Install linuxBBQ-rice into a logical volume on Hard Disk

[xaos52]

I installed linuxBBQ-rice today - first BBQ flavour ever.

Ran into problems because of my setup: I dedicate all free disk space
from my HD to a physical volume, because in my opinion that is the
most flexible way to manage disk space. I used the
'/usr/bin/bbqinstaller' script, but it did not allow me to mount
logical volumes, nor does the install script handle such a situation.

So, The way out was:

1. Install to a partition on an external USB disk,
2. Boot into my regular setup which has LVM enabled.
3. rsync copy the rice install to a logical volume on my HD
4. edit /etc/fstab to reflect the new disk UUID situation
5. chroot into the rice install to install the lvm2 package and run grub-install and update-grub.
6. boot into rice on the Logical Volume.

I suspect this can be avoided by including the lvm2 package into the
live image - and the squashdisk image - which will then include LVM
funcionality in the initramfs.

Unless there is a boot option to enable lvm? Have to check this.

Or it is possible to use the debian-installer with lvm? Have to check
this.

The install into the regular partition on external disk went fine -
dropped me into tmux + emacs session without any errors - except for
the grub install. I tried to install to the MBR of the external disk,
but that errored out with a message saying there wasnt enough space in
the pre-partition gap to embed grub and it would not use grub chaining
because it was considered dangerous: The log file seems to have been
overwritten since then with the output of mke2fs. Will have to check
that too.

Eventually I could boot into rice.

I tried to post in the forum using w3m, but could not get past the
login screen.

Can someone confirm that w3m works for logging into the forums?
Havent looked into the w3m config file yet. To be checked.

Will redo the whole thing, keep you informed, and document the
procedure I used better.

[pidsley]

posted from w3m (running in X) -- machinebacon may have more to say about lvm later;
I believe the "bbqinstaller" does not handle lvm, but the live installer does.

[DebianJoe]

I've had issues with connecting to the forum here today, but they're not w3m specific as they show a failure to redirect according to what I've seen.

[machinebacon]

Thanks for testing Rice, xaos.

Thing is that I was very sure I added lvm2 in recent (post-January 2013) releases, seems they got lost in 64bit. Sorry for inconvenience. Hope the installed system makes up for it ;)

BTW, the forums (actually the whole domain) was down today according to the host. w3m (and all other CLI browsers like lynx, elinks, netrik) connect fine from my end.

[xaos52]

w3m login to the forum does work now in rice - no X.
I can't reproduce the problem I had with it in an earlier install. Must have been due to the server misbehaving?

Or perhaps because I re-installed to a logical volume using a shortcut - no intermediate installing to a regular partition needed anymore

1. Boot into the live rice system
2. Enable wireless networking via 'ceni' - I have no wired connection.
3. apt-get update && apt-get install lvm2
4. sudo bbqinstaller and now the lvm devices are recognized, so I can install to lvm.

Reboot into the installed rice does not work. LVM is not active.
Reason: the lvm2 install triggers an initramfs update, but the initramfs is on a read-only filesystem and does not get updated.

So, reboot into my regular OS is necessary ( Debian sid with openbox and #! look ).
followed by a chroot into rice and an update-initramfs, which now includes the necessary tools in the initramfs file to activate logical volume management

A new reboot into rice now works without problems.

@mb: happy with the installed system indeed. && incuding lvm2 in the rice ISO will make any detour unnecessary.

@ pidsley: live-install does not work for rice because the python 'gtk' package is not installed - which is fine by me, it is bloat on a no-x system.

Will update my first post to reflect the new install method.

[pidsley]

@ pidsley: live-install does not work for rice because the python 'gtk' package is not installed - which is fine by me, it is bloat on a no-x system.

Ah yes, my mistake. Thank you for clarifying.

[ivanovnegro]

w3m login to the forum does work now in rice - no X.
I can't reproduce the problem I had with it in an earlier install. Must have been due to the server misbehaving?

The forums were down indeed for several hours.

[iMBeCil]

So, I roasted my slim+pekwm (started with 32bit bloat), installed it on an old test machine (non-lvm), fixed some stuff, and decided it is time to try to test the installation on production laptop, on LVM as per famous el_koraco 'The monumental #! LVM guide' (no need for URL, right?).

Burned iso to USB, booted up to USB, 'gksudo live-installer' and discovered that my existing lvm layout is not recognized. (/boot is on ext2, not lvm.) Google 'linuxbbq lvm', lo and behold, this topic has emerged.

Apparently, bloat has no lvm support. Tried some googling, but my knowledge is not so vast, therefore I need hilfe.

So, I am looking into solution dr good dr xaos52 dr posted, but I am a bit lost, as there are some steps mising (i.e. I did not succedd with given infos). What I want is to make iso I roasted (i.e. its live-installer) to be lvm-aware. I do not understand:

So, reboot into my regular OS is necessary ( Debian sid with openbox and #! look ).
followed by a chroot into rice and an update-initramfs, which now includes the necessary tools in the initramfs file to activate logical volume management

My regular OS is wheezy, and how would this affect update-initramfs? Not to mention that I do not get which initramfs update-initramfs updates? (<-haha, what a wierd sentence)

Somehow I expect that simply booting into the e.g. bloat, and doing update-iniramfs would add lvm support?

Or, did I make a mess of all this in my head? Is it problem with the live-installer?

[machinebacon]

- install lvm2 on the other computer
- make a bbqsnapshot
- install iso on second PC

this should work...

[xaos52]

1. Boot into the live rice system
2. Enable wireless networking via 'ceni' - I have no wired connection.
3. apt-get update && apt-get install lvm2
4. sudo bbqinstaller and now the lvm devices are recognized, so I can install to lvm.

Reboot into the installed rice does not work. LVM is not active.
Reason: the lvm2 install triggers an initramfs update, but the initramfs is on a read-only filesystem and does not get updated.

So, reboot into my regular OS is necessary ( Debian sid with openbox and #! look ).
followed by a chroot into rice and an update-initramfs, which now includes the necessary tools in the initramfs file to activate logical volume management

A new reboot into rice now works without problems.

worked for me.
But mine was a 64-bit install, with lvm2 missing on the iso.

What step are you having problems with?

Rebuilding initramfs on the newly installed system was necessary for me because The 'lvm2' package install changes the initramfs configuration, so thet lvm capability is available on boot.

[xaos52]

Just installed yuebing to logical volume.
No problems at all.
lvm2 is included.
bbqinstaller can install directly to a - previously prepared - logical volume.

[iMBeCil]

Thanks for the fast answers. Tomorrow I will try all suggestions ...

What I do not understand is: bloat32 has lvm2 (pre)installed (I can access lvm2 partitions from the live session from USB), but after roasting my own ISO, its live-installer doesn't recognize my existing lvm2 ... this is somewhat in contradiction with:

But mine was a 64-bit install, with lvm2 missing on the iso.

Perhaps, I am stupid at the moment ...

[xaos52]

I have not roasted any own ISO as yet. Perhaps he problem is there?
Anyhow here is easy check to see if lvm2 is loaded:

Code: Select all

dpkg -l |  grep lvm

Here is what I get on jessie:

> dpkg -l |grep lvm
ii libllvm3.2:amd64 1:3.2repack-11 amd64 Low-Level Virtual Machine (LLVM), runtime library
rc liblvm2app2.2:amd64 2.02.95-7 amd64 LVM2 application library
ii lvm2 2.02.98-6 amd64 Linux Logical Volume Manager

and launch

Code: Select all

sudo lvm

to see if the lvm utilities are there.

PS: I 've purged liblvm2app2.2:amd64 now

[machinebacon]

I am not sure if live-installer supports lvm, because I never tested it. Can anybody who managed it with live-installer enlighten us?

[iMBeCil]

Sorry guys, I was stupid ... Now it all settled in my head and now I understand what is going on:

1) live-installer (non-roasted or roasted) does not recognize lvm volumes
- I checked, I do have lvm installed (can mount lvm volume from live bloat32)
- live-installer simply does not list lvm volumes; it only recognizes PV as - let's say- /dev/sda2
- probably, live-installer has to be 'improved'? (sorry, above my expertize)

2) bbqinstall IS ABLE to install system on LVM volume; steps:
- create normal partition for /boot, ext2, lets say /dev/sda1, size approx 500MB (I don't know if stuff will work with /boot on lvm; grub2 works with /boot on lvm, but I didn't test it)
- create your pv/vg/lvm on remaining disk space as much as you want, from terminal; PV will probably be on /dev/sda2 partition
- start bbqinstall
- when asked for device for /boot, enter '/dev/sda1'
- when asked for system installation, enter '/dev/your-VG/your-LVM' (where '/dev/your-VG/your-LVM' is the name of one of the logical volume you created beforehand)

That is it. Thanks for your help, anyway. BTW, above is in accordance with drxaos comments (of course).

(Note: tested with bloat32; have no idea for other distro - obviously, depends whether lvm is installed or not.)

[machinebacon]

1) live-installer is actually dead: we have bbqinstaller, and I am still working on a replacement for live-installer (no priority for this one, it does work but actually I still propagate the CLI installer, because it is fucking quick and unproblematic, and best of all: it doesn't need X and GTK and shit)

2) thanks for the instructions

[iMBeCil]

1) yeah, I got it now :) ... BTW, I like bbqinstaller, and understand that it is easier to maintain, and perfectly OK since there are noX spins.

(I was confused with too many informations on BBQ wiki and forum ...)

[wuxmedia]

bbqinstaller FTW!

[iMBeCil]

^indeed!

[iMBeCil]

Small update:

After you install your new/another system on lvm disk, bbqinstaller script slightly messess up grub entries: effectively you cannot boot your old/previous OS. For example:

- previous, before bbqinstaller, GRUB entry I had for my 'old' OS was
linux /vmlinuz-bla-bla root=/dev/mapper/NameOfYourLVM ro quiet init=/bin/systemd
- after I install bloat32 via bbqinstaller, new GRUB boot entry is OK, but old one (above) errorneously becomes
linux /vmlinuz-bla-bla root=/dev/dm-0

Note lack of 'ro quiet init' part, and note (sort of) generic name '/dev/dm-0' for your old LVM volume.

Correcting 'root' part to previous value and adding 'init=/bin/systemd' fixes this.

HTH. (NB: above is tested in VirtualBox ...)