Query about parasitic firefox file

[Colin Watson]

On Thu, Mar 08, 2018 at 06:10:47PM +0100, Liam Proven wrote:
> Er. You noted that Bret's disk layout goes:
> 
> Dell
> Windows
> Windows
> Extended:
>   Linux
>   Linux
>   Linux
>   Linux
>   Linux
>   Windows
>   Linux
>   Linux
>   Linux
> 
> In other words, they are intermixed. I do not think Windows would take
> well to that, do you?

Doesn't matter.  It would take to it exactly as well if it went:

  Dell
  Windows
  Windows
  Extended:
    PV
    PV
    PV
    PV
    PV
    Windows
    PV
    PV
    PV

... or variants on that.

> Windows can, with the addition of suitable freeware drivers and tools,
> read Linux partitions. This is useful. It will not work if you use
> LVM.

This is true (though notice that I mentioned "shared data partitions" as
something to keep outside LVM, so I did acknowledge that even if not
very clearly).

> I would most definitely _never_ recommend it to any person who:
> * was dual-booting multiple non-Linux OSes
> * already had a complex setup to deal with
> * not a skilled practitioner in Linux server storage
> 
> So, not wishing to argue for the sake of it, but no, I think this is
> very much *not* a good use case for LVM and I must strongly disagree
> with your recommendation of it as a solution.

Fair enough.  Apologies for pitching too high.

> > then it's probably going to be better to do step 0, destructively
> > repartition the system, and restore from backups.
> 
> We do not know that he has any.

That was step 0.  This is a good thing to fix no matter what, before
*any* fiddling around with partition layout.

> > Or just make a mental note to use LVM for the next new system one
> > installs ...
> 
> Not for those without a high level of technical skill, no.

I disagree with this part of your message: if you ask the Ubuntu
installer to do full-disk encryption, you'll get LVM as a consequence of
that, and that's an option packaged and presented in the desktop
installer which I don't think requires a high level of technical skill.
(I suspect that many people who have selected that option haven't even
noticed that LVM is involved.)

-- 
Colin Watson                                       [cjwatson at ubuntu.com]