[gentoo-user] moving /usr

[gentoo-user] moving /usr

[Mark Knecht]

Hi,
   I have an out of disk space problem machine. It looks like moving
/usr to a new partition would be the best thing to do. How can I do
this safely?

Thanks,
Mark

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[gentoo-user] Re: moving /usr

[Mark Knecht]

On 3/10/06, Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>    I have an out of disk space problem machine. It looks like moving
> /usr to a new partition would be the best thing to do. How can I do
> this safely?
>
> Thanks,
> Mark
>

Very sorry to answer my own post. I found this link in the forums:

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=121164

I'll  proceed in this manner unless I hear back that there is some
problem with doing it this way.

Thanks,
Mark

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: moving /usr

[Ralph Slooten]

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Mark Knecht wrote:
> Very sorry to answer my own post. I found this link in the forums:

Funny enough, you asked almost the exact same question on 04 June 2004!
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.user/83253
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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: moving /usr

[Mark Knecht]

On 3/10/06, Ralph Slooten <axllent@gmail.com> wrote:
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>
> Mark Knecht wrote:
> > Very sorry to answer my own post. I found this link in the forums:
>
> Funny enough, you asked almost the exact same question on 04 June 2004!
> http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.user/83253

That's hilarious! Actually, this is the same machine I was speakign
about then. However at that time I actually ended up just moving
/usr/portage and never had to follow through on that thread.

Very funny! Thanks for finding it!

Cheers,
Mark

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: moving /usr

[Ralph Slooten]

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Mark Knecht wrote:
> Very funny! Thanks for finding it!

LOL, well it's not really like I was trying to find it. Truth be told it
was my software that found it. I wrote a few scripts to archive all my
gentoo-user mailing to a MySQL database (88,132 emails and counting).

It got "stuck" on the reply from Sergio Polini, whose email doesn't
comply with the standards (doesn't contain a In-Reply-To header).

The software then checks the database for message-subjects matching the
email's, in this case finding 2 (your old one and this one), and didn't
know which to add it to, skipping it ~ that's how I spotted it ;-)

Greetings
Ralph
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Re: [gentoo-user] moving /usr

[Ghaith Hachem]

i think this should be easy,
make the new partition copy the contenet of /usr to it
change your fstab to include the new modifications
i'm not sure how to delete the old one after it's mounted maybe mount
-o bind? or just boot a live cd and delete the content of your old
/usr from there when you restart it shoudl be working fine

On 3/10/06, Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>   I have an out of disk space problem machine. It looks like moving
> /usr to a new partition would be the best thing to do. How can I do
> this safely?
>
> Thanks,
> Mark
>
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> gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>


--
Cheers,
Ghaith

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Re: [gentoo-user] moving /usr

[Hemmann, Volker Armin]

On Friday 10 March 2006 15:53, Mark Knecht wrote:
> Hi,
>    I have an out of disk space problem machine. It looks like moving
> /usr to a new partition would be the best thing to do. How can I do
> this safely?

go to the suse support database.

Look up your question.

They recommend tar (I did it once with their instructions and it worked 
perfectly).
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Re: [gentoo-user] moving /usr

[Sergio Polini]

Mark Knecht:
> http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=121164
> 
> I'll proceed in this manner unless I hear back that there is some
> problem with doing it this way.

There are several hints in that topic.
I did move my /usr to a new partition, so I'ld say:
1. create and format your new partition;
2. mount your new partition in /mnt/whatever;
3. copy the content of your /usr into this partition by:
cp -a /usr/* /mnt/whatever (the "-a" option is important; look at man
cp);
4. reboot frome a livecd;
5. mount your root filesystem and edit /etc/fstab:
/dev/hdXY /usr etc.
6. reboot from the hard disk to be sure that your new partition is well
mounted and works; run "mount" to check that /usr is on your new
partition; test this in other ways to be really sure ;-)
7. reboot again from a live cd;
8. mount your root filesystem in /mnt/something;
9. delete the old /usr directory to free the unused space:
cd /mnt/something/usr
rm -rf *
NB: do not delete /usr itself, just its contents, as /usr is the mount
point for the new partition;
10. cross your fingers and reboot from the hard disk ;-)

HTH
Sergio



	

	
		
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Re: [gentoo-user] moving /usr

[Mark Knecht]

On 3/10/06, Sergio Polini <sp_rm_it@yahoo.it> wrote:
> Mark Knecht:
> > http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=121164
> >
> > I'll proceed in this manner unless I hear back that there is some
> > problem with doing it this way.
>
> There are several hints in that topic.
> I did move my /usr to a new partition, so I'ld say:
> 1. create and format your new partition;
> 2. mount your new partition in /mnt/whatever;
> 3. copy the content of your /usr into this partition by:
> cp -a /usr/* /mnt/whatever (the "-a" option is important; look at man
> cp);
> 4. reboot frome a livecd;
> 5. mount your root filesystem and edit /etc/fstab:
> /dev/hdXY /usr etc.
> 6. reboot from the hard disk to be sure that your new partition is well
> mounted and works; run "mount" to check that /usr is on your new
> partition; test this in other ways to be really sure ;-)
> 7. reboot again from a live cd;
> 8. mount your root filesystem in /mnt/something;
> 9. delete the old /usr directory to free the unused space:
> cd /mnt/something/usr
> rm -rf *
> NB: do not delete /usr itself, just its contents, as /usr is the mount
> point for the new partition;
> 10. cross your fingers and reboot from the hard disk ;-)
>
> HTH
> Sergio

Well...I did my best, but it wasn't good enough. The machine no longer
boots to any level that a user could use. I'm told there are lots of
messages on the screen about being unable to find files. (/usr/bin,
/usr/sbin sort of things...)

To bad for me...I guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend.

I'm hoping they can find their Gentoo install disk, boot the machine
and get it on the network with sshd running. That will give me a
fighting chance of getting the darn thing fixed.

Thanks to all for the help. I'm sure it was something stupid on my
part and not anyone's instructions.

Cheers,
Mark

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Re: [gentoo-user] moving /usr

[Alexander Skwar]

Mark Knecht wrote:

> Well...I did my best, but it wasn't good enough. The machine no longer
> boots to any level that a user could use.

Now that you've broke it, I'd like to suggest to learn
and refrain from using old fashioned partitioning. Instead,
I'd strongly suggest to use LVM instead. With LVM, it's
no problem at all to increase the size of filesystems.
Actually, the "proper" use of LVM includes that the filesystems
will be increased when there's need; with LVM, it's normally
suggested to make the filesystems as small as needed and
then add space on them, when required.

I'd suggest to read the LVM howto at http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/

Alexander Skwar
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Re: [gentoo-user] moving /usr

[Eric Bliss]

On Friday 10 March 2006 09:43, Mark Knecht wrote:
> Well...I did my best, but it wasn't good enough. The machine no longer
> boots to any level that a user could use. I'm told there are lots of
> messages on the screen about being unable to find files. (/usr/bin,
> /usr/sbin sort of things...)
> 
> To bad for me...I guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend.
> 
> I'm hoping they can find their Gentoo install disk, boot the machine
> and get it on the network with sshd running. That will give me a
> fighting chance of getting the darn thing fixed.
> 
> Thanks to all for the help. I'm sure it was something stupid on my
> part and not anyone's instructions.
> 
> Cheers,
> Mark
> 

Before you do that...  did you also edit /etc/mtab in addition to /etc/fstab?

Just a thought, since we are talking about separate partitions to mount.

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systems design and integration,
CreativeCow.Net
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Re: [gentoo-user] moving /usr

[Josh Helmer]

On Friday 10 March 2006 18:05, Eric Bliss wrote:
> Before you do that...  did you also edit /etc/mtab in addition to
> /etc/fstab?
>
> Just a thought, since we are talking about separate partitions to mount.

Don't touch mtab.   mtab is auto-magically generated by mount. 

Josh
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Re: [gentoo-user] moving /usr

[Eric Bliss]

On Friday 10 March 2006 03:17, Josh Helmer wrote:
> On Friday 10 March 2006 18:05, Eric Bliss wrote:
> > Before you do that...  did you also edit /etc/mtab in addition to
> > /etc/fstab?
> >
> > Just a thought, since we are talking about separate partitions to mount.
> 
> Don't touch mtab.   mtab is auto-magically generated by mount. 
> 
> Josh

Ah, okay.  Learn something every day.  I just remembered seeing mount 
information in that file when I was reading it (although why I was doing 
that, I now have no idea).  Guess this would explain why.  Now if only I 
could remember why I had even read the file in the past.  You don't edit it 
during the original install process do you?

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Eric Bliss
systems design and integration,
CreativeCow.Net
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Re: [gentoo-user] moving /usr

[John Jolet]

On Mar 10, 2006, at 12:39 PM, Eric Bliss wrote:

> On Friday 10 March 2006 03:17, Josh Helmer wrote:
>> On Friday 10 March 2006 18:05, Eric Bliss wrote:
>>> Before you do that...  did you also edit /etc/mtab in addition to
>>> /etc/fstab?
>>>
>>> Just a thought, since we are talking about separate partitions to  
>>> mount.
>>
>> Don't touch mtab.   mtab is auto-magically generated by mount.
>>
>> Josh
>
> Ah, okay.  Learn something every day.  I just remembered seeing mount
> information in that file when I was reading it (although why I was  
> doing
> that, I now have no idea).  Guess this would explain why.  Now if  
> only I
> could remember why I had even read the file in the past.  You don't  
> edit it
> during the original install process do you?
>
before you chroot, you copy /proc/mounts to it so your chrooted  
environment matches.....maybe that's where you saw it.
> -- 
> Eric Bliss
> systems design and integration,
> CreativeCow.Net
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>

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Re: [gentoo-user] moving /usr

[Sergio Polini]

Mark Knecht:
> Well...I did my best, but it wasn't good enough. The machine no
> longer boots to any level that a user could use. I'm told there are
> lots of messages on the screen about being unable to find files.
> (/usr/bin, /usr/sbin sort of things...)

That happened to me too ;-)
But the reason was quickly clear: I had deleted /usr instead 
of /usr/*!
Remember:

> 9. delete the old /usr directory to free the unused space:
> cd /mnt/something/usr
> rm -rf *
> NB: do not delete /usr itself, just its contents, as /usr is the
> mount point for the new partition;

Let us suppose that your /etc/fstab looks like:

/dev/hda1 /boot <type> <opts> <dump/pass>
/dev/hda2 / <type> <opts> <dump/pass>
/dev/hda3 /usr <type> <opts> <dump/pass>

The first and simplest try: reboot from a livecd, then:

mount /dev/hda2 /mnt/something
ls /mnt/something/usr

If /mnt/something/usr doesn't exist, then:

mkdir /mnt/something/usr
reboot

You could check that the new /usr partition is there, before 
rebooting:

mount /dev/hda3 /mnt/something_else
ls /mnt/something_else

The old /usr contents should be there. Why not?
So, if your reboot doesn't work, reboot again from a livecd and 
check /etc/fstab.

Let me/us know!

Sergio
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Re: [gentoo-user] moving /usr

[Mark Knecht]

On 3/10/06, Sergio Polini <sp_rm_it@yahoo.it> wrote:
> Mark Knecht:
> > Well...I did my best, but it wasn't good enough. The machine no
> > longer boots to any level that a user could use. I'm told there are
> > lots of messages on the screen about being unable to find files.
> > (/usr/bin, /usr/sbin sort of things...)
>
> That happened to me too ;-)
> But the reason was quickly clear: I had deleted /usr instead
> of /usr/*!
> Remember:

OK, so far I cannot get into the machine so I don't know how to double
check that but I'm pretty sure I didn't do this.

The issue in and around these instructions, for me was that:

1) I'm in a completely out of disk space situation
2) I'm trying to move /usr
3) /usr includes /usr/bin and /usr/sbin which is where all commands
are to basically use the machine and make the changes. (mv, cp, ls and
all the normal stuff.)

so I

1) Copied everything to the new partition
2) Removed everything from the original /usr except /usr/bin and
/usr/lib. The only copy of /usr/sbin is on the new partition. /usr/lib
had to remain for me to use vim to edit fstab.
3) The new partition was labeled using e2label
4) fstab was edited to mount the new partition at the existing /usr
direcotry which still contained /usr/bin and /usr/lib
5) As a backup, since I had removed most of /usr to create space I now
made a new directory /usrBACKUP and placed a copy of what was left in
/usr there so I could get to it if I needed to.
6) Unmounted /mnt/usr_temp and rebooted.

The messages (I'm told over the phone by a 78 year old man who is hard
of hearing) are in and around not being able to find /usr/sbin. I
don't know what they really say as we didn't try to get that detailed.

He has decided to ship the machine to me via FedEx and I'll have to
fix it here when it arrives. He didn't want to mess with Knoppix or
the Gentoo install disk as he felt it was way beyond what he could do.

Again, thanks for the ideas below, but since the machine is 350 miles
away it's hard to do the experiements below. I'll do them when it
arrives next week.

Cheers,
Mark

>
> > 9. delete the old /usr directory to free the unused space:
> > cd /mnt/something/usr
> > rm -rf *
> > NB: do not delete /usr itself, just its contents, as /usr is the
> > mount point for the new partition;
>
> Let us suppose that your /etc/fstab looks like:
>
> /dev/hda1 /boot <type> <opts> <dump/pass>
> /dev/hda2 / <type> <opts> <dump/pass>
> /dev/hda3 /usr <type> <opts> <dump/pass>
>
> The first and simplest try: reboot from a livecd, then:
>
> mount /dev/hda2 /mnt/something
> ls /mnt/something/usr
>
> If /mnt/something/usr doesn't exist, then:
>
> mkdir /mnt/something/usr
> reboot
>
> You could check that the new /usr partition is there, before
> rebooting:
>
> mount /dev/hda3 /mnt/something_else
> ls /mnt/something_else
>
> The old /usr contents should be there. Why not?
> So, if your reboot doesn't work, reboot again from a livecd and
> check /etc/fstab.
>
> Let me/us know!
>
> Sergio
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>
>

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Re: [gentoo-user] moving /usr

[Mark Knecht]

On 3/10/06, Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 3/10/06, Sergio Polini <sp_rm_it@yahoo.it> wrote:
> > Mark Knecht:
> > > Well...I did my best, but it wasn't good enough. The machine no
> > > longer boots to any level that a user could use. I'm told there are
> > > lots of messages on the screen about being unable to find files.
> > > (/usr/bin, /usr/sbin sort of things...)
> >
> > That happened to me too ;-)
> > But the reason was quickly clear: I had deleted /usr instead
> > of /usr/*!
> > Remember:
>
> OK, so far I cannot get into the machine so I don't know how to double
> check that but I'm pretty sure I didn't do this.
>
> The issue in and around these instructions, for me was that:
>
> 1) I'm in a completely out of disk space situation
> 2) I'm trying to move /usr
> 3) /usr includes /usr/bin and /usr/sbin which is where all commands
> are to basically use the machine and make the changes. (mv, cp, ls and
> all the normal stuff.)
>
> so I
>
> 1) Copied everything to the new partition
> 2) Removed everything from the original /usr except /usr/bin and
> /usr/lib. The only copy of /usr/sbin is on the new partition. /usr/lib
> had to remain for me to use vim to edit fstab.
> 3) The new partition was labeled using e2label
> 4) fstab was edited to mount the new partition at the existing /usr
> direcotry which still contained /usr/bin and /usr/lib
> 5) As a backup, since I had removed most of /usr to create space I now
> made a new directory /usrBACKUP and placed a copy of what was left in
> /usr there so I could get to it if I needed to.
> 6) Unmounted /mnt/usr_temp and rebooted.
>
> The messages (I'm told over the phone by a 78 year old man who is hard
> of hearing) are in and around not being able to find /usr/sbin. I
> don't know what they really say as we didn't try to get that detailed.
>
> He has decided to ship the machine to me via FedEx and I'll have to
> fix it here when it arrives. He didn't want to mess with Knoppix or
> the Gentoo install disk as he felt it was way beyond what he could do.
>
> Again, thanks for the ideas below, but since the machine is 350 miles
> away it's hard to do the experiements below. I'll do them when it
> arrives next week.
>
> Cheers,
> Mark
>
> >
> > > 9. delete the old /usr directory to free the unused space:
> > > cd /mnt/something/usr
> > > rm -rf *
> > > NB: do not delete /usr itself, just its contents, as /usr is the
> > > mount point for the new partition;
> >
> > Let us suppose that your /etc/fstab looks like:
> >
> > /dev/hda1 /boot <type> <opts> <dump/pass>
> > /dev/hda2 / <type> <opts> <dump/pass>
> > /dev/hda3 /usr <type> <opts> <dump/pass>
> >
> > The first and simplest try: reboot from a livecd, then:
> >
> > mount /dev/hda2 /mnt/something
> > ls /mnt/something/usr
> >
> > If /mnt/something/usr doesn't exist, then:
> >
> > mkdir /mnt/something/usr
> > reboot
> >
> > You could check that the new /usr partition is there, before
> > rebooting:
> >
> > mount /dev/hda3 /mnt/something_else
> > ls /mnt/something_else
> >
> > The old /usr contents should be there. Why not?
> > So, if your reboot doesn't work, reboot again from a livecd and
> > check /etc/fstab.
> >
> > Let me/us know!
> >
> > Sergio

Hi Sergio,
   OK, the machine arrived here about an hour ago overnight express.
It's now up and running. The mistake was mine, but I think it wasn't
something that was very clearly warned about in the online docs, or at
least I don't remember being warned about this.

   I created a new partition and copied all the information over. I
labeled the partition USR using e2label and then carefully copied an
existing line from elsewhere in the fstab file and changed the
specifics to mount the partition, or so I thought. When the machine
arrived here and I booted the new partition was not mounted, but I was
able to immediately mount it by hand. Inspecting the fstab file
quickly revealed that the line I had copied from elsewhere in the
fstab file had the options 'noauto,noatime' sort of line. I removed
noauto, rebooted, and the machine appears to be working fine.

   Since the machine is here I'll do a thorough set of updates and
hopefully get it shipped out again on Monday.

   Live and learn! Thanks for your help!

Thanks,
Mark

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