LVM: mounting LVM partitions

Some hard drives now come configured with LVM (Logical Volume Manager). These need to be mounted using a special process.

First you need to ensure you have the relevant tools:

   sudo apt-get install lvm2

Then run fdisk to make sure the drive is recognised

   sudo fdisk -l

Now run pvscan to scan all for LVM physical volumes on the installed hard drives .

   sudo pvscan

       PV /dev/sda2 VG VolGroup00 lvm2 [74.41 GB / 32.00 MB free]
       Total: 1 [74.41 GB] / in use: 1 [74.41 GB] / in no VG: 0 [0 ]

Next run vgscan to detect LVM logical volumes (with LVM a partition can span more than one physical disk)

   vgscan

       Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while...
       Found volume group "VolGroup00" using metadata type lvm2

Now activate these using vgchange

   vgchange -a y

       2 logical volume(s) in volume group "VolGroup00" now active

Then you can run lvscan to detect the logical volumes. You will see the active partitions on the disks.

    lvscan

       ACTIVE '/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00' [72.44 GB] inherit
       ACTIVE '/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01' [1.94 GB] inherit

You will now be able to mount the partition

   mount /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 /mnt

   (often mount /dev/mapper/freegeek-root /mnt )