I have managed to get this to work! But until SuSE 9.0 behaves correctly by default I'm not going to use this arrangement for fear of future package updates breaking the system. The only thing I needed to get the system to work was to add a line to the 'linuxrc' script found in the root directory of the initrd image: export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/lib/i686:/lib If this line is added before all the 'insmod' statements that load the SCSI and LVM drivers, the system boots up without any problems. I must also admit that when I double-checked the initrd on the system that I was trying to fix I found that it *did* in fact have libc.so.6 in it, but even so for some reason it wasn't being picked up until I specified the LD_LIBARARY_PATH variable. So, in conclusion, I can say that there is no reason why you have to have ANYTHING outside the LVM. There is no need for a separate /boot partition, and no need for a separate / or swap or anything else. Put the whole lot in LVM-managed volumes and LILO is perfectly capable of finding the files it needs, and the system is perfectly capable of booting up OK. But someone at SuSE needs to tweak their distribution to support this out of the box since the only way to get it to work currently is to: * interrupt the first reboot after installation and start a Rescue system * Activate and mount your filesystems: vgscan vgchange -ay system (if system is your volume group) mount /dev/system/lvroot /mnt (for testing purposes I just used one large logical volume and file system. In practice this is obviously not of much benefit so in reality you'd have more mounts to do here!) * chroot into the partially-installed system: chroot /mnt * Modify the linuxrc script found in initrd: cp /boot/initrd /tmp/initrd.gz gunzip /tmp/initrd.gz mount /tmp/initrd /mnt vi /mnt/linuxrc and add the line "export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/lib/i686:/lib" before all the insmod statements. Save your changes. umount /mnt gzip /tmp/initrd cp /tmp/initrd.gz /boot/initrd-whatever-kernel-version-you've-got * Exit from the chrooted environment and reboot. exit shutdown -r now * Voila! I have been using a LVM on AIX for years and its advantages are very clear to me. The ability to separate out different areas of disc storage is extremely useful, as is the ability to extend or reduce those areas dynamically. (Make sure you use reiserfs for online filesystem resizing - I can't believe support for this on ext3, the default filesystem on Red Hat, is simply non-existant but it is.) The sooner Linux completes its support for this very useful tool the better! Hope someone at SuSE is listening! Chris ********************************************************************* Notice: This email is confidential and may contain copyright material of the John Lewis Partnership. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify us immediately and delete all copies of this message. (Please note that it is your responsibility to scan this message for viruses). Email to and from the John Lewis Partnership is automatically monitored for operational and lawful business reasons. ********************************************************************* John Lewis plc Registered in England 233462 Registered office 171 Victoria Street London SW1E 5NN Websites: http://www.johnlewis.com and http://www.waitrose.com