[Novalug] PS Re: boot trick??

[Bryan J. Smith]

Good catch!

Your /var filesystem shouldn't be smaller than 4GiB, if not 8GiB, today.
And that's regardless of whether you're using a Fedora-based or
Debian-based system, as both APT-DPKG (and APT-RPM for that
matteR) as well as YUM-RPM use /var/cache for temporary storage
of packages during upgrades.  It's really pushing it with only 2GiB.

If you do not have a separate /var filesystem, then your / (root) file-
system should be at least 4GiB these days, if not 8GiB.  I know lots
of people play games with different sized filesystems, but I do not.  I
really believe, strongly, in perfectly sized slices on perfect cylinder
boundaries.

-- Bryan

P.S.  I continue to use 2x memory (if not 4x, in case I double memory
in the future) for /, swap, /tmp and /var in every system I assemble.
If that's too much to break out, then just 2x for / and swap (no separate
/tmp or /var), although I highly recommend breaking out /usr and
/home (the former because it's largely static and the latter because
it's the most important part of your system -- assuming it's local).

E.g., on my current notebook, I have 4GiB of RAM with the assumption
of moving to 8GiB of RAM soon (when DDR3 SO-DIMMs drop under
$125 or so per 4GiB unit, for 8GiB total), so I created 16GiB /, swap,
/tmp and /var.  In the past I used 8GiB when I started out with 2GiB,
and quickly moved to 4GiB when DDR2 SO-DIMMs dropped under
$75 per 2GiB unit in early 2007.

 -- 
Bryan J  Smith           Professional, Technical Annoyance 
Linked Profile:         http://www.linkedin.com/in/bjsmith 
---------------------------------------------------------- 
Red Hat:  That 'other' American software company built on
open customer selection of options and value, instead of
controlled distribution channels of forced bundle and lock



----- Original Message ----
From: Rob Payne <rnspayne at the-paynes.com>
To: Beartooth <beartooth at Beartooth.Info>
Cc: NOVALUG Group <novalug at calypso2.tux.org>
Sent: Sat, December 12, 2009 10:15:07 PM
Subject: Re: [Novalug] PS Re:  boot trick??

On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 03:32:22PM -0600, Beartooth wrote:
> On Sat, 12 Dec 2009, Beartooth wrote:
>      [....]
> >     I'll try again with the askmethod *after* a space.
> > Meanwhile, I'm trying (as root) to copy /home/btth/Fedora12DVD to
> > /install/install.img -- not that I think it'll work, [...]

>      It didn't. The machine did, apparently, go online and try 
> to get what it needed off the Net -- but still hit the same 
> fershlugginer "not enough space" glitch.

>      Methinks I need to set up a file at / for it, containing 
> install/install.img and nothing else; there are several such on 
> the install DVD -- but I have no idea which is what ....

You said that the error occured during the transaction check?  If so,
that isn't an issue with the install image, it would appear to be a
problem with the package download and verification of available space.
The installer attempts to verify that there is enough available drive
space to download all of the necessary packages and install them all
at once.  It probably needs more space in / or /var.  If you can't
clean up files another way, it may be possible to proceed by:

1. remove some large packages (check 'rpm -qa *data openoffice*')
2. complete the upgrade, once there is enough space to proceed
3. after the upgrade, reinstall the packages removed in #1

Good luck!

                 -rob