On Monday 28 Nov 2016 04:40:32 Richard Owlett wrote: > I have two use cases which demonstrate the problem. > > First Environment: > I have a laptop exclusively dedicated to being a test platform of > various Debian configurations [Jessie 8.6.0 currently]. I have > limited connectivity, therefore all installs are done from a > purchased set of DVDs. At any time there may exist up to 4 > installs available, each in its own partition. As only one > install is active at any time, a single swap partition should be > adequate. > > *HOWEVER* each install "touches" the swap partition changing its > UUID. > This causes a problem with using the chronologically earlier in > stall. Systemd looks for a swap partition with a specific UUID. > The triggered diagnostic takes ~2 minutes while I'm > w-a-i-t--n---g for the system to boot. I've NOT investigated > whether or not the system actually finds and uses the intended > swap partition or not. For THAT PARTICULAR LAPTOP I doubt there > are any consequences as for my particular use I doubt any use of > swap occurs. I suspect a workaround might be editing /etc/fstab > all previous installs when a new install is done. > > Second Environment: > On a second machine [the laptop being out of service due to > hardware problems] I attempted to install Debian to a USB flash > drive for demonstrating Debian to friends on their machines and > testing used machines before purchasing. > > The was no problem until the partitioning phase. It allowed me to > create a ext2 partition on the flash drive for use a / . It > allowed me to create a second partition and to designate it as a > swap partition. > > *HOWEVER* the confirmation screen about writing changes to disk > essentially said it was going to *TRASH* the existing install of > Debian on the machines hard-drive by formatting the hard disk's > swap partition [i.e. changing its UUID]. > > I see no conceivable reason to mess with a perfectly fine install > when installing to an unrelated device. > > Thank you
I often have more than one installation and each new installation includes an unchanged /srv partition and lists each previous installation as another available partition unchanged but under an amended name, so instead of / it may be /wheezyroot. I can then edit the previous /etc/fstab to match the new uuids and make all bootable. I also find the shared /srv partition useful. Chris Bell
