the LVM concept freaks me out so I want out and create partitions to my own logic
 

Firstly is there a quick and consistent way of making a boot disk, I d not want to reinvent what right now is a nicely functioning system, I have a rw cd loaded and as soon as I can find out how: (??)

Also this system has failed me three times since upgrading from Centos 5.7 to 6.2, the X server became unresponsive. So I want partitions so that when I have to reinstall the system my data and programs are safe. Is there a better way of doing it than the standard DOS way with which I am familiar??

This machine is a dedicated Linux machine, it's soul purpose is to become my animation studio and web page design studio - so the whole server client thing is a bit overwhelming - do I need to know this??

Is there somewhere on the web where the exact proper way to set up an Xorg.conf file is in straight forward language and a happy amount of cutting and pasting allowed??

Doing it myself is probably what wreched the previous three installs, this time I am trying to keep my mitts off, but I want my ps2 mouse to work and the wacom tablet - sigh.

I plan on diving in and doing the partition thing tonight if no one stops me, but I'd gfeel better about it with a personalised boot cd and somne guidance.

thanks, this forum is a huge help or I'd be back doing windows.

Ok, some notes.

1. do NOT do in-place upgrades across major versions (eg 5.x -> 6.x) in RH based systems (eg Centos). It's not supported for very good reasons.
You can do 'yum update' which will only update to latest minor version of current major (eg 5.6 ->5.7)
Apologies if I've mis-understood "upgrading from Centos 5.7 to 6.2, "

2. you can check the current partitions via
that last is lowercase 'L'

3. On CENTOS5 install DVD, you can set your bios to boot from the DVD and then
immediately enter
when it asks you what install you want.
I'm assuming CENTOS6 is the same.
This mounts the HDD from the DVD, but only as a 'data' disk ie it runs only from the DVD, so you can play with the HDD.

HTH
Useful links
http://www.linuxtopia.org/online_boo...ion/index.html
http://www.linuxtopia.org/online_boo..._6_deployment/

I was wise enough to do the upgrade via LiveCD. I did my share of reading, but that took me to 6.0 used yum the rest of the way. As is I find this version a bit slower but maybe it wasn't as turnkey as the dvd I bought last time round, this one was a quick cd download, a link I found on Centos' site.


You mean to get a new rescue cd I just type linux rescue plus cd drive path?

1. RH does not support upgrades across major versions eg from eg RHEL5 -> RHEL 6; method is unimportant(!); its just not a stable result.
If you want to go from 5.x -> 6.y, you MUST do a fresh install of 6 (in which case just get the latest version, then do a yum update for any minor updates that occurred since the DVD or whatever was created)

2. The normal install media eg DVD of RHEL/CENTOS (at least for v5) has an option at the install bootup screen to type in


linux rescue


at the prompt; no parameters reqd.
You don't 'get a new rescue cd', rescue mode is a built-in capability of the install SW.
http://www.linuxtopia.org/online_boo...mode-boot.html

Only as an aside: I wonder about your choice for Centos because it ships with stable versions (some say "old") of applications and libraries. Application improvements are embraced more quickly by distributions like Fedora. Now some may remark Fedora is a bleeding edge distribution (connotations of constant b0rkage) but while fsck-ups may occur that has not been my experience. Things b0rken by Fedora are fixed RSN anyway.

I do'nt need the Newest of technologies I use classical animation from hand drawn sketches compiled in the computer, stability is what really counts, even though I'll be drawing more using the tablet it is still a hand drawn style, 2d animation. I started out as a ballerina then to the fine art I've been painting for over thirty years but I miss dancing so this is where animation comes in, choreography with a brush. Since I also have a nasty neurodegenrative illness I am fighting against time and a steady loss ofability, this is where the use of a computer is so important , and adaptive technology of my own. Even better it also keeps my neurons firing and is probably the main reason I have continued well past my expected expiry date.

It was incidentallsy a clean fresh install from a live cd after a complete reformat of my hard drive. I had everything backed up but did lose some of my email the last couple of days. I find the system such as it is right now runs more slowly, but I am not taking any daring leaps of faith, I need to know how it works not just push random buttons.

To get back to lvm, it has an error flag, gparted will not let me format the empty space to ext4 or even far 32, not sure why, I'd rather seperate the hd into four segment of even five, one for boot and at least one for safekeeping of data, so if I need to replace the system I need lose nothing else, so how might I best do that?

I may be completely wrong, but I think you need to backup, re-format, and start again. The error messages seem ominous! If you avoid LVM (personally, I think it belongs on servers) you don't need /boot either.

How can I best format the drive in a way that will function best with what I have in mind - I have little interest in remote anything beyond a browse on the web and some ftp to update my website.

Just create
/ with about 10MB for CentOS
swap with a size equal to your memory
/home with the rest of the disk

If you need material that's not in CentOS, see these:
http://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories
http://wiki.centos.org/PackageManagement/Yum/Priorities

Ultimately I did reformat after first making a gparted live CD which I used to set up several partitions the last two formatted in fat 32, a total of four primary -528MB system - two 25GB these three under lvm - a fourth primary 12GB fat 32 set aside for ReactOS as an alternative to using wine and an easy workaround for getting the wacom to work - another 12GB extended partition also formatted fat 32 for data storage. So now it is set according to my logic.

I think that means this topic is "solved"

Thanks for all your input.