From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from <gentoo-user+bounces-108205-garchives=archives.gentoo.org@lists.gentoo.org>) id 1Nl4Os-0000sY-5C for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:54:54 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 9060FE0956; Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:54:14 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-gw0-f53.google.com (mail-gw0-f53.google.com [74.125.83.53]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6D2C9E0956 for <gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org>; Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:54:14 +0000 (UTC) Received: by gwj19 with SMTP id 19so157852gwj.40 for <gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org>; Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:54:14 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:sender:received:date :x-google-sender-auth:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; bh=js94GhSwQHE1q57vwxiUeWCM8j9JE+aYpIApoJd5+y4=; b=N9zuPQ9QorstuHje2rYesZd5OSaI5zqtmhwiCCuH8fzY/FYZiLnNvh76JE+h34E/HG mICdcHKS5w/t8YAE7KKBjBWgs58vgyMpGnhb6Mrv4cEDvPjYVqdTGvck596ohmmCCwIY hZYADdn/ekY5N87rRAKtlHBGADydhSlR2LGDM= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:sender:date:x-google-sender-auth:message-id:subject :from:to:content-type; b=js5g5aD4HKB2Q72CnjJRDh1sgPHuHlSgxhXPuvMurr+2t5hIKTT9tIkVVi0GTOLWiq zfJUhwrXcAVBivMgfFi63vBoVufoirSgu0d/ffbvwLLT2yeCHtSezKOrhzPZVhXYOgSD 2aQT1MaUMdOFunbb7BOs51SzucGWO2LEMhEK4= Precedence: bulk List-Post: <mailto:gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org> List-Help: <mailto:gentoo-user+help@lists.gentoo.org> List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:gentoo-user+unsubscribe@lists.gentoo.org> List-Subscribe: <mailto:gentoo-user+subscribe@lists.gentoo.org> List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail <gentoo-user.gentoo.org> X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Sender: paul.hartman@gmail.com Received: by 10.150.214.6 with SMTP id m6mr1177045ybg.230.1267206854003; Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:54:14 -0800 (PST) Date: Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:54:13 -0600 X-Google-Sender-Auth: 186dc1d14ec33705 Message-ID: <58965d8a1002260954v37bc6293xd4b92d82183bd346@mail.gmail.com> Subject: [gentoo-user] Advice/best practices for a new Gentoo installation From: Paul Hartman <paul.hartman+gentoo@gmail.com> To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Archives-Salt: f7692158-1a87-4d62-97e7-6b883ffec7ec X-Archives-Hash: 10696349b14c28d3279e50044249faae Hi, I'm building a new personal computer. I respect the opinion and experience of the people on this list and am interested in anyone's advice on the best way to set up my new Gentoo installation. Things that you say "I wish I set mine up this way the first time..." or have learned from experience how to do it right the first time already. :) Some topics I'm thinking about (comments welcome): - be aware of cylinder boundaries when partitioning (thanks to the recent thread) - utilizing device labels and/or volume labels instead of hoping /dev/sda stays /dev/sda always - initrd - I've never used one, but maybe it's needed if root is on software RAID? - grub/kernel parameter tips and tricks... i'm already using uvesafb, and don't dual-boot with MSWin or anything, just Gentoo - better partitioning scheme than my current root, boot, home (need portage on its own, maybe /var as well?) - some kind of small linux emergency/recovery partition? equivalent to a liveCD maybe. - best filesystem for portage? something compressed or with small cluster size maybe. - SSD vs 10000rpm vs big-and-cheap hard drive for rootfs/system files. I lean toward the latter since RAM caches it anyway. - omit/reduce number of reserved-for-root blocks on partitions where it's not necessary. - I have never used LVM and don't really know about it. Should I use it? will it make life easier someday? or more difficult? - Is RAID5 still a good balance for disk cost vs usable space vs data safety? I can't/don't want to pay for full mirroring of all disks. Or any other tips that apply to things which are difficult to change once the system is in use. It will be ~amd64 Gentoo using Intel Core i7 920 with 12GiB RAM. No disks have been purchased yet. Thanks