The things a newbie does not know about partitions

[texas.chef94]

A while back I reinstalled ubuntu 8.04 went to a KDE desktop which I love. Thought all was well until I happened to click on partition editor (talk about ineptitude at partitioning!)
1./dvd/sda1 which is my ntfs is not mounted
2. /dvd/sda2 and /dvd/sda8 is another swap this one with a lock. Both show not active
3./dvd/sda3 shows busy (at least 1 logical partition is mounted. 17.7- GiB nothing used
4. /dvd/sda7 is obviously that one logical partition that is mounted it is an Ext3
15.72 size 5.51 used 12.20 unused
5. /dvd/sda/5 is an Ext as well its size is 462.82MiB 148.17 MiB used and 314.64 unused
This one #5 hey I have not a clue what it is doing
Finally if it helps I did a df -h and results
ilesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda7 16G 3.4G 12G 23% /
varrun 617M 160K 616M 1% /var/run
varlock 617M 0 617M 0% /var/lock
udev 617M 68K 617M 1% /dev
devshm 617M 0 617M 0% /dev/shm
lrm 617M 39M 578M 7% /lib/modules/2.6.24-19-generic/volatile
/dev/sda5 455M 141M 297M 33% /media/disk
I am ashamed that a newbie can get into this much trouble and somehow being 76 does not help
If the easies way out is to start over would appreciate some actual steps. I have the ISO CD

[dibl]

Re: The things a newbie does not know about partitions

I am ashamed that a newbie can get into this much trouble and somehow being 76 does not help

Heh heh heh -- yep, I hear that -- I'm almost as old as my avatar!

OK, what do you really want to see happen? Here are some questions that are relevant to helping you:

1. Is there valuable data anywhere on that drive, that is not backed up elsewhere?

2. Do you need that NTFS-formatted partition to remain as-is?

3. What kind of motherboard and CPU and graphics/video card, and how much memory?

4. Which version of the Live CD do you have?

Don't worry -- there's surely a way to make this worse, we just have to focus on the task!

[texas.chef94]

Re: The things a newbie does not know about partitions

I will answer what I can. In lieu of what I cannot be advised I have a hp ze4935wm as it came from the factory except I doubled the RAM

1. Is there valuable data anywhere on that drive, that is not backed up elsewhere?
NO

2. Do you need that NTFS-formatted partition to remain as-is?
I would rather not have to reinstall windows and merely as a FYI I started out with a wubi installation of ubuntu and had all sorts of problems. Basically the partition can be minimal in size as I have no intention of adding anything more to windows partition.

3. What kind of motherboard and CPU and graphics/video card, and how much memory?
Aside from a 40Gig HD I can onlyrefer you to that first line. Thats what happens dealing with challenged seniors

4. Which version of the Live CD do you have? ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS Desktop Edition

As far as my druthers go since I like ubuntu want to stick with the KDE desktop, not venture into KDE4 and have as large a partition for Linux as my HD will stand

Finally I thank you so much for your interest as this kind of sticks in my craw. My ineptitude I mean

Allen

[dibl]

Re: The things a newbie does not know about partitions

Got it.

OK, let's leave Windows installed where it is, and re-install your Kubuntu 8.04.

But, before we do that, I think the thing to do is to simplify your hard drive partitions -- you only need 3 partitions, one of them being the Windows partition.

So, is that 8.04 CD a Live CD? If so, boot it, and we will use the KMenu>System>Partition Editor to change the partitioning on your hard drive. Just delete all the partitions except the NTFS partition until there is only the NTFS partition, and the rest of it. Then make a new 1GB partition (which will be your future "swap" partition), and then the rest of it will be an ext3 formatted partition for Kubuntu. Set the partition formats as I said, and click "Apply" in the menu line, so when finished you have the following:

1. The original NTFS partition, unchanged

2. A new 1GB partition formatted "Linux swap"

3. A new {however large is all the rest of it} partition formatted ext3.

Then, when you exit the partitioner, you can choose the "Install" icon on the desktop and use "manual partitioning" and choose the large new ext3 partition for "/" and all the rest of the Kubuntu installation. It will detect the "swap" partition pretty much automatically.

Post back if you need more details, but this should get you at least 95% of the way to a clean new installation that will hold together better.

[toad]

Re: The things a newbie does not know about partitions

dibl is right, yet I would suggest another partition for your /home directory.

It is the place where all changes relating to how your desktop looks (if you change the wallpaper for example or have some special setting for konqueror) and where you are likely to store all your personal data.

In my books that is a definite "need to have my own partition" kind of thing. Having said that, the advent of kde4.x might deflate the "how your desktop looks" argument somewhat... But having said that (sorry, I'm repeating myself), you may want to stick with 8.04 LTS for the next three years, in which case a separate home partition only makes sense.

[texas.chef94]

Re: The things a newbie does not know about partitions

Hey more the merrier, need all advice can get, but booted the live CD when I realized either there is something I missed or did not say. Is there a K menu in a ubuntu live CD? Or were you under the impression I had a kubuntu CD

Allen

[toad]

Re: The things a newbie does not know about partitions

It doesn't really matter whether you're booting/installing Kubuntu or Ubuntu - the issues remain the same. The only difference between the two is the graphical interface, Ubuntu uses gnome and Kubuntu uses KDE. One could install say Ubuntu and even make Kubuntu out of it by installing KDE and vice versa...

Tell me if I'm simply confusing you or not helping the cause please...

Dibl suggested a partitioning scheme and I added that a separate /home partition is advisable. Is that the info you want/need?

[The Liquidator]

Re: The things a newbie does not know about partitions

With a ubuntu CD your default desktop will be gnome.

Couple of options, you can either download kubuntu (a 700mb download and a new CD burn) or use your ubuntu disk and once you have got it up and running you can install the package kubuntu desktop. I prefer the latter option. Doing that gives you both kde and gnome desktop environments. Whilst I prefer KDE I have, on occasions, found it very handy to have the choice in case I do something wrong.

Once you have installed the kubuntu desktop, you will be asked to make a choice between kdm (the k display manager) and GDM (Gnome display manager). Having used both I would choose kdm. I assume you will want to use KDE as your default desktop and you will probably want to enable auto-login as a kde user. KDM supports that but GDM does not, in my experience.

Anyway, good luck, and have some fun

Ian

Oh, and yes, like Toad I support a separate partition for your home directory. It means that in future you can reinstall/upgrade without having to wipe out all your settings and data, etc

[texas.chef94]

Re: The things a newbie does not know about partitions

Let me restate this mess I have made from a slightly different perspective

Be advised the following description of my present partitioning configuration is the result poor choices on my part, creating too many partitions and then attempting to recover with a resulting mess. Obviously I can still dual boot and both OS work fine, but I would like to have my partitioning correct.
Partition Size Used flags
ntfs 20003MB 10199MB Boot (unmounted)
Free space 1003MB (was swap extra)
Ext3 16878MB 3800
Free space 789
Ext3 485 155
swap 838 -0- MB

With the live CD in I am forced to choose manual partitioning and I can delete and edit but I end up with no root system defined to reinstall and this is way beyond my limited comprehension.

Finally if it helps I did a df -h and results
ilesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda7 16G 3.4G 12G 23% /
varrun 617M 160K 616M 1% /var/run
varlock 617M 0 617M 0% /var/lock
udev 617M 68K 617M 1% /dev
devshm 617M 0 617M 0% /dev/shm
lrm 617M 39M 578M 7% /lib/modules/2.6.24-19-generic/volatile
/dev/sda5 455M 141M 297M 33% /media/disk

I know there is someone out there to solve this mess I created, but is my comprehension up to the task? I sure will give it shot and appreciate your time and effort.
Looking for rationalization, maybe being 76 a retired chef and too damn curious.

Thanks to all for your time and patience

[texas.chef94]

Re: The things a newbie does not know about partitions

Regarding home directory partition. My goggling and you alls suggestion has convinced me this must be part of my final mix so whoever replies to my manual partitioning challenge please include how to develop this partition as well

Allen

[toad]

Re: The things a newbie does not know about partitions

A retired chef, hey? You'll need a recipe then

First, however, we need to know exactly the ingredients available. Am I right in assuming that you have a 40GB disk, currently divided into a 20GB primary partition for windoze. The rest is somehow tied up with linux, but you do not possess a working linux system at the mo. So far okay?

Here are a couple of questions to consider before taking any further decisions:

1. Will you be using windblows a lot after you've installed linux?
2. Will you be requiring a lot of space for one or the other operating system (pictures, videos, music...) or even for both?

Reason I am asking is that ideally we could shrink your windows partition to free up more space. However, if you need it for say pictures, that would be daft advice... Or perhaps you want to share your media sources between operating systems or even your emails - all possible but is it really necessary?

Let us know and you'll get your recipe

[The Liquidator]

Re: The things a newbie does not know about partitions

I think we've all been somewhere like this. Thankfully, with Linux there is usually an answer that doesn't destroy everything.

I assume you are going to reinstall? If so, from the presumably graphical partition editor (as you are using gnome I believe it will be called gparted) I believe you can delete all but the ntfs partition. Then you can set up your root , home and swap partitions in the resulting free space.

At that stage you can if you wish reduce the size of the ntfs partition also.

However if all you want to do is to tidy things up you could delete all but the ntfs, 16Gb Ext3 and swap and simply resize the ntfs and ext3 partitions to fill the resulting free space. You could then exit the live cd. Both Windows and Ubuntu will run as they do now. What that won't however, give you is a separate partition for your home directory. If you find that desirable as I do then the easiest way is to set up the home directory as above and then do a clean install. It's difficult although not impossible to do that without a reinstall.

I don't want to over-complicate this but you may get an error saying that you can only have 2 of a certain type of partition. It may therefore be that you have to set up an "extended" volume in the free space and then set up the root and home partitions inside that. The "root" and "home" partitions will be set up as mount points from within the partition editor.

Ian

[dibl]

Re: The things a newbie does not know about partitions

Adding the fourth partition for /home is a fine idea -- that will keep your data separate from your OS filesystem.

OK, I assumed a Kubuntu CD, and it's Ubuntu. Not a deal killer, except I don't recall precisely where in the Gnome filesystem the partition editor is located -- something like "System > Administration Tools"?

Another approach, which is my personal preferred approach, is to make a GParted Live CD, by downloading the ISO image from here:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...kage_id=271779

and burning it to a CD. When you boot that CD it ONLY does disk partitioning, so there's no mystery about where the partition editor is.

So you have a total of 6 partitions, including 2 swap partitions (one more than necessary) and the 20GB NTFS partition with Windows that you need to leave alone, and a small amount of free space. Using your partition editor, do the following in sequence, and don't click "Apply" until you've done the last item:

1. Delete the second swap partition (the one that is 838MB). Now you have only 4 partitions, plus the remaining free space.

2. Take the right-hand end of the 16GB partition, and slide it left until that partition is only 6GB in size.

3. Take the left-hand end of the 485M ext3 partition, and slide it left until it touches the 6GB partition, eliminating the free space that was there between them.

4. Take the right-hand end of that same ext3 partition and slide it right to the end of the drive, eliminating the free space on that end.

5. If I've understood the starting layout, you should now have four partitions as follows:

NTFS - 20003M
free space - 1003M {will be for swap}
ext3 - 6GB {will be for Kubuntu}
ext3 - all the rest of it -- about 12+GB {the future /home}

If that's right, then click "Apply" to make the changes permanent, and sit back while GParted does its thing.

Now you're ready to install Kubuntu. If you want a "clean" Kubuntu installation, you need to make either an 8.04 Live CD or Alternate Install CD. If it happened that there's no CD burner or blank CDs or something, you could install Ubuntu from that Live CD, and then install the "kubuntu-desktop" metapackage and you would end up with a dual boot Ubuntu/Kubuntu system.

Either way, you will use "guided partitioning", and you will choose the 6GB partition for mounting "/" (and to be formatted ext3) and the 12GB partition for mounting "/home" (and to be formatted ext3), and you will mark the NTFS partition to be mounted as well, but NOT formatted. It will find and select the free space for swap pretty much automatically -- it may invite you to confirm the choice.

That's the overview -- post back if there are particular questions or problems. Bon appetit!

[toad]

Re: The things a newbie does not know about partitions

La recette c'est magnifique!

[texas.chef94]

Re: The things a newbie does not know about partitions

First and foremost due to all who contributed to my re-partitioning problem thank you and that seems rather minimal. Truthfully if you were here now I would be happy to create some great gourmet snacks and my favorite beverage margaritas.
Your patient, caring and a credit to the Linux community.
A very special thank you to Don who hung in with me via e-mail. I remarked to him that this was akin to bypass surgery via cyber space. Wow do I feel better. Now just need to get my KDE desktop back and stay away from KDE4 so I will not be hung up in forums again, but I do know where to come