request for changes to LVM naming for FC7

[Patrick Bakker]

For FC7 would it be possible to give volume groups more descriptive names?
For instance instead of VolGroup00 could the volume group anaconda creates
be called FedoraCore7?

Also, is it at all possible for smarts to be built-in so that more than 1
version of Fedora (and ideally other distributions as well) could all share
the same boot partition? Two issues I can think of:
 - As long as everybody includes a distribution prefix in the vmlinuz,
initrd ... like .fc6 there should not be any overlap of kernels.
 - It looks like Fedora installs grub's configuration in /etc which makes it
particular to Fedora. Is it possible to move it into /boot as well so that
the same grub
   can be modified by any distribution?

My particular scenario is that I usually try to run the previous FC and the
new FC in parallel. Occassionally I add a 3rd experimental distribution in
the middle. Then I have separate paritions for data that does not change for
any distribution (ie. music, photos and maybe home if I dare at somepoint).
For example:

FC5 partitions, FC6 partitions, Ubuntu, Data

With FC7:

FC7 paritions, FC6 partitions, Whatever, Data

With FC8:

FC7 partitions, FC8 partitions, Whatever, Data

Every distribution install assumes that it is the only OS on disk in terms
of monopolizing the MBR with its variant of grub. This makes keeping track
of all of the paritions confusing.

Patrick

[Peter Gordon]

Patrick Bakker wrote:
>  For FC7 would it be possible to give volume groups more descriptive
> names?
>  For instance instead of VolGroup00 could the volume group anaconda creates
>  be called FedoraCore7? 
What happens when the user upgrades their system, then?
I'm not too 
knowledgeable about LVM-fu, but would updating the name that is on the 
volume group be troublesome?

>  - As long as everybody includes a distribution prefix in the
> vmlinuz,
>  initrd ... like .fc6 there should not be any overlap of kernels. 
Unfortunately,
something like this is not to be expected (some 
distributions don't suffix their kernel naming, plus the user could always 
build their own kernel/initrd if they so chose).

>  - It looks like Fedora installs grub's configuration in /etc
> which makes it
>  particular to Fedora. Is it possible to move it into /boot as well so that
>  the same grub
>    can be modified by any distribution? 
The /etc/grub.conf file is nothing more than
a symlink to the one contained 
in the /boot/grub directory.
-- 
Peter Gordon (codergeek42)
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[Patrick Bakker]

On 10/28/06, Peter Gordon <peter(a)thecodergeek.com&gt; wrote:
>  Patrick Bakker wrote:
>  > For FC7 would it be possible to give volume groups more descriptive names?
>  > For instance instead of VolGroup00 could the volume group anaconda creates
>  > be called FedoraCore7?
>  What happens when the user upgrades their system, then? I'm not too
>  knowledgeable about LVM-fu, but would updating the name that is on the
>  volume group be troublesome? 
There is a vgrename command so you must be able to rename a volume group.
I suppose that would also require updating /etc/fstab to change the
mount points ...

>  > - As long as everybody includes a distribution prefix in the
> vmlinuz,
>  > initrd ... like .fc6 there should not be any overlap of kernels.
>  Unfortunately, something like this is not to be expected (some
>  distributions don't suffix their kernel naming, plus the user could always
>  build their own kernel/initrd if they so chose). 
I think for this to work its a matter of people agreeing to follow
certain conventions. One convention would be everyone has to suffix
their kernels or put them in named sub-directory. Then user-built
kernels which are not suffixed will not have a problem.

>  > - It looks like Fedora installs grub's configuration in /etc
> which makes it
>  > particular to Fedora. Is it possible to move it into /boot as well so that
>  > the same grub
>  >   can be modified by any distribution?
>  The /etc/grub.conf file is nothing more than a symlink to the one contained
>  in the /boot/grub directory. 
That's great.

[John Reiser]

>  My particular scenario is that I usually try to run the previous FC
> and the
>  new FC in parallel. 
Be careful, SELinux is incompatible poison from release to release.
In theory, it may be impossible to mount a filesystem read-write across
differing releases without causing disaster.  Turn off SELinux completely,
or do the cross-mounts read-only, or be prepared to suffer.  Learn about
/.autorelabel plus booting with "enforcing=0 single", and be prepared
to wait half an hour every time you boot a different system.

--