Mounting LVM From A Rescue Environment

Problem

I've horked my system somehow and can't boot it. I can get in with a rescue CD of some sort. Problem is, all my data is hidden in nice safe LVM (Logical Volume Manager) blocks, and I can't mount it!

Solution

Sucks to be you. There doesn't seem to be a definitive page on the internet describing what to do, and to be sure, this page is no different.

Depending on your distribution and/or rescue environment in use, you should have the lvm tool. According to my IRC contact:

< hobbs> xdroop: you need to do "vgscan" and "vgchange -a y" and… hmm, I think that's it but I'm not sure if I remember. :)

...so yeah, see the line about "sucks to be you", above.