Re: Default partition mounts [ "Installation Guide" lacks index ]

From	Richard Owlett <rowlett@access.net>
Newsgroups	linux.debian.user
Subject	Re: Default partition mounts [ "Installation Guide" lacks index ]
Date	2024-08-20 10:50 +0200
Message-ID	<JdsIV-6ihE-1@gated-at.bofh.it> (permalink)
References	<Jd8Ax-65K6-5@gated-at.bofh.it> <JdgHL-6axf-11@gated-at.bofh.it>
Organization	linux.* mail to news gateway

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On 08/19/2024 02:51 PM, Andy Smith wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm afraid I have not got the kind of answer you request for your
> actual question but…
> 
> On Mon, Aug 19, 2024 at 06:19:26AM -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
>> I'm over 80 and doing first "from scratch" install since Squeeze ;}
>> Hardware is Lenovo R61 ThinkPad (64 bit).
>> I multi boot [Grub will have at least three options]:
>>    1. minimalist installation - primarily command line usage
>>    2. 64 bit Debian with maximum features
>>    3. 32 bit Debian - couple of applications require a 32 bit OS
> 
> All 32-bit x86 software runs on a 64-bit kernel no problem¹ on
> Debian, so it's unlikely you actually need to dedicate a whole
> install to a 32-bit kernel, which also as previously mentioned has a
> single digit of years of remaining lifetime in Debian.

I don't see anything on https://wiki.debian.org/LTS that implies shorter 
lifetime for i386 than anything else.

> 
>>    4. other installs with strong project dependencies
> 
> Dependencies can indeed get out of hand sometimes.

I wasn't speaking of "software dependencies". For different projects I 
want different "working environments".

> 
> I don't know how much you are up for a learning experience but
> virtual machines or containers can often be a good way to
> compartmentalise projects and their dependencies without needing to
> do whole separate installs.
> 
> So you see, I think your use case can be handled with only one
> Debian install, using containers or VMs for the projects with a lot
> of dependencies. But I appreciate it's a lot to get stuck into.

I looked into VMs long ago. For my style - no advantages worth the effort.

> 
>> Today's question
>> At boot time, what determines which physical partition gets mounted as a
>> specific directory ( /, /home, swap, and so forth )?
> 
> You asked for pointers to complete documentation on this and I can't
> do that which is why I said this wasn't going to be an answer to
> your actual question.
> 
> A summary however is that:
> 
> The grub entry provides an initramfs and a device for use as root.
> 
> The initramfs provides a temporary root filesystem containing all of
> the tools necessary to mount the actual root device as root.
> 
> It then mounts root (which must also contain /etc). If root did not
> also contain /usr then that is also mounted at this point.
> 
> The real init from the root filesystem (systemd) then takes
> over, looks at /etc/fstab and mounts everything² in there at the
> places it says.
> 
> So, there are multiple things going on here as regards what gets
> mounted where. The bootloader entry decides which device / will be
> on (you can test this by changing / in the fstab — whatever is in
> the bootloader entry will prevail). The initramfs can mount things
> outside of the direction of fstab but tyoically doesn't. Then the
> init system from the real root filesystem reads /etc/fstab.
> 
> Finally there can be systemd .mount units outside of fstab, but
> again that is not typical and you'd know if you added those.
> 
> Thanks,
> Andy
> 
> ¹ By which I mean if it runs on a 32-bit kernel it will work on a
>    64-bit kernel as well unless they went out of their way to ensure
>    it won't work.
> 
> ² Some things in /etc/fstab can be set to "noauto" to prevent them
>    being automatically mounted at boot time.
>

Thread

Default partition mounts [ "Installation Guide" lacks index ] Richard Owlett <rowlett@access.net> - 2024-08-19 13:20 +0200
  Re: Default partition mounts [ "Installation Guide" lacks index ] David <bouncingcats@gmail.com> - 2024-08-19 14:10 +0200
    Re: Default partition mounts [ "Installation Guide" lacks index ] Richard Owlett <rowlett@access.net> - 2024-08-19 15:50 +0200
      Re: Default partition mounts [ "Installation Guide" lacks index ] Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2024-08-19 18:00 +0200
        Re: Default partition mounts [ "Installation Guide" lacks index ] Richard Owlett <rowlett@access.net> - 2024-08-19 20:20 +0200
  Re: Default partition mounts [ "Installation Guide" lacks index ] Andy Smith <andy@strugglers.net> - 2024-08-19 22:00 +0200
    Re: Default partition mounts [ "Installation Guide" lacks index ] Richard Owlett <rowlett@access.net> - 2024-08-20 10:50 +0200
      Re: Default partition mounts [ "Installation Guide" lacks index ] "Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@einval.com> - 2024-08-20 11:40 +0200
        Re: Default partition mounts [ "Installation Guide" lacks index ] Richard Owlett <rowlett@access.net> - 2024-08-20 12:50 +0200
          Trixie and i386 - was [Re: Default partition mounts [ "Installation  Guide" lacks index ]] Richard Owlett <rowlett@access.net> - 2024-08-20 14:40 +0200
            Re: Trixie and i386 - was [Re: Default partition mounts [  "Installation Guide" lacks index ]] Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com> - 2024-08-20 15:50 +0200
            Future of i386 as installer "Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@einval.com> - 2024-08-20 15:50 +0200
      The lack of a future for 32-bit x86 installs (Was Re: Default  partition mounts [ "Installation Guide" lacks index ]) Andy Smith <andy@strugglers.net> - 2024-08-20 17:20 +0200
        Re: The lack of a future for 32-bit x86 installs (Was Re: Default  partition mounts [ "Installation Guide" lacks index ]) Roberto C. Sánchez <roberto@debian.org> - 2024-08-20 18:10 +0200
  Re: Default partition mounts [ "Installation Guide" lacks index ] Tom Dial <tddial@comcast.net> - 2024-08-20 00:50 +0200
    Re: Default partition mounts [ "Installation Guide" lacks index ] David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2024-08-20 05:20 +0200
      Re: Default partition mounts [ "Installation Guide" lacks index ] Richard Owlett <rowlett@access.net> - 2024-08-20 10:10 +0200
  Re: Default partition mounts [ "Installation Guide" lacks index ] David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2024-08-20 06:30 +0200
    Re: Default partition mounts [ "Installation Guide" lacks index ] Richard Owlett <rowlett@access.net> - 2024-08-20 10:20 +0200
    UEFI multiboot (was: Re: Default partition mounts [ "Installation  Guide" lacks index ]) Max Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com> - 2024-08-20 17:20 +0200
      Re: UEFI multiboot (was: Re: Default partition mounts [  "Installation Guide" lacks index ]) Erwan David <erwan@rail.eu.org> - 2024-08-20 17:30 +0200
      Re: UEFI multiboot (was: Re: Default partition mounts [  "Installation Guide" lacks index ]) Nicolas George <george@nsup.org> - 2024-08-20 18:00 +0200
        Re: UEFI multiboot (was: Re: Default partition mounts [ "Installation  Guide" lacks index ]) Jeffrey Walton <noloader@gmail.com> - 2024-08-20 18:30 +0200
          Re: UEFI multiboot gene heskett <gheskett@shentel.net> - 2024-08-20 22:20 +0200
        Re: UEFI multiboot Max Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com> - 2024-08-21 06:00 +0200
          Re: UEFI multiboot Felix Miata <mrmazda@stanis.net> - 2024-08-21 06:30 +0200
            Re: UEFI multiboot Max Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com> - 2024-08-21 18:20 +0200
              Re: UEFI multiboot Nicolas George <george@nsup.org> - 2024-08-21 19:40 +0200
              Re: UEFI multiboot Felix Miata <mrmazda@stanis.net> - 2024-08-22 00:30 +0200
                Re: UEFI multiboot Max Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com> - 2024-08-22 05:20 +0200
                Re: UEFI multiboot Felix Miata <mrmazda@stanis.net> - 2024-08-22 11:50 +0200
                Re: UEFI multiboot Max Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com> - 2024-08-22 18:00 +0200
                Re: UEFI multiboot Felix Miata <mrmazda@stanis.net> - 2024-08-22 22:50 +0200
                [SUMMARY] Re: UEFI multiboot Max Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com> - 2024-08-23 05:10 +0200
                Re: [SUMMARY] UEFI multiboot Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2024-08-23 06:50 +0200
                Re: UEFI multiboot Max Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com> - 2024-08-30 18:10 +0200
                Re: UEFI multiboot Felix Miata <mrmazda@stanis.net> - 2024-08-30 18:50 +0200
                Re: UEFI multiboot Max Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com> - 2024-08-31 04:20 +0200
                [SUMMARY] Re: UEFI multiboot Max Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com> - 2024-09-14 06:10 +0200
                Re: [SUMMARY] UEFI multiboot Felix Miata <mrmazda@stanis.net> - 2024-09-14 06:40 +0200
                Re: [SUMMARY] UEFI multiboot songbird <songbird@anthive.com> - 2024-09-14 19:40 +0200
                Re: [SUMMARY] UEFI multiboot Felix Miata <mrmazda@stanis.net> - 2024-09-14 21:20 +0200
                Re: [SUMMARY] UEFI multiboot "Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> - 2024-09-14 21:40 +0200
                Re: [SUMMARY] UEFI multiboot Anssi Saari <anssi.saari@debian-user.mail.kapsi.fi> - 2024-09-16 12:20 +0200
                Re: [SUMMARY] UEFI multiboot songbird <songbird@anthive.com> - 2024-09-17 01:50 +0200
                Re: UEFI multiboot Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2024-08-22 12:00 +0200
          Re: UEFI multiboot Nicolas George <george@nsup.org> - 2024-08-21 08:50 +0200
            Re: UEFI multiboot Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2024-08-21 09:20 +0200

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