The Shadow File

I always thought LVM (Linux’s Logical Volume Manager) was kind of neat for the flexibility it gives you in adding and removing disks and resizing volumes such. However, in practice, I find it’s usually more trouble than it’s worth. It adds a layer of complexity between me and my data. Often I need to mount a disk configured with LVM on another Linux machine or in an Ubuntu live CD environment. Out of the box the logical volumes aren’t recognized, so I can’t mount them.