My BIG mistake using Logical Volume Management on Fedora...

[FormerDittoHead]

By DEFAULT, Fedora 5+ doesn't use the traditional partitioning method, but rather, a thing called Logical Volume Management which acts something like a RAID controller in that you can use it to add a hard drive and have it added to an existing one to seamlessly add space to the first one(s)...

Sounds great! What an advantage! Before, I was used to using ext2/3 partitions. If I wanted to add a hard drive, I could mount it under some directory and there it would be ready for use. Whew! What a mess! :sarcasm:

Well, there are a few things that Fedora doesn't explain to you when defaulting to LVM.

First off - if you use it with multiple drives, and ONE of the drives fails, not the system/boot drive just another drive - the whole system will fail to start and you'll be left to figure out things at the rescue prompt. Under the "old" "bad" system, if a linked drive failed the system would pause, report the problem but continue... But the new system is so much better! :sarcasm:

Next - what? Not every distro uses LVM? Oh, it CAN - all you have to do is to compile, recompile, link, recompile the kernel, blaw, blaw, blaw, blaw. If a program didn't configure/make/install for me (usually because of dependency hell), I found something else which would do the job.

Thank god for the new apt-get yum installers... Evolution DOES exist.

So my OTHER linux box is "Ubuntu for Dummies". (Apple style happy smile!) Out of the box, it doesn't have LVM. You could TRY to configure/make/install/recompile kernel, yeah. Sounds like fun. No? I didn't think so. Hey. I'd rather play HALO with that time, thank you.

Geeze - if I had formatted this damn hard drive in ext2/3, I could just plug it into just about any other distro in the world, even a live distro or thumb drive distro, and get my email for the last 3 years....

...of course, if I had used ext2/3, it would have started.

As for my problem, I manage to find the TYPICALLY GREAT documentation :sarcasm: for LVM. Also, I love the countless unanswered mailing lists posts by people with my very same problem...

So after HOURS, I figured it out, what a doe-see-doe with a 3rd disk, etc. I managed to get the pictures of my kids for the last 3 months back...

Now, I actually LIKE Fedora - I would continue to recommend it to power users. I like having a ROOT account and not being treated like a Ubuntu idiot... However, you can take Logical Volume Management and keep it until it's universally supported...

[RoyGBiv]

1. Okay, that's messed up ...

It uses LVM as a *default*?

LVM can be a great thing if you need that kind of setup. But the average user doesn't need it. I can't imagine why they would default to it. Every distro I've seen that includes it as an option in the partitioner has a big, HUGE WARNING to make sure you know what you're doing before you do it.

I've been turned off Fedora since the first time I tried to use it. I've settled into my Slackware w/customizations box and haven't felt the need to go distro hunting for while.

[FormerDittoHead]

2. Follow up on Ubuntu - it DOES support LVM - and I was able to recover - SECRET

The "SECRET" is in understanding the Logical Volume Management and the "secret" command which I will reveal to you below... (shh!)

Anyway, the Ubuntu repositories DO include the LVM libraries, and it worked, but you have to know how to use LVM to a point (unlike a simple partition)

...you have to run lvm, which, like a shell, lets you run commands.

First thing is you have to know the name of the "group"

lvm# vgscan

will probably return "VolumeGroup00" (which is the default)

but the SECRECT is that to USE the damn hard drive you have to run:

lvm# vgchange -a y VolGroup00

This does NOT mount it. After running the above you THEN mount the various partitions.

There is NO GUI to run the vgchange. There is a nice LVM GUI in Fedora Core 6 but it won't run the vgchange for you, rather, it will prompt you to erase the drive to make a new group (gasp!)

I can't recommend enough Webmin ( http://www.webmin.com ), and, like so many other things does a great job of handling the LVM volumes, but only AFTER you change the volume group to an active state...

[alfredo]

3. Here's an article on LVM

http://www.linux.com/feature/118645

I'm thinking about installing Linux on my new Mac Mini and run it either on Boot Camp, Parallels, or VMWare. I haven't decided. I've lost some of my chops being away from Linux for so long. OSX allows me to run a lot of UNIX apps, but I miss Linux.