repartitioning

[oldgeek]

After I upgraded to 14.04, I had 3 partitions: Windows 7, Kubuntu 14.04 and Ubuntu Studio 13.10. Since I haven't really used Ubuntu Studio, I decided to delete the partition in order to expand disk space available to 14.04. Using Gparted, I deleted the Studio partition, with the following results: the former partition is now defined as 'unallocated space', and the Ubuntu Studio option still exists when I boot the computer but does not load. There are some 111 juicy gigabytes waiting for mu use, but I don't know how to use them. So my questions are: a) how do I transfer that unallocated space to my 14.05 partition, and b) how do I get rid of the Ubuntu Studio option on the Grub menu? I tried resizing the Kubuntu partition, but that didn't work, so obviously there's another solution. The appearance of Ubuntu Studio on the Grub menu is not important since it does nothing, but for aesthetic (??) purposes I would like to see it gone. Can anyone help?

[jlittle]

... I tried resizing the Kubuntu partition, but that didn't work...

Did you try that from Kubuntu running on that partition? You need to boot from a live CD or USB that has a partitioning tool, most likely gparted.

b) how do I get rid of the Ubuntu Studio option on the Grub menu?

In a konsole run
sudo update-grub

Regards, John Little

[oshunluvr]

What's the output of:

sudo parted -l

[oldgeek]

What's the output of:

sudo parted -l

steve@steve-desktop:~$ sudo parted -l
[sudo] password for steve:
Model: ATA ST3500413AS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 106MB 105MB primary ntfs boot
2 106MB 260GB 260GB primary ntfs
3 260GB 500GB 240GB extended
7 380GB 492GB 112GB logical ext4
6 492GB 496GB 4272MB logical linux-swap(v1)
5 496GB 500GB 4271MB logical linux-swap(v1)

[oshunluvr]

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 106MB 105MB primary ntfs boot
2 106MB 260GB 260GB primary ntfs
3 260GB 500GB 240GB extended
5 496GB 500GB 4271MB logical linux-swap(v1)
6 492GB 496GB 4272MB logical linux-swap(v1)
7 380GB 492GB 112GB logical ext4


Hmmmm, First - renumber your partitions in order, then delete both the swap partitions (you can share a single swap with two linux installs They're wiped clean at reboot ). Then make a new swap partition at the beginning of the free space. Then you'll have to move your ext4 (currently sda7 but that will change) to the left (to the beginning of the remaining space). Then expand it (should be sda6 now) to the right to fill the space.

Need help to do this? You'll have to be using a liveCD or USB to move/expand your install partition.

Another possibility: Create a new partition in the free space and migrate your /home to it.

Let me know what you want to try first

EDIT: If it were me, I'd delete/create the swaps, then move and shrink the install. Then make the separate /home partition. Perfect time to get your home away from your install...

[oldgeek]

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags

EDIT: If it were me, I'd delete/create the swaps, then move and shrink the install. Then make the separate /home partition. Perfect time to get your home away from your install...[/COLOR]

My idea would be to have more home folder space, so I suppose migrating home to a new partition would be the solution. I don't know how to do anything that is in the above quote, so I would definitely need help there. Since I got to 14.04 via an upgrade, I will have to download 14.04 and create a usb (I do know how to do that) first, I presume. And how do I renumber the partitions? Thanks for your help, by the way.

[oshunluvr]

Based on the table you posted above, it appears the free space is within your Extended partition - which makes it easier. It looks like the free space is from 260GB to 380GB and your swaps are from 492GB to 500GB. Having the swaps at the end is how the partition numbers got reversed in the first place so let's fix that too.

NOTE: Your installed Kubuntu will be using UUIDs to mount and access partitions, rather than device names. We can change the names but anything that changes the UUIDs will cause problems. To prevent issues, we're going to do this in stages.
Stage 1. Fix the swap partitions.
Stage 2. Move and shrink the install partition.
Stage 3. Create and mount the home partition.

STAGE 1:

Once you have booted to your liveUSB, Make sure swap is off. Type this in a terminal:

sudo swapoff -a

Then launch KDE partition manager under System in the Kmenu. Using it; delete the old swaps, make a new swap (same size as your RAM is usually recommended) at the beginning of the free space within the Extended partition. It should take the device ID sda5, but if not, don't worry about it now, just note which number it gets and the number of your install (currently sda7 but might change to sda6). Once done, save the changes and quit KPartitionManager.

Back in the terminal window, type this:

sudo blkid -c /dev/null

which will print out the UUIDs of all the partitions. Look for the new swap partition UUID. It should look something like this:

/dev/sda5: UUID="2c25c093-73fc-4ddc-a1c4-70c2ceeda420" TYPE="swap"

highlight and copy the UUID inside the quotes. Now we mount your install and fix the swap mount point. Type:

sudo mount /dev/sda7 /mnt

obviously, if your install partition changes to sda6, use that instead of sda7. Now we edit your fstab file:

kdesudo kate /mnt/etc/fstab

Look for the line with your swap on it - something like this:

UUID=2c25c093-73fc-4ddc-a1c4-70c2ceeda420 none swap sw 0 0

Change the UUID to the one you discovered with the above blkid command. If you copied it, you should be able to highlight the old one and paste the new one over it.
If there are more than one swap lines (there might be), delete the other one.
Save and quit kate. Now reboot to your install. The the boot fails or has problems, take notes on the error messages and reboot to the liveUSB and report here. Otherwise, once you have booted up, open a terminal and type this in:

df -h

and post the results to this thread. This will prepare us for Stage 2.

END STAGE 1

[oldgeek]

It didn't work. I don't think I created the new swap file correctly--I put it as a new partition within the extended partition, right at the beginning, as I thought. The install partition, which used to be sda7, became sda5. I created the swap file in the part marked unallocated. Was that correct? I wasn't really sure what you meant by free space and thought that was it. Here's what parted -l gives me now:

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 106MB 105MB primary ntfs boot
2 106MB 260GB 260GB primary ntfs
3 260GB 500GB 240GB extended
6 260GB 264GB 4178MB logical linux-swap(v1)
5 380GB 492GB 112GB logical ext4

Any suggestions? I can't boot the computer at this point, since nothing is mounted. What do I do?

[oshunluvr]

Yes, unallocated is what I meant by free space. Why isn't it booting? I mean, describe what's happening. There should be an error message of some sort if swap isn't mounting. It usually boots anyway. The only reason it wouldn't boot at all is if your still using the old legacy version of grub and it's looking for device names instead of UUIDs.

[oldgeek]

I went over the steps again, and at the sudo mount command I used sda5, since that was the old install. Should I have used sda6 instead, which was the new swap partition? Anyway, I tried the kate command, and got a lot of errors. The kate window printed the following after sda5: errors-remount -ro. The swap file had the new numbers. When I saved and rebooted the computer, I got the following error message: no such partition. I'm not really sure what a swap file does, by the way. Have you noticed anything I did wrong?

[oshunluvr]

Well, I can't tell exactly what you did by your description. You should mount the install - sda5 - then edit /etc/fstab and change the UUID to the one that matches swap. Mounting a swap partition isn't possible - that's not what they're for. It's a place for the RAM to off-load when it gets too full or to suspend or hibernate your computer.

The "no such partition" message usually comes from GRUB when the UUID or device name doesn't match. Boot to the GRUB menu then hit the E key with your install highlighted. Look at the line that starts with "Linux" and write down what it says, then post back. If your version of grub is so old it uses device names instead of UUIDs, then just edit the device name to sda5 and continue the boot. Once you've booted, run update-grub and all should be well.

[oshunluvr]

Or just forget about the ID's and use the old fashioned /sda1 etc, labels, it still works fine.

Good point. However, during a move-and-re-partition scenario, using UUIDs prevents booting issues if device names change. If your UUIDs are correct, you can relocate partitions to your hearts content and not leave yourself unbootable - usually

[oldgeek]

I cannot get the grub menu when I reboot--just a grub rescue. By the way, the grub should be version 2.02, since that's what I got when I upgraded from 13.10 to 14.04. I'm not sure what to do now. Would it be easier to just erase all partitions except the ntfs ones and install 14.04 from scratch? I had copied all my home files to an external hard disk, so it wouldn't take long, and I'd still get the extra space for my home files. What do you think?

[oshunluvr]

If you wanted to try one more time, from the grub prompt:

set prefix=(hd0,6)/grub
set root=(hd0,6)
insmod normal
normal
boot

might launch it for you. If you get "command not found" or something like that, try (hd0,5).

Re-installing is going to be faster than anything else we do. As long as you are sure you have all your files backed up. If you want to have a separate /home, the best way to do that is by setting up the partitions in advance and then selecting manual partitioning during the install. I usually partition and format, then the install goes smoother. Delete the install partition, leave swap alone, make a 20GB (or so ) partition for the install and whatever is left for /home.

I hate to complicate things for you; but this might be a good time to make an extra partition for a future or backup install. If this sounds desirable to you: Make two 20GB partitions and then the remaining for /home. This would leave you with 4 logical partitions -

swap - sda5
install1 - sda6
install2 - sda7
home - sda8

When installing the new version, swap will be automatically detected and used. Choose "Manual Partitioning" and select sda6 for / and the last partition for /home (either sda7 or sda8 depending on how many partitions you decided on).

[oldgeek]

I ended up doing a clean install, and now everything is almost basck to normal. Thanks for all the advice--I just took the easy way out for lack of time. But I do appreciate all the effort--I must've learned something from all this.