Removing UnionFS on Eee... why it's good

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

UnionFS is used on the Eee PCs, as a kind of protection mechanism. There are two partitions on the device, /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2. /dev/sda1 contains all the standard image, and any changes you make on the device are written to /dev/sda2. This is kind of neat, as it means you can always restore the device to factory default from the boot menu by wiping /dev/sda2.

There is a catch however, and that is that whenever you uninstall an app, you don't ACTUALLY uninstall it, it remains on /dev/sda1. You never regain the space, which sucks! Another side effect of unionfs is that you can't tweak things that are accessed before the union is made, e.g. the GRUB boot menu.

There is an answer, and that is to remove union FS, and remerge the partitions. The danger is if you toast your setup you'll have to rebuild using the recovery CD rather than the boot menu, but that's no biggie... i've put the recovery CD on a USB stick so it's even easier.

I can now remove stuff, regain space, and have a happier Eee Linux existence ;)

Anyone else done / considering doing the same?

P

[Guest]

Read about that on eeeuser, it's one of the 1st things I'll do. Try free up as much space a possible by deleting apps I'll never use.

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Yeah, it's well worth it. I'll put some instructions up myself, as i've simplified the process a bit...

P

[Guest hippotech]

Yeah, it's well worth it. I'll put some instructions up myself, as i've simplified the process a bit...

P

Did these instructions ever appear anywhere ?

Hippo