[Leaplist] "SWAP" --- " RHEL Logical Volume Management System"

[patrick]

William H. Ferguson wrote:
> To the Leaplist.org group:
> (I have also asked these questions of a man whom I consider to be another  Linux 
> expert.)
> 
> I attended the Install-Fest for the first time on Saturday, 5-3-08.

Happy to have met you, and am glad John, who is a really well learned
master of Linux and networking, was able to assist you.  I wanted to,
but, besides some other prior commitments to fix the network, and some
school computers, along with the fact that John is so well versed in the
areas you desired to work with, I had to bow out...

> 
> I had not heard of nor read about the Logical Volume Management Installation 
> Partitioning System until I attempted to install Fedora Core 8 on a new computer 
> about a week ago.
> 
> I was previously somewhat familiar with the 4th Partition in Linux 

The concept of the "Extended Partitioning" of drives was invented by
some expert computer engineers who found that the addressing limits set
by DOS could best be overcome by the invention of multiple partitions,
and that the Extended Partition permitted expansion on that original
scheme, upon hitting the theoretical limits established in the earlier
scheme.

It was out and being used by us in the mid 1980's, but, Linux was
written by Linux Torvalds in 1992.

which is
> called the Extended Partition. I understood that many Directories could be 
> created in that Extended 4th Partition
> 
> I used that Partitioning approach back around Fedora Core 5 to install Fedora. I 
> created     /boot/     / root     and Swap      as Primary Partitions and then 
> created the Extended Partition as my 4th Primary Partition. Within that 4th 
> Partition I created several Partitions which I wanted, and one of them was  
> /home.            
> 
> With that prologue I write to ask these two basic (to me)  questions:
> 
> 1.
> Can the User still install a Linux Distribution (I happen to use Fedora Core 8 
> now) without ever using the Logical Volume Management System if he so desires? 
> Similar to what I summarized in two paragraphs above this one.

Yes.

> 
> John Simpson kindly spent quite some time trying to help me understand the 
> general structure of the Logical Volume Management System. I have since read 
> most of the information that is found on the web at the RedHatEnterpriseLinux 5 
> Installation section and the Deployment documentation at RedHatEnterprise Linux.
> It's scope seems vast to this uninitiate. Daunting, I'd call it.
> 
> 2.
> Does SWAP always have to be a Primary Partition?
>     Or can SWAP be a not-Primary Partition?
>     If User is using the Logical Volume Management Partitioning program for 
> installation of Partitions, can User put SWAP in the Logical Volume Management 
> Group as a Logical Volume rather than make it a Primary Partition?
> 
> I don't remember where I got the idea that Swap */had/* to be a Primary 
> Partition but I have had that notion in my head for a few years.  John, during 
> Install-Fest,  said  that SWAP could be either  a Primary Partition, or a 
> non-Primary Partition or could be a Partition under the Logical Volume 
> Management System.
> 
> I'm not asking for you to spend a lot of your valuable time on this subject. But 
> I'd appreciate your succinct grasp of the situation.

Please be aware that it might not be popular now to create separate
partitions for the folders, as a partition can hold many folders. /
(root), /home, /usr , and dozens more, reside on one partition on many
distros.  I build up older machines for children to enhance their
schooling, and drives are a premium, when I have a single 4.3GB or 6.4GB
drive.

A 400MHz system gets a primary and a 512MB swap partition (about double
the installed 256MB ram.

> 
> Sending many thanks for your guidance,
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> William
> W4DSR
> William H. Ferguson
> Flagler Beach, FL
> williamhf at cfl.rr.com <mailto:williamhf at cfl.rr.com>
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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