Naive question about partitions

[olembe]

Hello all,

I've installed Jaunty on an Acer netbook and am really happy with it all. However. Being a bit new to all this I chose the option to partition the whole disk into one single ext3 partition. I now get the feeling I'd have been better (a) splitting it up, to have a separate home partition and (b) using ext4.

Is there any way to make these changes without wiping the system and starting again? I'd be a bit reluctant to do that now I've spent many hours setting it up as I like it!

Sorry if this is a really stupid question: I'm still learning my way round Linux.

[Rog131]

Re: Naive question about partitions

Partitioning

> Create a separate home partition in Ubuntu

Introduction
This guide is for creating a separate /home partition if you already installed Ubuntu without a /home partition (i.e., /home is just a folder inside your / partition).

Links:

> Top 20 Kubuntu FAQs & Answers
> FAQ: How to Partition


Ext4

> JauntyJackalope/TechnicalOverview

When using the ext4 filesystem, accessing large files can trigger a kernel panic and filesystem corruption. The fix for this problem will be included in the final 9.04 release. Users installing from the Ubuntu 9.04 Release Candidate may wish to avoid this problem by using the default ext3 filesystem and converting it to ext4 after release.

> The Ubuntu 9.04 release notes

Switching to ext4 requires manually updating grub

[flarson]

Re: Naive question about partitions

Not stupid at all. It is probably better to have /home separate, but not essential. The ext4 issue is really debatable. Aside from that it is possible to shrink your current partition and then create another one, with the filesystem of your choice, in the freespace, to use as /home.

You should look at "man resize2fs". It will tell you how to shrink the filesystem (ext3 is ext2 with journal, so it will work) and then shrink the partition.

[Rog131]

Re: Naive question about partitions

...and few Ext links (Ubuntu forum):

> Going from Ext3 to Ext4 [Solved]
> Ext4 data loss stopped?
> No Journaling Ext4?

++ more at > Threads in (Ubuntu) Forum : Jaunty Jackalope Testing and Discussion

[olembe]

Re: Naive question about partitions

Thank you so much everyone. This forum is amazing.