linux without partitions

rogue_spider · 03-27-2011, 05:08 PM

is it possible to make lfs without partitions?
just have folders
not sure what its called tried looking up but could not find president of it anywhere that i could use.

kbp · 03-27-2011, 05:26 PM

I'm guessing you mean creating files to be the 'partitions' and mounting them via the loopback driver ?

Code:

dd if=/dev/zero of=lfs_root.img bs=1024 count=10000000
mount -o loop,rw /lfs_root.img /mnt/lfs

Adjust as necessary

cheers

syg00 · 03-27-2011, 08:32 PM

Presuming the OP actually means what s/he asked, Linux supports filesystems built directly on the device as well as on partitions. I have no idea whether lfs can be built on such. I suspect any issues confronted shouldn't be insurmountable.

stress_junkie · 03-27-2011, 08:47 PM

LFS most commonly refers to Linux From Scratch.

However I recall that LFS also meant the standard Linux file structure, meaning the types of files that go into each directory such as /etc and /bin and /usr etc. I tried to find corroborating documentation but it is scarcer than hen's teeth. Maybe it is just my dementia flaring up.

In any case it is possible to create a file system on a bare disk. I'm having trouble finding corroborating documentation there as well but I know that I've heard about it. Nevertheless it seems like a bad idea if the person doing it hopes to ask questions about the file system when they run into trouble. Imagine the confusion when the person asks a question and receives the standard instruction to post the result of fdisk -l.

LVM, the logical volume manager in Linux, can treat a bare disk the same way that Windows treats a dynamic volume. LVM can be useful to resize partitions that are already in use.

I also found documentation about Linux LDM, the logical disk manager in Linux. Evidently it is also used to create the same effect as Windows Dynamic Volumes. Here is the reference.
http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/ldm.txt

Anyway I will repeat that it seems like a bad idea for a newbie to create a file system on an unpartitioned disk.

syg00 · 03-27-2011, 09:10 PM

Given this threads location, I think we can safely assume the intent of the acronym.
Perhaps the other reference you were looking for was fhs.

rogue_spider · 03-28-2011, 11:18 AM

LFS refers to Linux From Scratch.

Quote:

I also found documentation about Linux LDM, the logical disk manager in Linux. Evidently it is also used to create the same effect as Windows Dynamic Volumes. Here is the reference.
http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/ldm.txt

Anyway I will repeat that it seems like a bad idea for a newbie to create a file system on an unpartitioned disk.

this was very helpful
so LDM is already implemented into Ubuntu so i can reference it as my file structure?
and still adapt LFS on top of it?
or should i just give up and download distro and accept whats given me.

stress_junkie · 03-28-2011, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rogue_spider

so LDM is already implemented into Ubuntu so i can reference it as my file structure?
and still adapt LFS on top of it?
or should i just give up and download distro and accept whats given me.

If you read the entire article, as I just did for the first time, you will see that LDM refers to a Windows disk partitioning scheme. You can enable it in Linux so that lilo can boot a Linux distribution on an LDM managed disk. Nevertheless it is a Microsoft device.

If you want to dual boot Windows and Linux then I would recommend staying away from either LDM or Linux LVM (Logical Volume Manager).

If you just want Linux on a disk then LVM would work. However I would caution you to search LQ for problems associated with using LVM. There are lots of questions/threads started by people who were experiencing problems.

Keep It Simple.

If your disk is less than or equal to 2 terabytes then just use the traditional MBR style disk partitioning system.

rogue_spider · 03-28-2011, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stress_junkie

If you read the entire article, as I just did for the first time, you will see that LDM refers to a Windows disk partitioning scheme. You can enable it in Linux so that lilo can boot a Linux distribution on an LDM managed disk. Nevertheless it is a Microsoft device.

If you want to dual boot Windows and Linux then I would recommend staying away from either LDM or Linux LVM (Logical Volume Manager).

If you just want Linux on a disk then LVM would work. However I would caution you to search LQ for problems associated with using LVM. There are lots of questions/threads started by people who were experiencing problems.

Keep It Simple.

If your disk is less than or equal to 2 terabytes then just use the traditional MBR style disk partitioning system.

sry got excited when i read http://www.linux-ntfs.org/
no i just didna like the idea of being partitioned when i could use a file structured system and not have to worry
about it later.