other challenges
>
> - Linux is very large.  Mostly things get added and very little gets
>   deleted.
>   (When I first used UNIX, the largest RAM was 256KiB.  It ran
>   off a disk that was 2.5MB.  You can bet is was simpler.)

In comparison to the dominant desktop I don't think that's true but I
do know that the economy of code AND logic that was used in coding
back then is in quite a different universe than the present iterations.
>
> - Documentation gets out of date.

One of the things that I have been finding very often - - - even with this
present search for answers. There is a lot of information out there that is
wildly out of date but there isn't even a date on the document to alert one
to its fossilization. I have taken to dating all of my documents for myself
to try and reduce the issue. Very seldom does information from the major
players get marked with a date. It is only with some experience that this
outdated stuff can be recognized. Finding information for current system
thinking is often almost impossible. (Coders hate documenting!)
Even more challenging is the all to common attitude that the newest is
the best stuff. I want stuff that works - - - not stuff that has not
been thrashed
so its flaws aren't known. For business use something that works is far more
important than stuff that is the newest (with huge bling).
>
> - Linux is very general-purpose.  How you should set it up depends on
>   many things.  Consider the difference between Linux embedded in a
>   home router and Linux running a supercomputer.  (Most routers,
>   smartphones, tablets, supercomputers, websites, cloud systems, etc.
>   run Linux.)
>
> - each distro is a different.  Each installation can be different.

Even more challenging is that Linux appears to be tweaked for those where
the tweaking and working under the hood IS the object of the OS. There
doesn't seem to be that much that is just for the USE. There are mountains
of things that are cool from a developers point of view but for a 'users' - - -
well - - - its all to often not much use. IMO far too often change is done for
change's sake. Another issue is that there is a lot of behind the scenes
activity that is quite antithetical to the visible. It feels  a lot
like the frog
swamp is being heated very carefully!
>
> One key to understanding Linux is to understand its anatomy.  Then you
> can study the organs of interest in isolation.

I'm a trying but finding good tools and guides is not very easy whereas
for the M$ world there is a plethora of tools and guides even if far
too many of
those are that good.

Thanks Hugh - - - appreciate the pointers and nudges!

Dee