On Wednesday 28 October 2009 09:00:06 [email protected] wrote: > I am about to upgrade a HP notebook to a larger hard disk (replace the 90Gb > disk with 500Gb) and double the RAM (from 2Gb to 4Gb). In addition, to > complicate matters, I would like to LVM on the larger disk to manage the > linux partitions. > > This is the final stage of my slow move from Windows to Linux. I have the > luxury of having two HP notebooks with similar but not identical hardware > specifications (NC8430 and 6910p) to test various aspects of the migration > (Virtual Box, video drivers for Ubuntu, etc). the current situation is that > one machine has my Windows XP environment and the other my Ubuntu > environment (Jaunty). > > I want to end up with a Windows partition and LVM managed Linux partitions > on > HP NC8430, 500Gb HDD, 4Gb RAM > > Here are the requests for advice: > > 1. What do I need to do to get Ubuntu to use 4Gb RAM? My current Jaunty > installation only recognises around 3Gb. Is this just a kernel upgrade > or .... > > 2. How complicated is it to move my "linux setup" from a single partition > to the lvm partitions on the larger disk. My latest thought is to: > a. update Ubuntu on the hard disk to match the current working environment > (fix apt-get config files and/or dpkg -l on both and diff them, and them > update) > b. If I copy /usr and /var from the working environment to the new > environment will that cause problems? (it will save re-installing some > software that isn't managed by apt) > c. copy /home from working environment to new disk (recommended method? > rsync to new drive connected via USB?) > d. use pgdump / pgrestore to move postgres databases across > e. Backup new disk > f. find out what doesn't work? What have I missed?
Based on what you have said do yourself a favour and don't do LVM. LVM is a wonderful idea but it requires that you understand statistics related to disk failure and the consequences of that. In your role of 'moving from windows ...' not a clever move. Over 960M of ram you need PAE memory paging with the 4G or the 64G scheme. The reasons pros and cons depend very much on your sort of applications. Until you are able to answer those questions just live with what you get and forget the extra ram beyond 3G. Transfer the OS from 1 disk to another is easy unless you've never done it <smile> umm hint boot on a CD and transfer not-live file systems. Heck I'd tell *my mate* to re-install, not to try to fiddle kernels to use all ram and not to contemplate LVM. James -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
