Re: Recommended partition scheme for nilfs2

["LinuxBSDos.com" <finid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Just one more thing.

For btrfs and other file systems, it is customary to have a separate boot
partition, so that at a minimum, you have 3 partitions - /boot, Swap, and
/. Would that be a problem for nilfs2?

If it is ok to have a separate boot partition, does it make sense to use
nilfs2 on it? Or is it better to use a non-journaling file system, like
Linux Native (ext2) on the boot partition, and nilfs2 on /.

Thanks for your time.


--
Fini D.


>
> Thanks a bundle. That pretty much addresses all I/we need to know about
> disk partitioning per nilfs2.
>
>
> --
> Fini D.
>
>
>> On Wed, 6 Jul 2011 06:29:53 -0600, "LinuxBSDos.com" wrote:
>>>
>>> Thank you.
>>>
>>> With regards to /home, will there be a negative impact on the way
>>> nilfs2
>>> works if /home is on a separate partition?
>>
>> Usually this is a good usage.
>>
>> Possible demerits are:
>>
>>  * We have to mount and access snapshots separately per partition.
>>
>>  * Checkpoint numbers increase differently if we use two or more nilfs
>>    partitions.  This makes it a bit troublesome to choose consistent
>>    snapshots for multiple nilfs2 partitions.
>>
>>  * User needs to specify a device argument for lscp and other snapshot
>>    commands for multiple nilfs2 partitions.
>>
>>    The current nilfs utilities does not provide the way to specify a
>>    target partition with a directory argument.
>>
>>  * GC daemons run and reside for each nilfs2 partition, and this may
>>    require more memory and cpu time.  Usually this is not an issue
>>    because GC daemons will sleep while having enough free space.
>>
>>
>> As long as applying nilfs2 only to /home, I think there is no
>> mentionable demerit except the system is not protected with the
>> automatic checkpoints/snapshots.
>>
>>
>>> On Ubuntu and nilfs2, Ubuntu's installer does not have nilfs2 as a file
>>> system option, how did you install Natty N. on nilfs2?
>>
>> I cannot remember how I built the current natty environment, but
>> usually I do that manually with debootstrap program.  The following is
>> a copy of my memorandum showing a rough scheme:
>>
>>  1) Make a bootable usb pendrive.
>>
>>  2) Install nilfs-utils and debootstrap in it.
>>
>>  3) Boot from the usb memory and format the main drive with nilfs2:
>>
>>    # mkfs -t nilfs2 /dev/sda8
>>
>>  4) Mount it and run debootstrap.
>>
>>    # mount -t nilfs2 /dev/sda8 /nilfs
>>    # debootstrap --arch amd64 natty /nilfs/
>> http://xxx.xxx.xx.xx/xxxxx/ubuntu/
>>
>>  5) Edit /nilfs/etc/fstab.
>>
>>  6) Edit or copy /etc/hosts.
>>
>>  7) Copy /home as needed.
>>
>>    # rsync -ax /home/ /nilfs/home/
>>
>>  8) Do chroot
>>
>>    # chroot /nilfs /bin/bash
>>    # mount -t proc none /proc
>>    # mount -t sysfs none /sys
>>    # mount /dev/sda8 /boot  (if using a separate boot partition)
>>
>>  9) Set root password
>>
>>    # passwd
>>
>>  10) Make an acount
>>
>>    # groupadd -g 1000 <my-user-name>
>>    # useradd -g <my-user-name> -u 1000 -c "My Name" -s /bin/bash
>> <my-user-name>
>>    # passwd <my-user-name>
>>
>>  11) Edit /nilfs/etc/apt/sources.list
>>
>>  12) Set timezone
>>
>>    # dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
>>
>>  13) Install packages
>>
>>    # apt-get update
>>    # apt-get install rsync ssh openssh-server sudo gcc make git-core
>>      automake autoconf aptitude ...
>>
>>  14) Build and install nilfs-utils
>>
>>  15) Manually build and install util-linux-ng which supports nilfs2.
>>      This is required to mount nilfs2 partitions by a UUID or a LABEL.
>>
>>  16) Install and setup grub2, and run update-grub program
>>
>>  17) Reboot
>>
>>  18) Install desktop environment
>>
>>
>> I think this needs trial and error for natty since this memorandum was
>> originally made for Debian.
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>> Ryusuke Konishi
>>
>>> I know these are not dev-related questions, but I'm planning on writing
>>> several nilfs2-related tutorials, and need to know exactly how a disk
>>> should be partitioned for it.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Fini D.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> > Hi,
>>> > On Mon, 4 Jul 2011 13:28:39 -0600, "LinuxBSDos.com" wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >> Hi,
>>> >>
>>> >> A couple of Linux distributions now have nilfs2 as an optional file
>>> >> system
>>> >> during installation and I just want to find out what the minimum
>>> number
>>> >> of
>>> >> partitions required for a nilfs2-based installation is.
>>> >>
>>> >> Is it necessary to create separate partitions for the major file
>>> >> systems,
>>> >> or does nilfs2 require just one root file system directory? Is /home
>>> on
>>> >> a
>>> >> separate partition necessary?
>>> >
>>> > nilfs2 can be used as a root filesystem and it is bootable from
>>> recent
>>> > grub2.  I'm using nilfs2 for the root filesystem on my ubuntu-natty
>>> > laptop.
>>> >
>>> > One restriction is that nilfs2 does not support swap file, so users
>>> > need at least two partitions, swap and root.
>>> >
>>> > /home is not necessary to be a separate partition.
>>> >
>>> >> Lastly, can I encrypt a nilfs2 partition?
>>> >
>>> > nilfs2 itself does not support encryption.  Instead, it can be used
>>> > together with ecryptfs or dm-crypt.
>>> >
>>> > Thanks,
>>> > Ryusuke Konishi
>>> >
>>> >> Thanks,
>>> >>
>>> >> --
>>> >> Fini D.
>>> >>
>>> >> --
>>> >> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe
>>> linux-nilfs"
>>> >> in
>>> >> the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> >> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>>> > --
>>> > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe
>>> linux-nilfs"
>>> in
>>> > the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> > More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-nilfs"
>>> in
>>> the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>> --
>> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-nilfs"
>> in
>> the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>>
>
>
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-nilfs" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>


--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-nilfs" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html