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**dibl** · Nov 06, 2007, 06:57 AM

Re: Upgrade Requirements

I'm not sure how you squeezed Feisty into that space, but I'd say you had better just stay with what is working today. Here are two reasons:

1. A poster recently reported a locked up computer with only a partial upgrade (i.e. a mess), because the upgrade process required more disk space than the basic installation, and he didn't have that extra space.

2. Here's my Gutsy filesystem -- you can see for yourself:

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdb1 6.0G 3.4G 2.7G 56% /
varrun 2.0G 288K 2.0G 1% /var/run
varlock 2.0G 0 2.0G 0% /var/lock
udev 2.0G 164K 2.0G 1% /dev
devshm 2.0G 0 2.0G 0% /dev/shm
lrm 2.0G 14M 2.0G 1% /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/volatile
/dev/sdb2 244M 24M 207M 11% /boot
/dev/sdb3 134G 34G 101G 25% /home

I will admit I have the luxury of a lot of hard drive space, and have made no attempt to "minimize", but as you can see, it's a lot more than what you have available.

:P

EDIT: Ahh, I just noticed you split /usr out on its own partition -- that's how you did it!

Well, maybe you have a shot by doing it that way again, but I would do a fresh install, not an upgrade, because the upgrade needs more space than the clean installation.

**mistrynitesh** · Nov 06, 2007, 09:00 AM

Re: Upgrade Requirements

Originally posted by dibl

Well, maybe you have a shot by doing it that way again, but I would do a fresh install, not an upgrade, because the upgrade needs more space than the clean installation.

A clean install will mean reinstalling all the other additional packages that I had installed on Feisty, right? And all my customizations gone?

Is there anyway, I can rearrange my partitions. I can get that "sda3" out which houses Elive. Oh, but then thats my default system (I mean, Elive is the last OS I installed on this computer, and it has installed the grub in MBR)

Any Ideas?

Here is my gparted screenshot

Attached Files

**dibl** · Nov 06, 2007, 10:08 AM

Re: Upgrade Requirements

Originally posted by mistrynitesh

Elive is the last OS I installed on this computer, and it has installed the grub in MBR)

Any Ideas?

That's an issue -- Elive is my "backup" OS too. If you want to sacrifice it, and use that space for Gutsy, then when you install Gutsy it will write a new boot menu anyway. Otherwise, the boot menu in the Elive filesystem would have to be edited, which is not a big problem.

If that is a laptop and you let it "hibernate", then probably your swap is right. If it is a desktop, or it doesn't hibernate, then probably 500MB is sufficient for swap. Have you monitored the swap utilization? Mine never gets touched, but I have 4GB of RAM.

Otherwise, that's a very busy hard drive, and I don't see an obvious source of more space.

Yes, you are correct that a fresh installation of Gutsy will cost you your current setup, as far as installed apps and configuration items. But I'm not sure how much of a choice you have. I took a quick look and can't find the post of that person whose upgrade crashed in the middle (too many "broken upgrade" posts!), but IIRC he said that when you begin the upgrade process, it looks at your system and reports how much disk space will be required to execute the process, and I'm thinking he said it needed over 10GB. I don't see that you have any way to free up that much space, unless you want to put everything on that 16GB partition onto DVDs, or something like that.

**marshallbanana** · Nov 06, 2007, 11:28 AM

Re: Upgrade Requirements

Originally posted by mistrynitesh

A clean install will mean reinstalling all the other additional packages that I had installed on Feisty, right? And all my customizations gone?

Yes you will have to reinstall the additional packages (although thanks to adept thats simply a matter of ticking a few boxes and clicking install). As for the customizations there is a way to save them. If you where to back up all the hidden files from you /home partition (this is where all your settings/customizations are being stored), say by burning them to a cd. Then you could later just copy them back into your /home folder after the install (this is kind of a spin on the how a seperate /home partition works). I'm pretty sure that would do the trick.

Originally posted by dibl

Otherwise, that's a very busy hard drive, and I don't see an obvious source of more space.

Getting rid of windows

**mistrynitesh** · Nov 07, 2007, 02:04 AM

Re: Upgrade Requirements

Originally posted by dibl

If that is a laptop and you let it "hibernate", then probably your swap is right. If it is a desktop, or it doesn't hibernate, then probably 500MB is sufficient for swap. Have you monitored the swap utilization? Mine never gets touched, but I have 4GB of RAM.

This is a desktop computer and it does not hibernate. I have 384 MB of RAM. Earlier I had a 750 MB swap partition. I had read at a couple of forums and other websites that swap partition should ideally be twice the RAM. Since I am about to increase my RAM to 512 MB, I increased the swap partition to 1 GB. Right now, with my regular usage, top shows maximum upto 350 MB of swap usage.

Originally posted by dibl

Yes, you are correct that a fresh installation of Gutsy will cost you your current setup, as far as installed apps and configuration items. But I'm not sure how much of a choice you have. I took a quick look and can't find the post of that person whose upgrade crashed in the middle (too many "broken upgrade" posts!), but IIRC he said that when you begin the upgrade process, it looks at your system and reports how much disk space will be required to execute the process, and I'm thinking he said it needed over 10GB. I don't see that you have any way to free up that much space, unless you want to put everything on that 16GB partition onto DVDs, or something like that.

In that case, fresh installation is not an option for me. I guess I will get a DVD drive first and empty the 9 GB space from 'sda5' (mostly music and videos). In such a scenario, now the question arises, how should I divide the disk space between " / " and " /usr " partition?

Originally posted by marshallbanana

If you where to back up all the hidden files from you /home partition (this is where all your settings/customizations are being stored), say by burning them to a cd. Then you could later just copy them back into your /home folder after the install (this is kind of a spin on the how a seperate /home partition works). I'm pretty sure that would do the trick.

But I already have a separate /home partition. Will I still need to do it? What if I upgrade?

Originally posted by marshallbanana

Getting rid of windows

Though I would love to do that, Pops would kick me out of the house. :-X

**Fintan** · Nov 07, 2007, 03:23 AM

Re: Upgrade Requirements

Have look at these two for your application backup:
http://www.arsgeek.com/?p=564

and

http://aptoncd.sourceforge.net/

I have used aptoncd to make a back up of all my apps and install them after a fresh install. Then upgrade as usual. Preferably using synaptic. I hope this helps.

As for your partitioning. Well that is one (very complicated) way of doing it and I have only seen this setup on large servers with lots of space. So IMHO you have three choices:
1) merge /usr into root (/) and do a fresh install (don't forget to format /).
2)format /usr before doing a fresh install.
3)free up some space and do a upgrade. But reading all the posts and their trials with upgrading I wouldn't suggest it.

Now to your settings. If you do a fresh install you can back up all your mail, calander, addressbooks, etc from /home/username/.kde/share/apps into a separate backup file on /home. Now you can delete .kde. Your new (gutsy?) will create one at first boot. After your first boot you can now copy / paste the backups into their original places.

I hope this helps you a bit on your venture.

Edit: I did a bit of math and find you have 2'377 mb for / and 566 for /usr. That gives you roughly 3Gigs to play with. That is not a lot. I think it is the absolute minimum. So if you can free up sda6 and merge (50% for a fresh install and give the rest to a new data partition. 100% if you are still doing an upgrade) that with / (sda6) you'll have enough space. You might want to think about investing a few $ in a second HD (internals are cheaper)

**mistrynitesh** · Nov 07, 2007, 01:35 PM

Re: Upgrade Requirements

Thanks Fintan for your suggestions.
So I guess, to summarize, I need a hardware upgrade on this machine. It has been pending since a long time. This machine still has only a CD-Rom Drive on it, so can't even backup my apps using 'aptoncd' or similar. So hardware upgrade is the first thing I will do (ie. only after the exams are over

). Only then will I attempt to jump on to Gutsy.

Originally posted by Fintan

So if you can free up sda6 and merge (50% for a fresh install and give the rest to a new data partition. 100% if you are still doing an upgrade) that with / (sda6) you'll have enough space.

I am sure you meant 'sda5' , right?

Originally posted by Fintan

You might want to think about investing a few $ in a second HD (internals are cheaper)

Yeah, the hardware prices are falling like meteorites, even here in India. Guess, they will be distributing for free by the time Christmas comes.

(Ah!, thats a nice marketing plan for MS to get people to pick up a Vista machine

)

Thanks to Dibl and marshal as well for their suggestions. Think I am being lesser and lesser thankfull to the people at forums

Oh look, its already 1 AM

Need to go back to books again...

**Fintan** · Nov 07, 2007, 01:45 PM

Re: Upgrade Requirements

I am sure you meant 'sda5' , right?

Of course, sorry for that

For the rest I guess that is the quintessence. Besides as long if it still works keep with it. I know out of experience what it is like playing with space on a HD

Good luck and keep us informed

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