LVM on root [was Re: [CLUE-Tech] Moving data between partitions?]

[David Anselmi]

Keith Hellman wrote:
> 
> This has been a good thread - I simply wanted to throw my two cents in.
[...]
> * The biggest issue is that although a distro may SUPPORT LVM, that may
> just mean they have the admin tools rpm/tgz/pkg file.  They don't support
> LVM INSTALLATION, which is critical requirement to using LVM - building
> your workstation with it.  SuSE provides LVM at install time, and this is
> the biggest single reason I use SuSE.  I have heard tell that RH 7.3 now
> supports LVM installs, but I dont' use RH, so I can't comment beyond that.
>  As for Mandrake, Debian, or Gentoo; I dunno.
[...]

Keith, does SuSE use LVM for the root partition?  You make it sound like 
it doesn't.  I read (about a year ago) about someone using a pivot root 
to make that possible.  Since I don't know how pivot root works it 
sounded like a lot of work to set up (it was an LFS system though, so 
probably not much *extra* work).

As for other distros, Mandrake has LVM as a partition type in the 
installer.  I know there's more to it than just setting the type, so I'm 
not sure how well it works.  I didn't try it.

I've never seen anything on Debian about LVM.  I guess the packages are 
available, but no install support.  Still though, if X works easy enough 
with Debian (my next install to start moving off my W2K box), "I'll make 
it fit" on LVM (I always like the chance to use the BIG hammer). 
Otherwise I'll be trying Mandrake.  And rather than pine for a 
ntfs-resize, maybe I'll just buy another disk.

Dave