Re: [cobalt-users] Root volume too full

[flash22@xxxxxxx]

On Wed, 30 Jan 2002, E.B. Dreger wrote:

> > Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2002 17:04:48 -0500 (EST)
> > From: flash22@xxxxxxx
> 
> [ snip ]
> 
> > Part of the reason for originally putting it in / is it doesn't
> > matter what filesystems you mount, you have a boot kernel

> Huh?  What does mounting filesystems have to do with anything?

Not all unix's run on PeeCee's with partition tables ;P

OK, think like this, if your kernel mounts the partition that it booted
from, than thet partition MUST be /, and if you put the kernel on
? itself, then any directory can be a mount point, but if you put the
kernel in say /usr, then you also require that /usr be part of / and you
can't make it a seperate slice/partition/device

> LILO loads the kernel using static disk mappings, unlike BSD.
> Sure, you need the FS mounted when you reconfig LILO, but that's
> about it.

LILO is doing a lot of things behind the scenes to accomplish that,
including seeting rootflags on the kernel image so it knows where / is,
linux doesn't need to assume / = vboot, but old traditions take a while to
die off...

bsd has ALWAYS had a completly different way of bootstrapping the machine,
i like some parts of it, but i hate slices ;P
But we won't go there

> I usually go so far as to waste a partition ID on an 8 MB or so
> /boot slice at the front of the disk.  Easy way to prevent BIOS
> stupidity with cylinders beyond 1023.

Yup, good practice, It also means your chances of corrupting the
filesystem you need to boot from is minimal, since boot is in it's own
filesystem.

Putting the system image in / was the same idea,back when, most of
the directories in / were in fact mount points, but the quantity of stuff
that has been put in the directories that are expected to be mounted as
part of / has grown so much it doesn't make any sense to do it that way
anymore (eg /etc)


I suppose when i say 'used to' i should point out i sometimes mean 'long
long ago' :)

Incidently, there is an alternate loader for linux now, grub, which can
actualy read (some) native filesystems and boot any file on the disk,
which is kind of slick, if a bit messy to set up...

gsh

ps: I have edited this 5 times, it probably makes no sense whatsoever now