i got the entire disk devoted to root. or /. there is no swap space
This isn't good. For many reasons, not the least of which is that by not having separate partitions, you're unable to upgrade in the manner I described earlier.
Quote:
as i got 4GB of RAM. i never run out of RAM
Having dedicated swap space is a very good idea, regardless of how much RAM you have.
Quote:
and while it is running it works well. great, in fact. it is specifically how it tries unmounting the system when shut down. or some feature say maybe APM is preventing auto-fsck to work correctly. i found workarounds but no real fixes. nothing else is wrong with it.
could having the file system set to Ext2 vs Ext4 be a problem? honestly i have never noticed a single difference one way or the other in terms of stability or performance
Personally, I've run into problems when using ext4, so I'm still using ext3 on all my computers. As usual, YMMV.
Quote:
for the record, this bug happens on both laptops. one running Kubuntu, (just got done installing it at home), and my STO computer running Ubuntu w/ Kubutu-desktop. both have auto-fsck failures. both won't unmount the root file system properly on shutdown. so the issue is not with one computer. i installed via two different disks too. when i view the kernel output on shutdown (i prefer verbose, it's fun watching it scroll on the screen) it never even mentions unmounting filesystems. not once. it does have a 'fail' flag on some kernel msg daemon but that is it
both have SATA hard drives, perhaps i got them configured for IDE or something?
I don't know. But I do know that if I were you, even though it would be a hassle given how your drive ISN'T partitioned, I'd take the plunge and do a clean reinstall, this time making sure I did it the preferred way. Back up everything important, then wipe the drive and do a clean reinstall, that's what I'd do!
i am NOT wiping it clean. it would take FOREVER to get it back the way i had it. and all for a little bug regarding the fsck itself, not worth it. as i said when i am using the system it is perfectly stable and works just fine. i can live with a boot-time glitch....
as i said once before it happened out of box. possibly something about my laptop it does not properly support. i've dealt with much worse in my older days using Linux (some computers only ran in VESA mode, others would not even load X) so i am able to take some glitches. i don't use swap space because i don't like wearing my hard disk out if it starts using hard disk for swap memory (which almost always sends a hard disk a chattering). i got plenty of RAM and never run out, and swap space was always recommended for low-RAM computers. i suppose i could have made a separate root and home but it seemed redundant. i could alway resize and move it but really, all for an fsck glitch which is present on TWO computers, both of them laptops?
for the record, weren't you the one who was telling me that i could not do anything to Linux to make it unfixable without reinstalling?
i DO know i can resize the partitions w/ a rescue disk or live CD and make a swap partition and possibly a new /Home and move my stuff there and just tell fstab or whatever where it is.
Device(s): Two Chinese Androids: Kliton I806LS, Lenovo P700i
Carrier: PCCW, China Mobile(roaming in HK)
Thanks: 1,388
Thanked 1,222 Times in 847 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by nickdalzell
i am NOT wiping it clean. it would take FOREVER to get it back the way i had it. and all for a little bug regarding the fsck itself, not worth it. as i said when i am using the system it is perfectly stable and works just fine. i can live with a boot-time glitch....
as i said once before it happened out of box. possibly something about my laptop it does not properly support. i've dealt with much worse in my older days using Linux (some computers only ran in VESA mode, others would not even load X)
Isn't that about 10-15 years ago? Or you didn't install the appropriate graphics driver? Windows does the same if it doesn't have the correct driver. These days with something like Ubuntu, you just tick "Use proprietary drivers", and that's it graphics will work properly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nickdalzell
so i am able to take some glitches. i don't use swap space because i don't like wearing my hard disk out if it starts using hard disk for swap memory (which almost always sends a hard disk a chattering).
I've only ever had that with Windows, especially Vista. Like it loves to chatter the HDD for no apparent reason. Very often Windows is busy with unknown HDD activity.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nickdalzell
i got plenty of RAM and never run out,
Yes, and the Titanic was "unsinkable". How do you know you'll never run out?
Quote:
Originally Posted by nickdalzell
and swap space was always recommended for low-RAM computers. i suppose i could have made a separate root and home but it seemed redundant. i could alway resize and move it but really, all for an fsck glitch which is present on TWO computers, both of them laptops?
__________________
The People's Guide to Android in the People's Republic.
Honorary Grand Poobah Shenzhen University English Corner. http://welcometomychina.tumblr.com/ There are nine million bicycles in Beijing.
There are nine million Androids in Shenzhen.
Last edited by mikedt; January 24th, 2013 at 07:44 AM.
The Following User Says Thank You to mikedt For This Useful Post:
Actually it was when you had to build X yourself. download every 'tarball' and in those days given my limited hardware (Trident SVGA card and a 486 w/ 8MB RAM) i was only able to get X to fire up with standard 16-color VGA, and even then it was a lesson of pure luck. often i got 'fatal error no screens found' no matter what. ended up having to upgrade the video card to get it to work in ugly 16-color 640x480
yes, the hard disk used to chatter if used for swap memory on a copy of Puppy Linux as well as VectorLinux 6.x. again, on limited memory systems (this time a PIII 650 w/ 256MB RAM) and i'd pull up top on the terminal and as soon as the swap memory got 25% or more used up, the hard disk was going all over the place, and it slowed the system down. this was only happening while viewing flash video on Youtube too.
My computer has 4GB of RAM. given Linux's superior memory management, and lack of memory leaks (although there is one in Firefox which i close out when i am done browsing the web to avoid it) there is little to no chance of running out of RAM. i can be playing STO and Youtube at once without a single slowdown or error
Yes, i ran Windows without swap if i had 3GB or more of RAM. even Windows 8. Swap memory slows the system down and almost always kicks in when i still got plenty of physical RAM remaining. it causes undue wear on hard drives.
i am NOT wiping it clean. it would take FOREVER to get it back the way i had it. and all for a little bug regarding the fsck itself, not worth it. as i said when i am using the system it is perfectly stable and works just fine. i can live with a boot-time glitch....
To each their own. Personally, I'd just re-do it now, before I've spent months or years adding stuff, and be happy I ended up with a correctly partitioned disk AND [most likely] got rid of whatever the problem(s) may have been.
Quote:
i don't use swap space because i don't like wearing my hard disk out if it starts using hard disk for swap memory (which almost always sends a hard disk a chattering).
Really? Not in my world. In fact I can't recall the last time I saw/heard a hard disk chattering...oh, yes, I can--it was on my mom's windows box...the one I wiped and put Kubuntu on...and it's never done that again!
Quote:
i got plenty of RAM and never run out
May I borrow your crystal ball? Please?
When I allocated swap space on this laptop, I had no idea I'd be working with multi-hundred MB image files [in the GIMP], but I am, and I sure am glad there's plenty of swap space available if/when needed.
Quote:
and swap space was always recommended for low-RAM computers.
It's good practice, period.
Quote:
i suppose i could have made a separate root and home but it seemed redundant.
Because you aren't understanding and/or you aren't familiar enough with *nix file systems to see WHY it's the preferred method. There's nothing redundant about it. What it does is keep the OS separate from user files and data; this is a very good thing! As I've said it allows you to reinstall/upgrade the OS, including formatting the root partition, without losing anything, such as your desktop settings or spreadsheets or pictures.
Quote:
i could alway resize and move it but really, all for an fsck glitch which is present on TWO computers, both of them laptops?
I have no idea. Right now I can't recall ever seeing this particular issue, let alone on two computers simultaneously.
Quote:
for the record, weren't you the one who was telling me that i could not do anything to Linux to make it unfixable without reinstalling?
Kindly quote where I've contradicted that, okay?
Quote:
i DO know i can resize the partitions w/ a rescue disk or live CD and make a swap partition and possibly a new /Home and move my stuff there and just tell fstab or whatever where it is.
Again, to each their own. I'd do it the other way around, but that's me.
Not only a good practice. In many cases a paging file or partition is necessary for the OS to work properly. It's mandatory as far as I'm concerned. I'm a firm believer in presuming that those who design OS virtual memory subsystems know more than I do on the topic, so when they say "always have a 'swap' partition", I don't try to second guess them.
Device(s): Samsung Galaxy S II 'Epic 4G Touch' SPH-D710, Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0
Carrier: Sprint
Thanks: 21
Thanked 52 Times in 43 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by Speed Daemon
Not only a good practice. In many cases a paging file or partition is necessary for the OS to work properly. It's mandatory as far as I'm concerned. I'm a firm believer in presuming that those who design OS virtual memory subsystems know more than I do on the topic, so when they say "always have a 'swap' partition", I don't try to second guess them.
I know for a fact that Windows up to XP absolutely needs swap. Ubuntu apparently does not, however, if you hibernate, it pushes the contents of RAM to swap, as I recall.
With the size of hard drives nowadays, devoting a small piece the size of your RAM is not that big a deal.
... though it would be nice to have a drive partitioning system that did not limit one to only four primary partitions-- that's downright archaic.
I know for a fact that Windows up to XP absolutely needs swap. Ubuntu apparently does not, however, if you hibernate, it pushes the contents of RAM to swap, as I recall.
Hibernation is a completely different topic. But you're correct, Windows absolutely needs a pagefile, and will not run without one. But just because Linux will run for a while without one doesn't mean that having no 'swap' partition can't possibly be why a malfunctioning Linux system is having problems.
Quote:
With the size of hard drives nowadays, devoting a small piece the size of your RAM is not that big a deal.
Yep. If you have a small SSD, like my eeePC with 1 GiB of RAM and 4GiB of onboard storage like I do, that's a reasonable exception. But if you have a recent PC with a terabyte HD, it's a small price to pay for stability.
Quote:
... though it would be nice to have a drive partitioning system that did not limit one to only four primary partitions-- that's downright archaic.
The Linux kernel has supported UUID/GUID partition tables for a while now. And software like gdisk allows Linux users to create and modify them.
BTW despite this laptop having the same fsck glitch as the Toshiba i did a list of partitions and this one DOES have swap. at least 4.3GiB of it. and it has the same bug
it also has this weird bug where it always forgets my wifi password if i disconnect and reconnect, as well as the gmail plasmoid telling me it has an empty account password. the other computer does not have that bug. but as i said, nothing about me and Linux has been bug free. there always tends to be some random glitch somewhere
Device(s): Samsung Galaxy S II 'Epic 4G Touch' SPH-D710, Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0
Carrier: Sprint
Thanks: 21
Thanked 52 Times in 43 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by nickdalzell
BTW despite this laptop having the same fsck glitch as the Toshiba i did a list of partitions and this one DOES have swap. at least 4.3GiB of it. and it has the same bug
it also has this weird bug where it always forgets my wifi password if i disconnect and reconnect, as well as the gmail plasmoid telling me it has an empty account password. the other computer does not have that bug. but as i said, nothing about me and Linux has been bug free. there always tends to be some random glitch somewhere
That sounds like a permissions issue-- make sure your user name is authorized write privileges for the wifi and gmail thing.
why wouldn't i have that out of box? i shouldn't have to sudo to do that? it does keep popping up an annoying 'kdewallet' prompt, but even entering my password there it still forgets. if it is an open unsecured network works fine. but if it has WPA/PSK it will forget both the network and password.
another weird glitch. it took a total of 24 hours AFTER i installed flash player before Firefox got the message
another weird glitch. it took a total of 24 hours AFTER i installed flash player before Firefox got the message
How on earth did you install it? I've never seen it take more than, oh, 3 seconds! However long it takes after placing its file in the correct directory and restarting my browser.
oddest glitch i have seen honestly. i installed it via the software centre. then while i was in a terminal tonight (one day later) doing an install of wine, only THEN did it finally get the message and installed flash plugin, and then Firefox could use Youtube or other Flash deals like Facebook games
oddest glitch i have seen honestly. i installed it via the software centre. then while i was in a terminal tonight (one day later) doing an install of wine, only THEN did it finally get the message and installed flash plugin, and then Firefox could use Youtube or other Flash deals like Facebook games
Okay, so its installation stopped for some unknown reason. I've never installed Flash via the software center, I always do it the old-fashioned way, and it works instantly [after restarting the browser].
So, I've been reading the other posts in this thread and seeing a lot of stuff about how the hard drive should be partitioned. I got to thinking that maybe I'm missing something.
Here's the partition scheme:
/dev/sda1: Windows boot partition, 350 MB
/dev/sda2: Windows system partition, 192.75 GB
/dev/sda3: Archlinux, 105 GB
The drive is 320 GB. Should I attempt to repartition to create swap space and get my home directory onto its own partition? I have 4 GB of RAM and haven't had problems so far
__________________
Find a post helpful? Hit
See spam or something offensive? Hit
New to the site? Site Rules/Guidelines and Introductions
this is what i found on how to move your /home from any partition to another. it's not a hard thing to do if that is your way...and does not require reinstalling your OS to work:
for swap space it's just a simple matter of resizing any partition and using the difference in space to make a new swap partition. this can easily be done in Gparted
The Following User Says Thank You to nickdalzell For This Useful Post:
I found that creating swap at the end or beginning of the partition order, rather than between any other two partitions, made things a bit faster. It has been noticeable, no matter the distro.
So, I've been reading the other posts in this thread and seeing a lot of stuff about how the hard drive should be partitioned. I got to thinking that maybe I'm missing something.
Here's the partition scheme:
/dev/sda1: Windows boot partition, 350 MB
/dev/sda2: Windows system partition, 192.75 GB
/dev/sda3: Archlinux, 105 GB
The drive is 320 GB. Should I attempt to repartition to create swap space and get my home directory onto its own partition? I have 4 GB of RAM and haven't had problems so far
Does it actually say that? Because in MS-speak, the partition that contains the boot files is called the system partition, and the partition with the system files is called the boot partition.
I'd shrink /dev/sda2 and/or /dev/sda3 (and move if necessary) to create space for a type 82 /dev/sda4 partition for swap. You don't need a separate /home partition, but you'll need to be careful and back up before installing a version update.
The Following User Says Thank You to Speed Daemon For This Useful Post:
Does it actually say that? Because in MS-speak, the partition that contains the boot files is called the system partition, and the partition with the system files is called the boot partition.
I'd shrink /dev/sda2 and/or /dev/sda3 (and move if necessary) to create space for a type 82 /dev/sda4 partition for swap. You don't need a separate /home partition, but you'll need to be careful and back up before installing a version update.
sda1 and sda3 are marked as bootable (according to cfdisk anyway) and sda1 is labeled "system reserved"
sda1 and sda3 are marked as bootable (according to cfdisk anyway) and sda1 is labeled "system reserved"
I see. Technically you should only be able to have one partition marked bootable. Assuming that you're using GRUB or something similar as your bootloader, it doesn't matter as long as you don't disturb the partition that contains the needed bootloader files.
The Following User Says Thank You to Speed Daemon For This Useful Post:
Re: The "Linux questions (and other stuff)" thread
So, update on my situation, I've repartitioned the drive by I'm having issues formatting the new partitions. It's telling me "no such file or directory"
EDIT: After doing "ls /dev/sd*" I found out that my new partitions weren't listed. Rebooted and now they are
EDIT2: Noticed that mkswap told me that the partition is misaligned
All the partitioning is done, I now have a 4GB swap and home is on a separate partition
Last edited by palmtree5; January 25th, 2013 at 07:31 PM.
Reason: New info
Does anybody use Krusader file manager with KDE? I've just installed it on my non KDE Salix 14 system. I'm using Xfce4 & Openbox on it. I do like the two pane look of it more then other file managers.
It was a little struggle to get it going, since it needed the kdelibs for a total of 16 files related to KDE and they are very small lib files.
Does anybody use Krusader file manager with KDE? I've just installed it on my non KDE Salix 14 system. I'm using Xfce4 & Openbox on it. I do like the two pane look of it more then other file managers.
You mean like this?
(That's Dolphin, by the way.)
I tried Krusader a few years ago after reading about it in Linux Journal, but I prefer Dolphin.
Device(s): HTC EVO 4g(Retired), HTC EVO LTE(Retired), LG Lucid(Returned), Motorola Droid Razr M, Nexus 7
Carrier: GOD
Thanks: 4,057
Thanked 4,249 Times in 2,090 Posts
just really been wanting to try it out. I figured I would go with PC-BSD and give it a whirl. Its been like Gentoo to me one of those things I want to do but just never have.
I remember running Freebsd some years ago. I had fun with it and learned alot. At the time it wasn't alot of hand holding to get it up & running. This may have been around mid/late '90s and I had a hard time getting my sound card working. I haven't tried it since. I did try PC-BSD and it was a BSD made easy.
The Following User Says Thank You to saptech For This Useful Post:
Re: The "Linux questions (and other stuff)" thread
You know, the only thing that can be annoying is when compiling drivers, it tells you the headers aren't installed. Okay. So sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
You know, the only thing that can be annoying is when compiling drivers, it tells you the headers aren't installed. Okay. So sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
But no package.
LOL...but apt-get is supposed to be the panacea! You mean the "king" has no clothes?
I've never cared for the snotty / preachy 'tude of the Debian developers and their followers. It's the kind of self-righteous "I'm the only one who's right" crap that divided *BSD and let Linux eat their lunch to begin with! When I go looking for a Linux distribution, I want one that doesn't come with a mandatory political dogma attached. IMO Canonical hasn't helped any in this regard.
I've been using Linux distros that use RPM packages, and must say that it's been a very long time since I've had to pay the slightest attention to dependencies. It just works. No drama, not politics...only the occasional reminder to "have a lot of fun". I like that.
Last edited by Speed Daemon; January 26th, 2013 at 05:38 PM.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Speed Daemon For This Useful Post:
I've been using Linux distros that use RPM packages, and must say that it's been a very long time since I've had to pay the slightest attention to dependencies. It just works. No drama, not politics...only the occasional reminder to "have a lot of fun". I like that.
I've been using *buntu for eight years and have only rarely had to deal with satisfying dependencies; at this moment, I can't recall the last time. So, for me, it just works!
You know, the only thing that can be annoying is when compiling drivers, it tells you the headers aren't installed. Okay. So sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
But no package.
So what DID happen? And did you try doing this via Synaptic instead?
Re: The "Linux questions (and other stuff)" thread
Quote:
Originally Posted by MoodyBlues
I've been using *buntu for eight years and have only rarely had to deal with satisfying dependencies; at this moment, I can't recall the last time. So, for me, it just works!
Fix my bcm4313 drivers for me
Nah I kid. I just went back to Fedora and I just need to enable a few repos, then install kmod-wl and I'll be set
I don't know what version of *buntu you were using, but the Broadcom 43xx issue was solved a long time ago, at least in Kubuntu. I used to manually do the ndiswrapper thing, but that's been unnecessary for several years now. It just works!
Quote:
Nah I kid. I just went back to Fedora and I just need to enable a few repos, then install kmod-wl and I'll be set
I don't know what version of *buntu you were using, but the Broadcom 43xx issue was solved a long time ago, at least in Kubuntu. I used to manually do the ndiswrapper thing, but that's been unnecessary for several years now. It just works!
Used to have that issue with my computer but now it's not an issue
Last edited by palmtree5; January 27th, 2013 at 03:36 PM.
Re: The "Linux questions (and other stuff)" thread
Quote:
Originally Posted by MoodyBlues
I don't know what version of *buntu you were using, but the Broadcom 43xx issue was solved a long time ago, at least in Kubuntu. I used to manually do the ndiswrapper thing, but that's been unnecessary for several years now. It just works!
Way too much work!
Its not that bad! I click one thing, then yum update then yum install kmod-wl
It was a debian distro that was giving me heck. Linux 3.2 kernel, based on Debian 6
True story: It was my first day on the job as the MIS Director at a private college in Chicago. I was sitting in the closet that served as the school's data center, checking out the box running SCO OpenServer and kept all of the school's student records and other priceless data. The terminal had already been logged in is root (no X on this box), and the plan was to create a user account for myself and go back to my desk. The dialog didn't offer any help about where I should put my user directory, so I dumped out and proceeded to look for where other users' home directories were, starting at the root directory.
The computer closet was located in the room that is the student lounge / dining room, and lots of curious students were milling about, some asking me questions, others distracting me for *ahem* "other" reasons.
To this day I still don't know what happened for sure, but when I returned my attention to the computer I was shocked to see "kernel panic, system going down" being repeated on the screen. It looked like I had done `rm -Rf /*' but I hadn't! Within minutes the system was as dead as a doornail.
I can only guess what happened because the restore (that's another story in itself) blew away all record of what happened during the panic. My best guess is that, because I was using the up arrow to repeat `ls -al' a lot, that I may have inadvertently held down the up arrow a tad too long, and brought up a command like `rm -Rf *' (no doubt left over from when the last MIS Director had removed his personal files), and then hit Enter while my gaze was away from the screen. Not the way you want to start a new job!
Luckily I hadn't done the first one yet and had a live USB laying around. Was able to boot into the live USB and copy the files back.
Back up and running now luckily
Last night I had an issue with Mageia 3 Beta, which is like using a rolling distro. I was doing some customization on Gnome 3 and renamed a system file by mistake. Thank goodness I had just done a partition backup, using Fsarchiver on Jan. 25. All is well now.
Device(s): HTC EVO 4g(Retired), HTC EVO LTE(Retired), LG Lucid(Returned), Motorola Droid Razr M, Nexus 7
Carrier: GOD
Thanks: 4,057
Thanked 4,249 Times in 2,090 Posts
my best one so far was I did a dd on a backup drive. Lost all my backups because it was the wrong drive i was putting a file on. good thing it was backups I didn't really loose anything as I just formatted and rebacked up everything but i certainly learned to triple check when I go and do any kind of dd operation.
Last night I had an issue with Mageia 3 Beta, which is like using a rolling distro. I was doing some customization on Gnome 3 and renamed a system file by mistake. Thank goodness I had just done a partition backup, using Fsarchiver on Jan. 25. All is well now.
I feel like I'm missing something here. Why didn't you just rename the file back to what it should've been?
I've long been in the habit of saving copies of system files before doing anything, such as editing a file, that will lose its original state; I cleverly name these file.orig.
285Likes
This isn't good. For many reasons, not the least of which is that by not having separate partitions, you're unable to upgrade in the manner I described earlier. 
But I do know that if I were you, even though it would be a hassle given how your drive ISN'T partitioned, I'd take the plunge and do a clean reinstall, this time making sure I did it the preferred way. Back up everything important, then wipe the drive and do a clean reinstall, that's what I'd do!
How do you know you'll never run out? 
