[SOLVED] UEFI support in Mageia 3 (for my new PC)

[jkerr82508]

The four partition limit refers to primary partitions. Within an extended partition you can create numerous logical partitions. For example Windows may be on a primary partition, sda1. Mageia's partitioner would usually create an extended partition (sda2) and within that extended partition create several logical partitions for /, swap and /home etc. Each logical partition would be assigned a device number, usually beginning with sda5.

rc.local has been removed because systemd is supposed to be able to handle anything that would be done in rc.local, through custom service files. However, many people, like me, prefer to use rc.local, because it is familiar and avoids learning the details of creating sytemd service files.
In a terminal, e.g.konsole:

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su -
touch /etc/rc.d/rc.local

That will create the file and then to edit it:

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kwrite /etc/rc.d/rc.local

Make the first line in the file:

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#!/bin/bash

Then add the command(s) that you want to be executed, save the file and exit kwrite. Then make it executable

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chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.local

When you re-boot, systemd will activate it's rc-local.service and execute the file.

(You can use any text editor that you prefer, such as gedit, in place of kwrite. I always end bash scripts and config files with a blank line - some won't function correctly without it.)

I have no experience with SSD devices and so cannot comment on the usefulness of the advice that you quoted.

Jim

[doktor5000]

For rc.local just create that file: viewtopic.php?f=41&t=4734

In general, i'd have created /home on the SSD, and then just create links to the larger folders you need there.
If you experienced it once, you don't want to miss that extra snapiness ever again.

[Myles]

I apologise for this comment "Well, seeing that everyone seems to have deserted me," it should have had an emoticon after it but it was late last night and thus far it has been (for me anyway) a long road to get to this point. It seemed the more I asked and read about this UEFI/SSD business (and allocating partitions to boundaries) the more cans of worms it opened and the more confused and conflicted I became. So please forgive me, and if anyone is still willing to assist me I'd really appreciate it.

[Myles]

Whoa, when I just posted that I hadn't realised that there were repilies - I didn't see them! (again!) I hadn't realised that we'd gone onto a new page! I have some other stuff to do now so I will review your comments a bit later and take them on board and maybe do a re-install based on the info and will report back. Thanks jkerr and - as always - doktor.

[Myles]

Okay, so what if I allocate 2 really big Extended partitions on the SSD - 1 to house Mageia 3 related partitions and the other to contain Cauldron related partitions and other Linux distos to try out.

on my SSD:
SDA1 100Mb Windows sytem reserved
SDA2 58Gb (Main Windows install)
SDA3 Extended part 1 80Gb (/ - 19Gb; /home - 30Gb), Any others to go in there????
SDA4 Extended part 1 80Gb (Cauldron-related / and /home; other Linux distros partitions)
On 1st 2Tb drive:
SDB1 48Gb /home
SDB2 1.7Tb /Data

On 2nd 2Tb drive:
SDC1 97Gb Windows data
SDC2 7.8Gb /swap
SDC3 6.8Gb /var (I forgot to put this on the listing last night, tired!)

I'll keep /swap and /var on spinning HDD as recommended in the reading I have done.
Could I enclose these in an extended partition the same as the SSD as I have 1.7Tb to play with?
Could I make an Extended partition of, say, 100Gb to house both the /swap and /var partitions for Mageia #3 and also house Cauldron-related and other Linux distros partitions????? Would that be feasible/workable? Maybe a little out of my depth here.

Also doktor you mention links from /home on the SSD

then just create links to the larger folders you need there

I don't really understand what you mean. Symlinks or something pointing to folders on the spinning HDD???

[doktor5000]

Also doktor you mention links from /home on the SSD

then just create links to the larger folders you need there

I don't really understand what you mean. Symlinks or something pointing to folders on the spinning HDD???

Well, symlinks are the easiest way of "something pointing to folders on the spinning HDD" so i don't get your question ...

See, you have your /home on the SSD. For your ~/Documents, ~/Downloads and maybe music or videos or stuff
you want to have accessible under your ~/ just add symlinks pointing to the real folders on the spinning HDD.

[Myles]

doktor, thanks for that. As I said, I'm pretty much a newbie at the inner workings of Linux. I thought Symlinks was what you were referring to - I only did my very first Symlink last week to get an application automatically started at logon. So I will have to set that up after I do a complete re-partition and re-install with what I proposed above - which I hope will work, I'll see what happens.

[doktor5000]

For your partitioning, some questions:

Do you really need a separate /var partition, and if so, what for?
You have listed /home partition twice, 30GB on the SSD and 48 GB on spinning drive. Twice the same partition?

For /swap, i'd put that on the SSD. Reason: Hibernating will be much faster. And you can disable swapping, so it's not used during normal operation.

[Myles]

doktor as I said in one of my earlier posts I am a newbie in essence and don't really know about the inner workings of Linux - I just use it. I have never owned an SSD before and what I read about it is that you should try and reduce the amount of writes to the SSD to increase the life of the drive. Being a newbie, I am only going on what I trust are people who know vastly more than my humble self in these matters. As I said in one of my posts earlier:

It seemed the more I asked and read about this UEFI/SSD business (and allocating partitions to boundaries) the more cans of worms it opened and the more confused and conflicted I became

And this is true, now more than ever. I allocated a separate /var due to this piece of advice

Intelligent Partition Scheme For systems with both an SSD and an HDD, consider relocating the /var partition to a magnetic disc on the system rather than on the SSD itself to avoid read/write wear.

in an article cited by LarryDan above: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?title=Solid_State_Drives&printable=yes This has been a really frustrating experience thus far! The dual /home definitions was my error, I only meant to define one. I have read/had conflicting advice from all over which makes it really hard to decide what to do. Regarding /swap, once again reading an article cited by LarryDan: http://apcmag.com/how-to-maximise-ssd-performance-with-linux.htm# contains this advice:

Linux is pretty good at only using swap if it really needs to, but even so if you're installing to an SSD and you have a mechanical hard drive in your system, be sure to put the swap partition on it instead of the SSD.

So you see what a quandary I am in? I am going to leave things the way they are at the moment as I have just completed a re-install with new partitions on the SSD and HDD. I allocated an 80Gb Extended on the SSD housing a / - 19Gb and /home - 29Gb. I will add Symlinks from /home to other folders on HDD as you suggest. As for relocating /swap maybe at a later time. At the moment I've had enough. Thankyou doktor, and to to everyone, especially LarryDan, who has helped me on this journey .