Installing LVM

You can resize partitions easily via the linode manager without the need for LVM this will also mean you can still use the linode backup service.

@obs:

You can resize partitions easily via the linode manager without the need for LVM this will also mean you can still use the linode backup service.
But using LVM allows partition creation/deletion/resizing without a reboot, which can be a compelling reason to use it instead of the linode manager.

You'll probably have to ignore a lot of gentoo-specific details, but I have always found this useful. If nothing else, that link has references at the bottom to more generic documentation for LVM that might help answer your questions.

Thanks for that - will keep it in mind