On Mon, Jun 29, 2026 at 5:03 PM Marjorie Roome <amusing@???> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> On Mon, 2026-06-29 at 12:33 -0500, o1bigtenor via Dng wrote:
> > On Mon, Jun 29, 2026 at 11:37 AM Lorenz via Dng <dng@???>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > On Mon, Jun 29, 2026 at 4:36 PM Hendrik Boom
> > > <hendrik@???> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > what happens if during usrmerge you run out of space on /usr ?
> > > > does usrmerge back out gracefully, leaving the system intact?
> > >
> > > I don't know for sure, maybe it has some sefaguards. If you can
> > > readperl, usrmerge is a perl script
> > >
> > > >
> > > > is there a good way of estimating how much space will be needed
> > >
> > > roughly, the sum of the following
> > > # du -hs /bin
> > > # du -hs /sbin
> > > # du -hs /lib
> > > # du -hs /lib64
> > > what it does, I think, is to copy everything in the above dirs
> > > into
> > > their /usr counterparts,
> > > so /bin into /usr/bin and so on, and then it replaces /bin, /sbin
> > > and
> > > so on with symlinks to
> > > their user counterparts. It's not an atomic move, if you are
> > > wondering.
> > > you might need twice the above space because it may copy stuff in
> > > /bin /sbin/ /lib /lib64 to a backup before removing it (not sure).
> > > It's not a large amount of space, usually.
> > >
> > > > so i can repartition first if necessary?
> > >
> > > this question rings a bell: I'm not sure that's your case but I
> > > think the only thing that is not supported in a usrmerged system is
> > > to have a /usr partition separate from root.
> >
> > Please - - - - could you check if this is true?
> >
> > If it is this is why I cannot boot what I call my trial box.
> >
> > I've been running these separate partitions
> > /
> > /boot
> > /usr
> > /usr/local
> > swap
> > /var
> > /home
> >
> > for some almost 20 years.
> > Have had a lot of issues keeping /usr large enough (think this box is
> > at
> > 25 GB).
> From how you describe your system I wouldn't be surprised if you might
> be falling foul of the copy space issue but also having your systems
> files now in /usr on a separate partition so not being accessible on
> boot.
>
> I suspect usrmerge is not detecting your non-compliant configuration
> and breaking you system. Apt is similarly unhelpful in not telling you
> about temporary space required when upgrading until you have actually
> exhausted it.

Hmmmm - - - - I like that - - - - non-compliant - - - - who decided that?
When I switched to having 7 partitions it was on the advice from my guru
who informed that it had not been that long before when his /var partition
had exploded (some goofy error that made him growly for a few days)
and had chocked /var and because he still /var in his / partition he had a
devil of a time getting things happy. His suggestion is what I"ve been
running ever since.

So some decided that every user should have only 3 partitions - - -
/ swap and /home - - - and this is MANDATORY.
I never received such a notice - - - - has anyone out there?

I'm using SSDs in (IIRC) a RAID1 configuration for each and every
different partition. The idea is maximum operational security.
>
> I found this reference on Mastodon as to why we got into the current
> historical existence of /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin, usr/sbin.
> https://lists.busybox.net/pipermail/busybox/2010-December/074114.html
> TL;DR there's no logical reason these days to split where we put our
> binaries.

No logical reason - - - - but there is something called choice - - - yes?
(I had read something similar a number of years ago and just went - -
I have the option and have used it - - - .)
>
> I think the same may largely apply to not putting everything but /home
> and /swap on the same root partition. By using LLM2 you can also
> spread your partition(s) over more than one disk, as well as to
> dynamically allocate more space to them as required.

LLM and its siblings makes for another level of possible issues.
(I have been using btrfs for a while too.)

I haven't had an issue with partition spill over in about 7 years and that
was because I had so many packages installed. So when I built this
system - - - it was taken care of!

It would appear that we are being shoehorned into a single type of
setup - - - I'm not sure why - - - - but - - - - NO THANK YOU!

Regards