On 07/04/2008, Marc Butler <marclbutler@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hello all, > > I have a single system to use for Linux/Kernel experimentation. I will > need to use the same system for both building and running kernels, I > was wondering if it would be useful to have 2 root parititions. One > partition for the build environment, the other for running > experimental builds + debugging. The idea being to try and protect my > work area from my own stupidity. > > With 60G of disk space, it is certainly possible. However, I cannot > decide as to whether or not it is useful. I have tried searching for > suggested (or simply described) kernel developer system configurations > - with no success. Does anyone have suggestions based on their > environments? Should I just run a single system and proceed with > caution? > I can't comment on what other people do, but I can comment on what I do personally. I have a single machine that is both my primary workstation and my kernel development box. The main precaution I take is to have up-to-date backups of my important files, but apart from that I just install and run development kernels on my single distro install. I have one installation of Slackware linux (-current branch) and just replace the distro kernel with one build from kernel.org sources on a (almost) daily basis. I keep the last 10 kernels as boot options in LILO, so when something goes wrong I can just boot one of the previous kernels. On the rare occasion that an experimental kernel has caused fatal data loss (yes, that has happened) I just re-install (which takes all of 20 minutes) then restore my important data from backup (another 20 minutes) and I'm back in the game. Having to do that is very rare though, usually I just have to reset the machine and boot the previously working kernel when something goes wrong. -- Jesper Juhl <jesper.juhl@xxxxxxxxx> Don't top-post http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/T/top-post.html Plain text mails only, please http://www.expita.com/nomime.html -- To unsubscribe from this list: send an email with "unsubscribe kernelnewbies" to ecartis@xxxxxxxxxxxx Please read the FAQ at http://kernelnewbies.org/FAQ
