need a bit of help with lvm

thelastblack · 12-24-2012, 02:59 PM

i have ubuntu 12.10 and i am using an ext4 partition for /boot and 2 lvms for /home and / .
i wanted to install elementary os, but the problem is it doesnt have lvm support in installation.
and help is needed here. i searched a bit but i couldnt find anything useful (or at least i thought like that).
can i just convert my lvms to ext4? or i have to get lvm working under live session of elementary os?
thx in advance

syg00 · 12-24-2012, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thelastblack

can i just convert my lvms to ext4?

Nope - not in-place. You would need to back up everything (always a good idea anyway) and delete reallocate. Not for the faint-hearted.

Quote:

or i have to get lvm working under live session of elementary os?

Probably wouldn't help, merely add to the confusion. The installer will need to reboot, and the LVM support must be available early.
The LVM components (pv,vg,lv) as well as the filesystems themselves can be resized (smaller), but it isn't straightforward, and needs to be done in the correct order. Hopefully Ubuntu has a GUI that'll help - I've never used LVM on Ubuntu, so can't say for sure. If you can do that and free some space on the disk you should (might) be o.k. to install the other distro. Let's see the output of the following (use sudo)

Code:

fdisk -l
df -hT
pvdisplay

syg00 · 12-24-2012, 09:05 PM

A quick google suggests system-config-lvm should be available via apt. Works well in RH/Fedora from whence it came.

thelastblack · 12-25-2012, 02:51 AM

here is what i did:
i installed lvm2 package in live session and used this command:

Code:

vgchange -a y

this way, my lvm partitions were correctly detected by installer, and i installed my linux.
i have a 500mb ext4 (not in lvm) for /boot and 2 lvms for /home and /.
but system does not boot. it says timeout waiting for root partition and just drops to a shell (probably grub, it is initframs or something like that)
i have read somewhere i have to chroot into my installation and install lvm2 and cryptsetup, then add crypdevice in kernel parameter.
i did above things but still the same issue.
i will try system-config-lvm and say results, asa i get to my computer.
thx for reply

thelastblack · 12-25-2012, 10:09 AM

here are the outputs:

Code:

# fdisk -l


Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x7a3cfdca

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048     1026047      512000   83  Linux
/dev/sda2         1026048   488396799   243685376   8e  Linux LVM

#df -hT

Filesystem     Type       Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/cow           overlayfs 1003M   63M  941M   7% /
udev           devtmpfs   993M  4.0K  993M   1% /dev
tmpfs          tmpfs      401M  836K  401M   1% /run
/dev/sdb       iso9660    621M  621M     0 100% /cdrom
/dev/loop0     squashfs   593M  593M     0 100% /rofs
tmpfs          tmpfs     1003M   24K 1003M   1% /tmp
none           tmpfs      5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
none           tmpfs     1003M   76K 1003M   1% /run/shm

#pvdisplay

  --- Physical volume ---
  PV Name               /dev/sda2
  VG Name               vg_vahidjoon
  PV Size               232.40 GiB / not usable 22.00 MiB
  Allocatable           yes (but full)
  PE Size               32.00 MiB
  Total PE              7436
  Free PE               0
  Allocated PE          7436
  PV UUID               5tc0FU-iDi9-Q0X1-25Tk-mzBr-D16I-rRGBw8

and i installed system-config-lvm, what should i do with it? it has a gui which shows me my lvm partitions.

---------- Post added 12-25-12 at 11:09 AM ----------

here are the outputs:

Code:

# fdisk -l


Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x7a3cfdca

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048     1026047      512000   83  Linux
/dev/sda2         1026048   488396799   243685376   8e  Linux LVM

#df -hT

Filesystem     Type       Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/cow           overlayfs 1003M   63M  941M   7% /
udev           devtmpfs   993M  4.0K  993M   1% /dev
tmpfs          tmpfs      401M  836K  401M   1% /run
/dev/sdb       iso9660    621M  621M     0 100% /cdrom
/dev/loop0     squashfs   593M  593M     0 100% /rofs
tmpfs          tmpfs     1003M   24K 1003M   1% /tmp
none           tmpfs      5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
none           tmpfs     1003M   76K 1003M   1% /run/shm

#pvdisplay

  --- Physical volume ---
  PV Name               /dev/sda2
  VG Name               vg_vahidjoon
  PV Size               232.40 GiB / not usable 22.00 MiB
  Allocatable           yes (but full)
  PE Size               32.00 MiB
  Total PE              7436
  Free PE               0
  Allocated PE          7436
  PV UUID               5tc0FU-iDi9-Q0X1-25Tk-mzBr-D16I-rRGBw8

and i installed system-config-lvm, what should i do with it? it has a gui which shows me my lvm partitions.

thelastblack · 12-25-2012, 10:35 AM

problem solved by my hands! good...
i had to change a line in grub.cfg
the line was

Code:

set root='(hd0,msdos1)'

and i changed it to

Code:

set root='vg_vahidjoon-lv_root'

and i am good.