Forgive a Linux sinner? Hard drive alignment?

obobskivich · 05-01-2021, 08:17 AM

Note that 'sdb' and 'sba' and so forth are entirely arbitrary - they can move around both between different installs and within an install if the block devices change. This is why UUID is a better way to mount disks (which it appears your fstab is already doing). I'm not familiar with gparted (I use cfdisk) but 'small bits' of space not being 'used' when you partition a disk is normal depending on the partition size vs the disk's 'geometry' (which is itself largely an abstract concept these days).

On swap - a 'swapfile' will exist within a given partition, so it will be invisible to anything that only looks at partitions or block devices (because it looks like just another file), but can still have an fstab entry. A 'swap disk' is the more conventional partition-dedicated-to-swap approach - neither is really 'right' or 'wrong' but swapfiles seem to be gaining some popularity (for example they are now the default in Ubuntu). If you're dual-booting I would either suggest each OS has a swapfile on its partition, or that you separate the swap 'disks' (partitions) between the OSes and don't cross-mount them (as in, OS #1 swap does not appear in OS #2 fstab, and vice versa). Sharing of a swap disk is technically possible, but will likely create more headaches than it solves.

What I would suggest, if you can do it (as in, if you can tolerate this much destruction to this machine - I have no idea what kind of data you may or may not have on there but I have inferred this is a 'new build' so hopefully the answer is 'nothing significant' or 'nothing at all'): pull all but one physical storage device, lets just say the Samsung 870 because I saw that in one of the SMART outputs from above. On that single device, install one distro of your choosing and then see if everything 'works' the way you want/expect. If so, then read up on dual-booting and go forth with the other distro, paying attention to what you do as you go - hopefully everything will work out there, but if not, you'll have a better idea of where things are 'going wrong' in the configuration.

michaelk · 05-01-2021, 08:40 AM

Code:

/dev/sdb3 220562368 24456160 184832584 12% /home 

sdb 8:16 0 238.5G 0 disk
├─sdb1 8:17 0 487M 0 part /boot
├─sdb2 8:18 0 23.3G 0 part /
└─sdb3 8:19 0 214.7G 0 part /run/timeshift/backup

I also found it interesting from your first post that df and lsblk showed different mount points for sdb3.

640rider · 05-01-2021, 08:57 AM

Commencing destructive measures in 10, 9, ...

Easiest way to go!

640rider · 05-01-2021, 11:48 AM

Shiny new Linux Mint 20.1 installed.
I scrubbed the offensive swap partition with the MX Linux drive removed and startups are as they should be.
I didn't even set up Timeshift on the other drive, it's in a partition at the end of the same drive.
A little partitioning to do on the MX drive and I should be good for the next couple years anyway.

Thank you folks for your time, it's been appreciated!

I'll edit the original post with a warning to just look the other way.

computersavvy · 05-01-2021, 10:53 PM

@640rider.
It was suggested that you use [code] tags and not [quote] tags for your text posted from the terminal output so it maintains the same formatting as you see on the screen. Your multiple quotes above are hard to read because they lost the original formatting.

640rider · 05-01-2021, 11:22 PM

I did go back to the first post and warn against venturing into this mess. Pollen season here.

rnturn · 05-02-2021, 01:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 640rider

"bash: /etc/fstab: Permission denied"

/etc/fstab is a text file---not an executable. You shouldn't have any trouble displaying its contents. Unless it's missing. (And the error message you posted doesn't indicate that to be the case.

Quote:

Gave it a sudo and got this return

"bash: sudo/etc/fstab: No such file or directory"

As I mentioned above, /etc/fstab is a text file (describing your partitions and where they're mounted, options, etc.). You would display it with

Code:

$ cat /etc/fstab

Unless you're running some odd Linux distribution that has locked the contents of fstab away from non-root users prying eyes, you shouldn't need to use sudo to display it. But if you did you'd issue

Code:

$ sudo cat /etc/fstab

(You might get prompted for a password.)

Another viewpoint: Label your filesystems and tweak /etc/fstab to specify each filesystem using "LABEL=fs-label" a la:

Code:

LABEL=leap152 /     ext4 <options>
LABEL=homefs  /home ext4 <options>
...

UUIDs seem to be used by default by most distributions but you can often override that during installation. And you can certainly change the method of specifying a filesystem after installation. To label a filesystem, see tune2fs(8). Once you've labelled them, you can switch to mounting by label in fstab.

HTH...

wpeckham · 05-02-2021, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rnturn

/etc/fstab is a text file---not an executable. You shouldn't have any trouble displaying its contents. Unless it's missing. (And the error message you posted doesn't indicate that to be the case.

As I mentioned above, /etc/fstab is a text file (describing your partitions and where they're mounted, options, etc.). You would display it with

Code:

$ cat /etc/fstab

Unless you're running some odd Linux distribution that has locked the contents of fstab away from non-root users prying eyes, you shouldn't need to use sudo to display it. But if you did you'd issue

Code:

$ sudo cat /etc/fstab

(You might get prompted for a password.)

Another viewpoint: Label your filesystems and tweak /etc/fstab to specify each filesystem using "LABEL=fs-label" a la:

Code:

LABEL=leap152 /     ext4 <options>
LABEL=homefs  /home ext4 <options>
...

UUIDs seem to be used by default by most distributions but you can often override that during installation. And you can certainly change the method of specifying a filesystem after installation. To label a filesystem, see tune2fs(8). Once you've labelled them, you can switch to mounting by label in fstab.

HTH...

While I use labels and that is the way I do it, I am not at all sure this user is ready for making manual edits to fstab. Best to let him "season" a bit before suggesting such things.

640rider · 05-02-2021, 11:36 AM

Haven't killed it yet and at present I'm logged into this forum on a HP Pavilion DV8000 dual drive MX Linux/Peppermint 32bit.
Peppermint is going the way of the Dodos, repo sigs and all, I don't need it.
Love the tactile of this old rig but she's not any speedster by any means.

The T430 is booting just fine now although I haven't gotten to all the partitioning on the EVO yet. More to life than computers but I do appreciate people and forums like this when I have to deal with them.
Hey look, I got all fancy Cody. I don't deal with this stuff all the time so...

Pick snot like boogers from your eyes sometime than get back me on the seasoning!

Code:

System:    Host: <filter> Kernel: 4.19.0-16-686-pae i686 bits: 32 compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.19.0-16-686-pae 
           root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.14.2 tk: Gtk 3.24.5 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm4 dm: LightDM 1.26.0 
           Distro: MX-19.4_386 patito feo March 31  2021 base: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Pavilion dv8000 (RG475UA#ABA) 
           v: F.17 serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 30A6 v: 56.40 serial: <filter> BIOS: Hewlett-Packard 
           v: F.17 date: 08/15/2006 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT1 charge: 97.7 Wh condition: 97.7/97.7 Wh (100%) volts: 14.8/14.8 
           model: Hewlett-Packard Primary type: Li-ion serial: N/A status: Full 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel T2250 bits: 32 type: MCP arch: M Yonah family: 6 
           model-id: E (14) stepping: 8 microcode: 39 L2 cache: 2048 KiB 
           flags: nx pae sse sse2 sse3 bogomips: 6916 
           Speed: 798 MHz min/max: 800/1733 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 858 2: 961 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: Vulnerable 
           Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion 
           Type: mds status: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode; SMT disabled 
           Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
           Type: spec_store_bypass status: Not affected 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling 
           Type: srbds status: Not affected 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA G73M [GeForce Go 7600] vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: N/A 
           bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:0398 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: nouveau,vesa unloaded: fbdev,modesetting 
           alternate: nv resolution: 1024x768~N/A 
           OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 7.0 128 bits) v: 3.3 Mesa 18.3.6 compat-v: 3.1 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard 
           driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:27d8 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.0-16-686-pae 
Network:   Device-1: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network vendor: Hewlett-Packard 
           driver: iwl3945 v: in-tree:s port: 2000 bus ID: 06:00.0 chip ID: 8086:4222 
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Intel PRO/100 VE Network vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: e100 
           v: 3.5.24-k2-NAPI port: 3000 bus ID: 08:08.0 chip ID: 8086:1092 
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 614.81 GiB used: 6.35 GiB (1.0%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Toshiba model: MQ01ABF050 size: 465.76 GiB block size: 
           physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 1.5 Gb/s rotation: 5400 rpm serial: <filter> 
           rev: 1D scheme: MBR 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Western Digital model: WD1600BEVT-75ZCT2 size: 149.05 GiB 
           block size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 1.5 Gb/s rotation: 5400 rpm 
           serial: <filter> rev: 1A11 scheme: MBR 
Partition: ID-1: / raw size: 147.02 GiB size: 143.71 GiB (97.75%) used: 6.35 GiB (4.4%) fs: ext4 
           dev: /dev/sdb1 
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 2.00 GiB used: 520 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap swappiness: 15 (default 60) 
           cache pressure: 100 (default) dev: /dev/sdb2 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 55.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://la.mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ buster main non-free
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vivaldi.list 
           1: deb http://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb/ stable main
Info:      Processes: 192 Uptime: 14m Memory: 1.97 GiB used: 820.7 MiB (40.7%) Init: SysVinit 
           v: 2.93 runlevel: 5 default: 5 Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 alt: 8 Shell: quick-system-in 
           running in: quick-system-in inxi: 3.0.36

Still haven't found that damn "any" key!