On Wed, Dec 01, 1999 at 10:06:04AM +0100, Robert J. Alexander wrote: > > Now, could I use the unstable floppies to install the system on a > different root partition but share the same /var, /home, /tmp > filesystems ??
You probably won't be able to share /var. dpkg keeps various information
in there, which would get confused if you're switching between
semi-stable and unstable. For example, the currently-installed package
listing in /var/lib/dpkg/status would necessarily be different between
the two.
With /var and /home, you might also run into trouble if a new version of
a package has a different, incompatible configuration or data file format.
> With which LILO syntax ???
Just use the root option in the image section, something like this. If
you use different kernels between the two, stick them both in boot and
refer explicitly to /boot/vmlinux-2.x.yy in each image. Or find some
other system to keep the two straight. Note that the /etc/lilo.conf for
both sides should be identical.
> BTW the packages if unstable are already pn my current /home
> filesystem and I could hopefully install from there ....
You certainly could. i don't know the exact procedure though, check the
docs and the list.
> My HDs are partitioned as follows:
>
> Filesystem 1K-blo Capac mountpoint
> /dev/sda1 792800 40% /
> /dev/sda2 7776 21% /boot <--- probably stupid since / is
> < 1024cyl boundary
Actually, this may prove fortuitous. Keep the kernels for both in here,
and you should be able to use the same lilo.conf on both sides. You
could even put lilo.conf in here, and symlink /etc/lilo.conf to it from
both sides.
lilo.conf would probably look something like this, assuming you put the
new root filesystem on /dev/sda5.
> boot=/dev/sda
> root=/dev/sda1
> install=/boot/boot.b
> map=/boot/map
image=/boot/vmlinux-2.2.13
> label=LinuxStable2.2.13
> read-only
> append="mem=127M"
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.13
label=LinuxUnstable2.2.13
read-only
root=/dev/sda5
append="mem=127M"
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