UNIXpc weirdness on bootup - into shell

was-John McMillan jcm at mtunb.ATT.COM
Thu Aug 3 08:13:00 AEST 1989


In article <5436 at nucleus.UUCP> doc at nucleus.UUCP (Dave Mundhenk) writes:
>A QUESTION: If you decide to use multiple filesystems [the adv.diags.
>let you define multiple partitions] how do you keep the installation
>from creating one big filesystem across partitions? I defined two
>partitions: fp002=9000 blocks and fp003=~9000 blocks. After installing
>the Foundation and logging in, 'df -t' shows ~11000 blocks free, total
>of 18000. 

Others have clarified the 9K Logical Blocks vs 18K 'physical blocks'
(a.k.a. sectors) confusion.

*** B U T ***
I would strongly recommend *NOT* doing multiple partitions!
"YOU" there -- yes, YOU with the 20 MB disk -- STOP THIS!!!!

Good grief, the instant guru virus has struck again, and pholks
all over are doing things that weren't recommended or intended
by the manufacturers -- and they'll blame AT&T for their problems.

1) The 3B1/7300 was designed for SMALL disks.  Philosophical error,
	here -- we ALL blame SOMEONE for that -- but we must live
	with the results.  Specifically, BECAUSE it was
	designed for a single, small disk, the folks who wrote
	INSTALLATION DISKS were not prevented from developing
	techniques that REQUIRE '/' and '/usr' to be on the same
	file system.  Are you going to put ALL the OS software
	in 9 MB?  Really a bit cramped, aren't we?

	For anyone with disks smaller than 60 MB, I'd strongly
	recommend using only a SINGLE large partition.  Make a
	SMALL (10% of total) second partition if you JUST MUST
	walk on the wild side!  Otherwise, someday you'll find
	you want to ADD a package, but the SPACE is on the
	wrong partition.

2)	I HAD a 147 MB MX2190 -- R.I.P. -- which I broke into
	5 partitions, and tried living with a mounted /usr.
	Could NOT take it after 2 months: every other package
	I received took hours and hours to TRY to re-configure.
	EVEN IF YOU HAVE AN **ENORMOUS** disk, save yourself
	mountains of aggrevation by NOT MOUNTING /usr.

	OK: I have MORE packages at hand than most of YOU...
	but I've ALSO more experience with UNIX and STILL
	couldn't take the problems -- and the grating little
	ones you wouldn't even see for weeks!  YETCH

john mcmillan -- att!mtunb!jcm



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