problems using maximized partitions--how to resize?

From: Kenward Vaughan (kay_jay_at_earthlink.net)
Date: 06/04/04

  • Next message: Kent West: "Re: trouble installing kde"
    Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 21:00:05 -0700
    To: Debian Users <debian-user@lists.debian.org>
    
    

    My HD was originally set up with my attempting to maximize the disk
    space usage, as the help available suggested it being feasible/useful.

    For kicks I DL'd Libranet, planning to play with it using my unused
    freespace. The installer complained about the partition table being
    screwed up, and it went on to show a planned resizing of the current
    partitions. This involved slicing about 0.03 Mb off of each partition
    as dead space. I had had this happen once before without so much
    warning with the Debian installer, and nearly lost everything.

    I bolted from the installation, of course.

    My big question is... what is a workable plan for changing this, since
    it seems to create more problems?? Is this something I can work around
    another way than what I'm thinking about below? Current setup
    (cfdisk):

    hda1 Boot Primary NTFS [] 15356.60
    hda2 Primary W95 FAT32 (LBA) 6144.29
    hda3 Primary Linux swap 1027.23*
    hda5 Logical Linux ext2 1024.00*
    hda6 Logical Linux ext2 31.94*
    hda7 Logical Linux ext2 96.00*
    hda8 Logical Linux ext2 1023.94*
    hda9 Logical Linux ext2 2024.13*
    hda10 Logical Linux ext2 6144.13*
    hda11 Logical Linux ext2 4096.26*
    hda12 Logical Linux ext2 10240.48*
                     Logical Free Space 72822.57*

    hda5 is my rescue partition.
    /boot, /, /tmp, /var, /usr, and /home round out hda5-11.
    hda12 is a backup partition.

    I might merge the boot/root/tmp partitions in the process--seems a bit
    like overkill.

    I boot using grub, based off of my rescue partition.

    I'm not scared about moving stuff around the disk, and was thinking
    about the following:

    1) Boot to rescue. Format the freespace (hda13... how cute. :)

    2) Create directories for the other partitions' contents on hda13.

    3) Copy that stuff over from each partition
             (`cp -a * /mnt/dir_4_this_partition` from the mounted hda6-11)

    4) Redo the middle partitions. Parted? (I've never used it...)

    5) Copy stuff back from hda13.

    6) Boot into the main system and redo the emergency partition.

    Things I'm uncomfortable with: dealing with the swap (I have 512 Gb
    memory--can I boot with no swap to deal with that? When?), and what
    exactly I need to do in cfdisk/parted to get rid of this maximized
    issue.

    Does this make sense? Is there a better approach or tool to use?

    Many thanks for thoughts...

    Kenward

    -- 
    In a completely rational society, the best of us would aspire to be 
    _teachers_ and the rest of us would have to settle for something less, 
    because passing civilization along from one generation to the next 
    ought to be the highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone 
    could have.     - Lee Iacocca
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  • Next message: Kent West: "Re: trouble installing kde"

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