Sabayon - failed install entirely plus LVM

[FatRakoon]

I have used Sabayon for a while... Since v3.5 to be exact.

From v14 I have had issues installing.

At v13 installs fine, but then after some updates, it fails, because of those updates.

On a fresh install, it also fails, but now I cannot seem to installed withotu it wanting me to use LVM

The thing is, that my Linux Laptop has a 128GB SSD for root and a 1TB Hybrid Drive for \home and the swap is an 8GB on the SSD.

This is how I have done it for a while now.

But I cannot get it to do anythign but LVM

I hve tried simply removing the HD, installing to the single SSD and then changing the fstab to point to the HD for home, but I have not even been able to install it at all.

I have asked on the sabayon forums but had zero replies.

Anyone care to offer me any help?

Im currently using mint and sure its nice and in fact I do like it a lot, but I want Sabayon.

Thanks.

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

I know this isn't going to be immediatly helpful but why do you not want to use lvm?

I personnally avoided it for years but in the last 12 months I wouldn't recommend anything else unless thee was a use case requiring it be avoided.

 

[FatRakoon]

You dont understand... I DONT WANT TO USE IT - ITS FORCING ME TO!

Again, I have 2 HDs

HD0 = 128GB SSD for /
HD1 = 1TB for /home

But trying to install Sabayon, it forces me to use LVM and so I tried to install it on just the SSD and then I can add the 1TB back in and edit the fstab file to make the 1TB into /home

 

[lamboman]

You dont understand... I DONT WANT TO USE IT - ITS FORCING ME TO!

Again, I have 2 HDs

HD0 = 128GB SSD for /
HD1 = 1TB for /home

But trying to install Sabayon, it forces me to use LVM and so I tried to install it on just the SSD and then I can add the 1TB back in and edit the fstab file to make the 1TB into /home

Firstly, I very much doubt it is forcing you to. Secondly, having a look at the documentation and screenshots, there is an option for custom partitions (Create Custom Layout)?

What's the exact problem? All you've said is that it doesn't work, do you mean it won't boot, won't load the OS properly, what?

As for LVM, why try to avoid it anyway? There are no real disadvantages, you could set up LVM and set everything up as you want it, just two separate volume groups. Extremely easy to use too!

 

[FatRakoon]

The option is greyed out. I too have seen the pictures, but in Sabayon 14 and above the option is greyed out and its greyed out on all the systems that I try it on, even when I try it on VMWARE FFS!

When I say it wont work, thatst he first issue I get.

Even when I accept that, it still fails somewhere down the line and I cannot get it to install at all?

Why avoid LVM?

Because, as I keeop saying... I want to use the SSD for root and the HDD for /Home - Its much faster than LVM, plus I already have all my data on /home on the 1TB HD so I dont need to reformat it.

 

[lamboman]

The option is greyed out. I too have seen the pictures, but in Sabayon 14 and above the option is greyed out and its greyed out on all the systems that I try it on, even when I try it on VMWARE FFS!

When I say it wont work, thatst he first issue I get.

Even when I accept that, it still fails somewhere down the line and I cannot get it to install at all?

Why avoid LVM?

Because, as I keeop saying... I want to use the SSD for root and the HDD for /Home - Its much faster than LVM, plus I already have all my data on /home on the 1TB HD so I dont need to reformat it.

Really strange, I don't understand why it'd fail so consistently for you yet nobody else has the same issues (especially with VMware). It's not a distro that I know anything about unfortunately, but really the best course of action would be to determine which updates are causing the problems in 13 then adjust accordingly. Not helpful I know

As for using LVM, if you must use that distro and you can get it working with LVM, you might as well. Backing up and restoring that data shouldn't take too long, and LVM won't decrease performance as you stated. As before, you can set up that configuration using LVM, just have one volume group for each drive.

I know people suck up to LVM constantly nowadays but there's a good reason for it. None of this constant moving and recreating partitions, offers numerous features of more advanced file systems (e.g. snapshots) so there's no need to move to more "experimental" file systems for the majority, and offers RAID within with no real disadvantage other than personal preference for management. In the case of expanding your /home, it'd be as simple as adding a new drive to the volume group, extending the LV and file system, job done.

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

I know this isn't going to be immediately helpful but why do you not want to use lvm?.

You dont understand... I DONT WANT TO USE IT - ITS FORCING ME TO!

I do understand preference, but had you read the question I was trying to determine if the reason was pure preference or if you had a technical reason for not wanting it.

And as I was stating that until the last 12 months, were I've been using it in anger in a corporate and now home environment, I was not an advocate for it.

However I would be remiss, if your reason is purely preference, if i did not
a) point out there are numerous benefits of it over basic partitioning
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/benefitsoflvmsmall.html
b) Performance wise there is no real difference assuming you are a normal person and not doing a huge IO intensive DB (from the fact you have 2 disks I would doubt this anyway) or something similar.
http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/7122/does-lvm-impact-performance
c) Two benefits i will highlight are migrating data to a new disk with pv migrate and adding disks to volume groups to add space without having to re-partition and move data around.

Small point to help you if you choose to use LVM after this.
For your setup create two PVs and Two Volume Groups.
rootvg - SSD PV
uservg or datavg (whichever turns you on) = 1TB PV
create your LVs on rootvg as normal
create homelv on uservg/datavg

you mention a hybrid disk and I dont have one but I assume that it appears as a separate physical disk. so Create a thrid PV & VG called swapvg and assign it to it then create swaplv on swapvg

Now if you ever in the future get a second hybrid disk you can assign the ssd portion to swapvg and increase your swap space if you want and assign the data portion to uservg/datavg.

If you are still seeing issues and really want to go down the partitioning route then post back and let me know i'll happily download a copy and see if i can reproduce on a VM.

(Disclaimer links provided are pretty much the 1st results from google search as i am too lazy to reinvent the wheel and type up the reasons / information here. I gave them a quick scan to check they seemed accurate which the did but feel free to do further research)

 

[FatRakoon]

Really strange, I don't understand why it'd fail so consistently for you yet nobody else has the same issues (especially with VMware). It's not a distro that I know anything about unfortunately, but really the best course of action would be to determine which updates are causing the problems in 13 then adjust accordingly.

Actually, there are tons that have the same issues and its been getting worse andworse for a fair number of us... I gave up on the Sabayon forums and so decided to give you lot a shot.

Agreed on within a VM, but then it just hangs and never gets even to the desktop in the Live option.

I had thought of bad ISOs but again, they passed the MD5 sums and also reloading made no difference, but again, why is it that v13 is ok, but once it starts to update into v14 it messes up! - its as if my PCs have no intention of using v14 for some reason?

MUST I use it? No, but its a shame that I have been using it since v3.5 and its been so reliable and done everything I have needed it to do, that I have never had to dig into it at all, and now, all of a sudden, its being a bugger to me.

No, I am also enjoying Debian based distros and Im having a mental arguement right now over ubuntu or MiNT and Mate or KDE... Im just being me...An idiot at the best of times.

LVM etc

I may have a proper look, its purely because its a new idea to me and I am not entirely happy about changing to yet another filesystem / format when I am not at all sure the who what when where how and why of it. no other reason.

you mention a hybrid disk and I dont have one but I assume that it appears as a separate physical disk.

No, it just looks like a normal HD.. In fact they claim its as fast as an SSD - Its not! - nowhere near! Waste of bloody money to be honest.

If you are still seeing issues and really want to go down the partitioning route then post back and let me know i'll happily download a copy and see if i can reproduce on a VM.

By all means have a go! - Im using VMWare 10 however as I said, I have the same issues on my Lappies too and they are mixed AMD and ATI with Intel and ATI GFX, so ... ?

 

[lamboman]

Actually, there are tons that have the same issues and its been getting worse andworse for a fair number of us... I gave up on the Sabayon forums and so decided to give you lot a shot.

Agreed on within a VM, but then it just hangs and never gets even to the desktop in the Live option.

I had thought of bad ISOs but again, they passed the MD5 sums and also reloading made no difference, but again, why is it that v13 is ok, but once it starts to update into v14 it messes up! - its as if my PCs have no intention of using v14 for some reason?

MUST I use it? No, but its a shame that I have been using it since v3.5 and its been so reliable and done everything I have needed it to do, that I have never had to dig into it at all, and now, all of a sudden, its being a bugger to me.

Honestly, if that's the case, I'd just move onto something else, really isn't worth the hassle.

I may have a proper look, its purely because its a new idea to me and I am not entirely happy about changing to yet another filesystem / format when I am not at all sure the who what when where how and why of it. no other reason.

As a quick explanation, as you know normally we split into partitions, then have filesystems on each. The problem with conventional partitioning is that our filesystems are limited to a single partition, on a single disk. If that filesystem is full, there is nothing we can really do aside from shuffling partitions around if we have free space on the drive. So if that 1TB /home partition is full, we can't add anything more to /home if our drive is full - we need to start using symlinks and/or other horrible things, or we have to migrate to a bigger drive. As you can imagine, a pain on even a home server (having tens of filesystems all serving the same purpose, or having to constantly transfer to new drives etc.).

LVM gives us more flexibility, with filesystems being placed in logical volumes (akin to a partition conventionally, in a very simplistic way), which can be split into multiple chunks (segments), across multiple drives (grouped in volume groups). So for example, I could have this arrangement on 1TB drive:

| filesystem_A (10GB) | filesystem_B (10GB) | filesystem_A (+10GB) | etc. |

A second drive would then automatically be used when the first is full. So we can assign in chunks, then when we need more space on a filesystem, we can simply add more on to the end and extend it.

It's pretty much used universally now because there isn't really a disadvantage in using it for the majority, and can still be set up in the "traditional" way.