Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian systems and install programs to the secondary disk

From	"Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@einval.com>
Newsgroups	linux.debian.user
Subject	Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian systems and install programs to the secondary disk
Date	2021-02-27 14:50 +0100
Message-ID	<BN88N-5BR-1@gated-at.bofh.it> (permalink)
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On Sat, Feb 27, 2021 at 03:22:08PM +0300, Semih Ozlem wrote:
> One potential extra information that could be relevant is that I did use
> the flash drives in a university network, and using shared wifi in a hostel
> and before in a public library.
> 

That's probably irrelevant: flash drives can and do fail with the occasional 
missing write under heavy load. Are these USB3?

Essentially, installing a Linux system to them is more intense than just 
copying files, even large files. There's an amount of indexing, finding files
and so on that isn't there in copying say, a DVD sized image across.

There's a subtle difference between a cheap 16G USB stick and one of the large
high capacity USB sticks from a major manufacturer that might cost ten times
as much. Also, USB connected devices are different: I'd feel happier, for 
example, installing Debian to an SSD in a good caddy connected via a short
USB3 cable I trust :)

> Semih Ozlem <semihozlemlinuxuser@gmail.com>, 27 Şub 2021 Cmt, 15:19
> tarihinde şunu yazdı:
> 
> > Should I then be suspicious of a possible attack on the system in case the
> > system fails, if both debian and ubuntu are fairly stable? The usb flash
> > drives themselves are still functional in the sense that I can view the
> > files in them after plugging them in. I backed up the data on them. But
> > when I try to boot from 64 gb usb flash disks (one with ubuntu 18 04 the
> > other debian 10 point something installed on them) the boot process does
> > not complete and the login screen does not appear. The two recovery modes
> > (I guess those are the snapshots no?) do not finish booting either.
> >

18.04 is now old: try 20.04 :) Similarly, use the latest Debian image you
can find on cdimage.debian.org or mirrors. The latest is 10.8 - 10.9 will be
along eventually.

> > Joe <joe@jretrading.com>, 27 Şub 2021 Cmt, 12:02 tarihinde şunu yazdı:
> >
> >> On Sat, 27 Feb 2021 11:30:08 +0300
> >> Semih Ozlem <semihozlemlinuxuser@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> > Sorry I can not read emails very often. No I am not new to linux I
> >> > have been using it for the past 6 or 7 years starting mostly with
> >> > ubuntu. I had CENTOS and Ubuntu and debian installed on some machines
> >> > before.  Most of them stopped functioning. Some of them in less than
> >> > six months.
> >>

What are you _doing_ to them? That's unusual in any event. Are you in an area
subject to power cuts? Were you using significantly old hardware / hardware
built from discarded PCs?

> >> OK, that simply should not happen. I don't know if either Centos or
> >> Ubuntu can do in-place version upgrades, but if not, they should
> >> certainly run from release to unsupported status. My current server
> >> installation is a new one, but previously it ran through several
> >> Debian stable version upgrades and many years, and a couple of changes
> >> of hardware. There is such a thing as software rot, and it certainly
> >> affects applications, but the OS of Debian stable should run pretty much
> >> forever.
> >> >
> >> > I am new to the debian users group, because I found out that a user
> >> > group existed much later. During this time I had a lot of issues with
> >> > computers. The new computer that I got, originally the store claimed
> >> > that the insurance on my machine would be invalidated if I installed
> >> > another operation system on the machine.
> >> >
> >> > The reason for hesitating to install debian right now is simply that
> >> > the machines may become unusable again, and the invested time and
> >> > machinepower to installing a machine may end up being wasted. The
> >> > other reason was the claim that insurance may become invalid which
> >> > later turned out not to be so, but only after asking the company that
> >> > sells the computer several times.
> >>
> >> No software carries any kind of warranty, not even the famous Windows,
> >> but the warranty should certainly cover the hardware if it isn't
> >> physically abused. Software warranty service is pretty much limited to
> >> reinstalling Windows with loss of all data and applications, which any
> >> user can do themselves.
> >>

In your position, if the machine does not carry all your vital data - I might
consider making the machine dual boot Debian and Windows.

Before I did that: I'd use Windows tools to list everything possible about
the system and write it down on a piece of paper - including whether it's 
booting from UEFI, what the video information is, disk size and so on.

I'd also boot the machine from a piece of Debian live media - check lsusb, 
lspci, any dmesg messages about missing firmware - again, write it down.

Use the tools from Microsoft to get hold of a copy of the latest Windows 
install media and use those tools to write it to a USB stick. Keep that 
somewhere in case you _ever_ need to reinstall Windows :) Then check back
into the list and I'll talk you through installation if you wish.

One thing that is important: always resize disks first with Windows tools
before installing any other OS.

> >> > The third reason is I simply do not
> >> > at the moment have the time to backup the existing hard drive before
> >> > installing a new operating system on it, and also that should it
> >> > become unusable or stop functioning (I had debian installed on a usb
> >> > 64 gb of size that stopped booting)..
> >>
> >> Ah, USB sticks *do* stop working or lose bits without warning. Well, so
> >> do spinning hard drives, but not usually in less than about five years,
> >> often much longer.
> >> >
> >> > Yes I did figure out that it was lvm2 package that was needed, and
> >> > lvs is actually one of the internal commands for lvm2 as well so it
> >> > could be run from the console lvm2 prodives. I am looking into the
> >> > option of using lvm.
> >>
> >> That's fairly painless to use, as Debian will set it up during the OS
> >> installation. To be honest, I've had it installed for many years, and
> >> only occasionally used it. Drives are now large enough that I don't
> >> outgrow them in the lifetime of the hardware. In addition to adding
> >> and removing drives, LVM does allow online backups, if you've left
> >> enough unused space. Read about snapshots.
> >>
> >> --
> >> Joe
> >>
> >>

Write yourself a list of things you want to do with the machine. Accept that
it might be ten items long - then accept that it might take a while to do the
first thing on the list which is to install Debian :) 

If you've installed Ubuntu a few times, the Debian install is not unfamiliar. 
If you've only ever used the graphical installer, I would suggest that you 
choose the expert option (under Advanced options) because this will ask _all_ 
the questions.

If your Windows machine functionality is business critical/vital to your life,
I'd suggest practising the install a couple of times on a spare machine if you
can get one rather than destroying everything accidentally and blaming the 
list for telling you to do it :)

All the very best, as ever,

Andy C.

Thread

is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian systems  and install programs to the secondary disk Semih Ozlem <semihozlemlinuxuser@gmail.com> - 2021-02-22 21:10 +0100
  Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2021-02-22 21:30 +0100
    Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Semih Ozlem <semihozlemlinuxuser@gmail.com> - 2021-02-22 22:00 +0100
      Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org> - 2021-02-22 22:20 +0100
        Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Semih Ozlem <semihozlemlinuxuser@gmail.com> - 2021-02-22 22:40 +0100
          Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk "Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@einval.com> - 2021-02-22 23:20 +0100
          Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk David <bouncingcats@gmail.com> - 2021-02-22 23:20 +0100
            Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Semih Ozlem <semihozlemlinuxuser@gmail.com> - 2021-02-23 00:10 +0100
              Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk David <bouncingcats@gmail.com> - 2021-02-23 00:20 +0100
              Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk "James H. H. Lampert" <jamesl@touchtonecorp.com> - 2021-02-23 17:20 +0100
              Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Nicholas Geovanis <nickgeovanis@gmail.com> - 2021-02-23 17:20 +0100
                Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian systems and install programs to the secondary disk rhkramer@gmail.com - 2021-02-23 17:40 +0100
                Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Nicholas Geovanis <nickgeovanis@gmail.com> - 2021-02-23 18:00 +0100
                Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2021-02-23 18:20 +0100
          Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> - 2021-02-23 09:30 +0100
            Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Celejar <celejar@gmail.com> - 2021-02-25 15:50 +0100
              Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2021-02-25 16:00 +0100
              Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk IL Ka <kazakevichilya@gmail.com> - 2021-02-25 16:00 +0100
                Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Celejar <celejar@gmail.com> - 2021-02-25 16:20 +0100
                Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk IL Ka <kazakevichilya@gmail.com> - 2021-02-25 16:30 +0100
                Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk The Wanderer <wanderer@fastmail.fm> - 2021-02-25 16:50 +0100
                Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org> - 2021-02-25 17:00 +0100
                Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk The Wanderer <wanderer@fastmail.fm> - 2021-02-25 17:10 +0100
                Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk IL Ka <kazakevichilya@gmail.com> - 2021-02-25 17:00 +0100
                Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Celejar <celejar@gmail.com> - 2021-02-25 16:50 +0100
  Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2021-02-23 04:10 +0100
    Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk martin f krafft <madduck@debian.org> - 2021-02-23 11:40 +0100
      Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Semih Ozlem <semihozlemlinuxuser@gmail.com> - 2021-02-26 07:00 +0100
        Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com> - 2021-02-26 08:00 +0100
          Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Semih Ozlem <semihozlemlinuxuser@gmail.com> - 2021-02-26 08:40 +0100
            Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org> - 2021-02-26 13:30 +0100
        Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk David <bouncingcats@gmail.com> - 2021-02-26 11:00 +0100
          Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com> - 2021-02-26 18:30 +0100
            Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org> - 2021-02-26 18:50 +0100
              Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Semih Ozlem <semihozlemlinuxuser@gmail.com> - 2021-02-27 09:40 +0100
                Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Semih Ozlem <semihozlemlinuxuser@gmail.com> - 2021-02-27 09:40 +0100
                About keeping a Debian installation happy [was: is it possible to  add a secondary disk to an existing debian] systems and install programs to  the secondary disk <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2021-02-27 10:20 +0100
                Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2021-02-27 10:10 +0100
                Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Semih Ozlem <semihozlemlinuxuser@gmail.com> - 2021-02-27 13:30 +0100
                Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Semih Ozlem <semihozlemlinuxuser@gmail.com> - 2021-02-27 13:30 +0100
                Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk "Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@einval.com> - 2021-02-27 14:50 +0100
                Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2021-02-27 15:20 +0100
                Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2021-03-01 01:40 +0100
        Re: is it possible to add a secondary disk to an existing debian  systems and install programs to the secondary disk martin f krafft <madduck@debian.org> - 2021-02-27 09:30 +0100

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