Moving Kubuntu to another Partition

[ashsalama]

hi everybody,
I have a dual boot on my laptop
Kubuntu 9.10 & windows 7
after a lot of thinking I decided to remove windows 7 and keep kubuntu only senice I can do what I want by kubuntu
my question is there is a way to move Kubuntu system to windows 7 partition "C:" with all my installed programs and configuration and updated gurb loader or I need to reinstall kubuntu again?

[Qqmike]

Re: Moving Kubuntu to another Partition

just some words here ...

In theory, yes, you can copy it over. In practice, it would help to have both partitions the exact same size, for starters. Then you might have a look at "cloning" options: dd command, rsync command, maybe Partimage program, etc. There are many posts around here for image backups, cloning, etc., maybe some How-To's under Documentation. After performing the copy, you would then have to re-install GRUB from the new partition to the MBR of that drive (and do so by using Super Grub Disk to boot into your new Kubuntu or by using the Kubuntu Live CD). Frankly, I would not want to be the one to coach you through this! Sometimes things get goofed up with your /home when you do this work. You gotta be real careful and know how to "hook it all back up" after you make such a copy-move. Your UUIDs will change,as will some /dev/sdXn's, and so they must be checked in, for example, fstab. If you are using GRUB 2, then a new grub.cfg must be generated (also hoping all UUIDs and /dev/sdXn's line up correctly).
Those are some issues.

I'd be tempted to just leave that partition empty for now, pethaps use it as a test partition for testing other OSs or use it as a Data partition to store stuff in. Or, copy all your personal data off, and simply re-install Kubuntu (but then, as you implied, you'd have to re-do your programs and settings).

Let others here make suggestions on this for you. I've just typed some of the issues to be aware of.

[ashsalama]

Re: Moving Kubuntu to another Partition

thanks Qqmike for replaying me

now I realized that it will be a difficult operation and chances to done correctly are poor, so i will make a clean setup for karmic on sda1 and keep the old one then start to install my programs and reconfigure it again one by one till I finish then remove the old Karmic and update Grub.

[Qqmike]

Re: Moving Kubuntu to another Partition

That's probably safe
When experimenting with this last year, I had greatly mixed results, sometimes for reasons that seemed rather subtle. For example, it is not difficult to end up with the dreaded "endless log-in loop," where you log in (type your name and PW), but the log-in screen reappears instantly. Some folks can fix that better than other folks. Some folks never fix it. Though, it is fixable. Stuff like that.
Thanks for your feedback, keep us posted.

[bobcollard]

Re: Moving Kubuntu to another Partition

If you have not done it yet, get sbackup and make a full backup to either a CD or another HD. You can restore more than just pictures from that backup including your .etc files.

[barbolani]

Re: Moving Kubuntu to another Partition

If you have Grub in your MBR, I'd follow these steps:

1- Create another partition in another disk. Of course, make it big enough to hold whatever you have in your current boot partition.
2- Copy over everything from the old to the new. Make sure that permissions, etc are correctly kept in the copy. Of course, you should not try to copy /tmp, /proc /sys and anything else that is not a part of the physical disk structure.
3- On your new copy, edit the fstab and change the / mount point to point to the UID of your new partition.
4- Edit your Grub configuration and add a new entry, just copying the one for your existing working system but changing the UUID of the kernel boot image.
5- Reboot and try to boot with your newly created Grub entry.
6- All is well, you can now reinstall Grub on the boot sector pointing to the menu.lst of your new partition.

Oh, sorry, it must be too late. After reading the question again I realized that it will be much simpler to go with any of those two alternatives:

1- grab GParted, remove your Windows partition and move/expand your Linux one to fill all the disk. I'm not sure if that will change the boot partition UUID. In that case, you may need to reboot with the Live CD, chroot and update Grub to point to the right location. Of course, this assumes that both are in the same physical disk.
or
2- Do nothing, simply delete everything in the Windows partition and reformat it as ext4 and use it for /usr or other big mount point, changing fstab accordingly.

Probably the easiest one is the last - for any alternative you take, remember to make a backup first.

[ashsalama]

Re: Moving Kubuntu to another Partition

many thanks barbolani , bobcollard and Qqmike
barbolani, I will do it by your way next week because now I's busy with some Exams > , and I will feedback here
cheers