Configure LVM in Foresight Linux

Foresight is a Linux distribution built around the Conary package management system, with Gnome as the default desktop environment. Like most Linux distributions, Foresight is installed to hard disk using the traditional disk partition system. In this tutorial, we are going to provide a step-by-step guide (with screenshots) on how to configure Linux logical volume manager (LVM) in Foresight.

As a disk management tool, LVM adds a layer of flexibility to disk storage management that is not possible with the traditional method of disk partitioning. Aside from Foresight, Fedora, Mandriva Linux Free, StartCom, CentOS, Openfiler, and Debian are some of the other Linux distributions that have support for LVM. You may read about how to configure LVM in Mandriva Linux Free here.

Now to configuring LVM in Foresight.

Foresight has a graphical installer, so configuring LVM is point-and-click. We begin this tutorial at the point in the installer where the hard disk is detected. This is just three clicks into the installation process. Those screens that are not shown in this tutorial feature options that all users will not have any problems with. So with the disk detected, click “Next”.

This brings us to this screen. Our goal here is to first create a boot partition before we start configuring LVM proper, and to do just that, click on the “New” tab.


We need to create a non-LVM, primary boot partition. With reference to the options shown in the image, for mount point, choose /boot from the dropdown menu. Virtually all (Linux) distros use ext3 as the default journalized filesystem. In Foresight, the only other option available is xfs. Here, the default is a good choice. Be sure that “Force to be a primary partition” is checked. Size-wise, anywhere from 100 MB to 200 MB is enough for /boot. If you are satisfied with you creation, click on “Ok”.

With /boot created, now we can start creating the different elements that make up LVM. The first of such elements is the physical volume (PV), and to create that, select the free space remaining and click on the “New” tab. In the screen that follows, select “physical volume (LVM)” under file system type, and be sure to click the “Fill to maximum allowable space” button. The other options will be taken care of by the installer. Click “Ok”.

With /boot and a PV created, your screen should look like the one below. Next step is to create a volume group and logical volumes. With Foresight’s installer, the VG and the PVs are created from the same window. To do that, click on the “LVM” tab.

The default VG name is always “VolGroup00″. You may use that or choose any name that you are comfortable with. Then to start creating the logical volumes, click on “Add” on the lower right side of the window.

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