installing tq 11. What is lvm?
during installation of trisquel
11 under installation type, it
says use lvm with the new trisquel installation
this will set up logical volume management. it allows taking snapshots and easier partition resizing. Unmarking
this option does not alter the strength
of the system encryption, if you select the
option encrypt new trisquel installation for security? What is
the purpose of lvm? If you do not
intend to make a snapshot or resize a partiton,
then there is no reason for selecting
the lvm option? Thanks.
Unmarking this option does not alter the strength of the system encryption, if you select the option encrypt new trisquel installation for security?
I am not sure. LVM supports encryption. Although it is possible to encrypt partitions without LVM, I do not know if Trisquel's installer still allows to do that without LVM.
What is the purpose of lvm?
It aims to ease the management of partitions. Single logical partitions can be on several drives, those partitions can be resized/moved while being used, they can even use new drives added while the system is running, etc. Not really features that are needed for desktop computers.
https://tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/benefitsoflvmsmall.html actually argues in favor of LVM on desktop computers. Nevertheless, if you choose filesystems that can be resized both ways (unlike XFS, which cannot be shrunk), do not mind your system being inaccessible for the time it takes to resize partitions (the case for purely desktop computers) and do no need more than the available disk (or do not mind having the added disk mounted somewhere else, rather than an extension of /home), then those arguments do not apply to you.
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If you do not intend to resize a partiton
I don't think anyone *intends* to resize a partition. The need to resize appears later when the root partition is full because of installing more things (apps, guix or whatever) or doing an upgrade to next Trisquel version (it takes a lot of disk space).
If you use encryption and don't want to use LVM, I'd suggest having a single partition for root and home in order to avoid the problem of full root partition. Normally, separate home allows to reinstall and keep existing home but the Trisquel installer cannot do that if encryption was used.
Personally, I just use the default option with LVM. I am not aware that LVM has ever caused any problem.
EDIT: Read the link from Magic Banana, I think it is informative.
> Normally, separate home allows to reinstall and keep existing home but the Trisquel installer cannot do that if encryption was used.
That would be a super convenient feature IMO. Is this something other installers can do and just has not yet made it into Trisquel installer? Or this is a limitation of installers more generally?
I am a translator!
Is this something other installers can do and just has not yet made it into Trisquel installer?
According to https://superuser.com/questions/1551921/how-can-i-reinstall-ubuntu-focal-20-04-on-an-existing-luks-encrypted-system, it was not supported for Ubuntu 20.04. I am suspecting this is still not supported by Ubuntu.
I remember trying something like the instructions in the second answer (starting with "I could manage it with my PC") and I don't recall whether it worked or not (probably it did not). This is a nice hacking exercise but if you need to get the job done within a predictable time, restoring a backup on a fresh install is currently the way to go.
I got aware,that full trisquel 11 system
encryption only goes together with marking lvm. If
you unmark lvm, you unmark full trisquel
11 system encryption.