Historically a separate /usr filesystem, be it partition or (more typically) a separate disk, was because / held the system and /usr held everything else. No kernel, no system libraries, nothing required for startup or shutdown. It was economical and practical, given the capacities of disks at the time and it made backing up and expansion of storage easier. /usr also held user directories, hence the name "usr". You could run the system without /usr with no trouble. Some noncritical files and commands might be missing and users wouldn't have access to their home directories but the system was usable at pretty much every runlevel. Since the long-standing policy of keeping everything system and everything needed for startup on / has been tossed out and system files essential to startup are buried somewhere, anywhere, in /usr it must be mounted early during startup or be on the root filesystem otherwise the system fails to start up even in runlevel 1 and basically becomes a whiny brick. Startup depends on /usr being there. So having a separate /usr filesystem is no longer safe. Even if a system set up so it can start up without /usr, there is always the invetiable clueless someone who comes along and puts something system-critical in /usr, breaking the startup process. /usr can no longer be a separate partition by dint of ignorance or whatever supposedly reasonable motive moved people to disregard policy. To change it back would be too much effort that few are willing to undertake and fewer still are willing to agree with. The best that can be done now is to ensure that no one starts putting system critical files in /home, /tmp, /media, or other new and weird places. Enjoy your tangential arguing everyone... -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org