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**oshunluvr** · Apr 14, 2017, 05:32 AM

Well, you knew I'd jump in here...

Here are my comments:

1) First off, I can't believe a single install occupies 296GB - did you mean it's on a partition that large?

2) You can convert from ext4 to btrfs and it works fine, but doing that does not insert the data into a subvolume. Many of the best features of btrfs involve subvolumes - snapshots, backups using send|receive, space allocation, etc. In others words - you can do it, but it won't be of much use.

3) Partitioning - or not - depends on your future plans. If you're going to start using btrfs, it's not too hard to have multiple installs on a single btrfs file system, especially when using Kubuntu or KDEneon. Both of these automatically use subvolumes when installing. After each install you just rename the subvolumes and make a couple edits and you're ready for your next install. Here's an old post of mine detailing how to do it.

So here's what I would do if it were my computer. I'm going to assume that Neon is on a separate partition in BTRFS and Ubuntu is on a 296GB EXT4 partition.

The end goal would either be three or four partitions:
One BTRFS, two EXT4, and a SWAP partition. You could - instead of a swap partition - make one EXT4 partition a little larger and use a swap file instead. This is the default now starting with 17.04 ( but we know you don't have to do the default if you don't want to

). The EXT4 partitions would be used for a couple things: One to store VirtualBox drives and a SWAPFILE if desired, the other is a place to install other distros that did not support installing to BTRFS without re-formatting (that would be bad as it would wipe everything else). I would make the VM/SWAP EXT4 partition like 120GB - enough room the swapfile for 6-8 virtual installs - adjust up or down as you feel necessary. Make the 2nd EXT4 partition just big enough for a test install, like 15GB. If you don't mess with VirtualBox at all or care about installing other distros you could have just a SWAP partition and the BTRFS partition and forget EXT4 altogether. Either way, this leaves the rest for BTRFS (minus a little if you go with a swap partition also).

To get the partitions set up you could wipe it clean and start over fresh. This would be the quickest way. But if you wanted to preserve the installs you have now;

Clean up the Ubuntu install (like remove extra kernels, etc.) and then make a traditional backup of it off the system - before the backup make sure you have btrfs-tools installed to it.
Run grub-install from the Neon install so Neon has control of booting.
Wipe the Ubuntu partition and format it as BTRFS.
In this new BTRFS partition, create a subvolume for Ubuntu and restore Ubuntu from the backup into this subvolume.
Once restored, go into the Ubuntu install and manually edit fstab and grub.cfg to reflect the new partition UUID's, btrfs instead of ext4, and the subvolume name.
IF KDEneon is on a btrfs filesystem; boot to Ubuntu and use btrfs send|receive and move the KDEneon subvolumes from their current partition to the same one as Ubuntu.
IF KDEneon is on a EXT4 partition, you would have to do it move it the same way you did Ubuntu.
Either way, before booting, go into KDEneon and edit fstab and grub.cfg.
Then, wipe all the other partitions, make the new SWAP and/or EXT4 partition(s) leaving all the free space next to the BTRFS partition.
Expand the BTRFS partition into the free space and then resize the BTRFS file system to fill the now-larger partition.

When you've done all this, you should have a large btrfs file system (partition) with Ubuntu and KDEneon both on it but in their own subvolumes. Use unique names for both because if you wanted to install another *buntu to this btrfs file system the installer will use @ for / and @home for /home. I name my subvolumes like this:

stuart@office:/subvol$ ll /subvol/
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 226 Apr 9 10:59 ./
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 296 Apr 12 12:43 ../
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 296 Apr 12 12:43 @KDEneon/
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 38 Apr 1 09:30 @KDEneon_home/
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 38 Apr 1 09:30 @KDEneon_home1/
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 262 Dec 13 08:08 @Kubuntu_16_04/
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 262 Dec 13 08:08 @Kubuntu_16_041/
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 32 Dec 22 17:05 @Kubuntu_16_04_home/
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 32 Dec 22 17:05 @Kubuntu_16_04_home1/
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 52 Apr 13 07:54 @snapshots/

Here I have KDEneon and Kubuntu 16.04 installed to the same file system on their own subvolumes, they each have there own home subvolumes, the subvolumes ending in the number 1 are snapshots used for rollback if needed. The subvolume named @snapshots is where i keep read-only snapshots for send|receive (backup) use.

**vinnywright** · Apr 14, 2017, 11:35 AM

I new you'd jump in on this @oshunluvr,,,,,

hears the curent partition lay out

Code:

vinny@vinny-Bonobo-Extreme:~$ sudo parted -l
[sudo] password for vinny: 
Model: ATA HGST HTS725050A7 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End    Size    Type      File system     Flags
1      8225kB  323GB  323GB   primary   ext4            boot     [COLOR=#ff0000]<----Ubuntu-14.04[/COLOR]
3      323GB   379GB  56.3GB  primary   ext4   [COLOR=#ff0000]<-----Kubuntu-14.04[/COLOR]
4      379GB   496GB  117GB   extended
6      379GB   436GB  57.0GB  logical   ext4     [COLOR=#ff0000]<-----Neon/dev/stable[/COLOR]
5      436GB   496GB  59.8GB  logical   ext4     [COLOR=#ff0000]<-----Debian-8.7-KDE[/COLOR]
2      496GB   500GB  4295MB  primary   linux-swap(v1)

Model: ATA HGST HTS721010A9 (scsi)                                                                                                                                         
Disk /dev/sdb: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name     Flags
1      1049kB  1000GB  1000GB  btrfs        primary    [COLOR=#ff0000]<------storage & all the user data shared between all the OS's (exept "." files in ~/)[/COLOR]

I had forgotten about the fact that some distros have quirks installing to BTRFS and that is the main thing I like to do ,,,,,test and check the latest out wile keeping a known good/stable one to actually use .

but I did also want to play in btrfs land and see about setting up multiple installs in that .

<sigh>--- maby I should go with just formating the Ubuntu partition as BTRFS (I dont use it, Ubuntu that is)and keeping the rest and just role them out to another install as needed for the ones that don't install nicely to BTRFS

?

VINNY

**oshunluvr** · Apr 14, 2017, 12:18 PM

There's another way to do this: Go ahead and boot to Neon and do the grub-install so it takes over grub. Then convert sda1 to btrfs (takes like a second). Then run update-grub from neon and it should pickup the changes to Ubuntu.

Now you have made very little in the way of changes but still have a btrfs partition to play with and use. You could make a new subvolume for data files or your neon home or even do a new install to the btrfs partition with Neon or Kubuntu - BUT be sure to select "Manual" during the partitioning part and make SURE you don't have the "Format" box checked when you choose the btrfs partition for your new install. Also, don't select a separate /home partition. The installer will make two subvolumes for you - @ and @home.

If you want to try and move the Ubuntu install into a subvolume, simply make a subvolume on /dev/sdb, mount it, and copy all the Ubuntu files (when running from Neon):

sudo cp -afv /path/to/source/* /path/to/destination

Then go into the subvolume and edit /etc/fstab to reflect the subvolume name (add subvol=<subvolume name to the mount options). Then use send|receive to send it back to sda1. It's really not that much work.
Once you have Ubuntu booting from a subvolume, you can do the same with your other installs. Just make sure to change grub back to Ubuntu before you try and move Neon.

**vinnywright** · Apr 15, 2017, 08:18 AM

Originally posted by oshunluvr View Post

There's another way to do this: Go ahead and boot to Neon and do the grub-install so it takes over grub. Then convert sda1 to btrfs (takes like a second). Then run update-grub from neon and it should pickup the changes to Ubuntu.

this is now the plan ,,,,except after deleting the Ubuntu files (emptying the partition first) after grabbing my custom menu entries out of /etc/grub.d to place in Neon .

(after removing the neon entry) of course ...

Code:

menuentry 'Kubuntu-14.04' {
set root='(hd0,msdos3)'
configfile /boot/grub/grub.cfg
} 

menuentry 'Neon' {
set root='(hd0,msdos6)'
configfile /boot/grub/grub.cfg
} 

menuentry 'Debian-8' {
set root='(hd0,msdos5)'
configfile /boot/grub/grub.cfg
}

thanks for the help planing this operation ,,,,,,,and ,,,as one of your BTRFS converts

,,,,,nice right up @hear https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...413#post399413

I dident want to post just a "nice work oshunluvr" on that thread in the intrest of keeping it clean and mostly just your write ups

VINNY

**vinnywright** · Apr 16, 2017, 09:13 AM

OK ,,,Neon has control of GRUB now with my custom menu entries in place

making the new BTRFS partition after some yard work ,,,,,wife said I half to do it first ,,,,,LOL

VINNY

**vinnywright** · Apr 16, 2017, 12:46 PM

OK ,,,the deed is done

Ubuntu-14.04 is gone ,,,,like I said I never used it , and all I could find their that I wanted to keep was the custom grub menu entrys I had in /etc/grub.d/40_custom and their in place in and working in the Neon install.

Code:

vinny@vinny-Bonobo-Extreme:~$ sudo mkfs.btrfs /dev/sda1
[sudo] password for vinny: 
btrfs-progs v4.4
See http://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org for more information.

/dev/sda1 appears to contain an existing filesystem (ext4).
Use the -f option to force overwrite.

OOPS,,,well

Code:

vinny@vinny-Bonobo-Extreme:~$ sudo mkfs.btrfs -f /dev/sda1
btrfs-progs v4.4
See http://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org for more information.

ERROR: /dev/sda1 is mounted

Double OOPS ,,,,forgot I was searching for stuff to move .

Code:

vinny@vinny-Bonobo-Extreme:~$ sudo mkfs.btrfs -f /dev/sda1
btrfs-progs v4.4
See http://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org for more information.

Label:              (null)
UUID:               ff5d66d4-35b6-4c9c-a64e-8dfbe2aa1e31
Node size:          16384
Sector size:        4096
Filesystem size:    300.63GiB
Block group profiles:
Data:             single            8.00MiB
Metadata:         DUP               1.01GiB
System:           DUP              12.00MiB
SSD detected:       no
Incompat features:  extref, skinny-metadata
Number of devices:  1
Devices:
ID        SIZE  PATH
 1   300.63GiB  /dev/sda1

Aaaa thats better

Code:

vinny@vinny-Bonobo-Extreme:~$ sudo btrfs device scan
Scanning for Btrfs filesystems

Code:

vinny@vinny-Bonobo-Extreme:~$ sudo parted -l
Model: ATA HGST HTS725050A7 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End    Size    Type      File system     Flags
[COLOR=#ff0000] 1      8225kB  323GB  323GB   primary   btrfs [/COLOR]          boot
3      323GB   379GB  56.3GB  primary   ext4
4      379GB   496GB  117GB   extended
6      379GB   436GB  57.0GB  logical   ext4
5      436GB   496GB  59.8GB  logical   ext4
2      496GB   500GB  4295MB  primary   linux-swap(v1)

Model: ATA HGST HTS721010A9 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name     Flags
1      1049kB  1000GB  1000GB  btrfs        primary

Now we have a 323GB BTRFS partition to play with

Next,,,,,,,,try a Kubuntu-17.04 & Neon-LTS install to it .

VINNY

**vinnywright** · Apr 18, 2017, 04:15 PM

OK then ,,,,,Kubuntu-17.04 installed nicely as /@ and /@home .

Code:

vinny@vinny-Bonobo-Extreme:~$ sudo btrfs sub list -a /
ID 257 gen 1717 top level 5 path <FS_TREE>/@
ID 258 gen 1717 top level 5 path <FS_TREE>/@home

Code:

vinny@vinny-Bonobo-Extreme:~$ findmnt
TARGET                                     SOURCE     FSTYPE     OPTIONS
/                                          /dev/sda1[/@]
│                                                     btrfs      rw,relatime,space_cache,subvolid=257,subvol=/@
├─/sys                                     sysfs      sysfs      rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime
│ ├─/sys/kernel/security                   securityfs securityfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime
│ ├─/sys/fs/cgroup                         tmpfs      tmpfs      ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,mode=755
│ │ ├─/sys/fs/cgroup/systemd               cgroup     cgroup     rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,xattr,release_agent=/lib/systemd/systemd-cgroups-agent,name=systemd
│ │ ├─/sys/fs/cgroup/cpu,cpuacct           cgroup     cgroup     rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpu,cpuacct
│ │ ├─/sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset                cgroup     cgroup     rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpuset
│ │ ├─/sys/fs/cgroup/freezer               cgroup     cgroup     rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,freezer
│ │ ├─/sys/fs/cgroup/memory                cgroup     cgroup     rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,memory
│ │ ├─/sys/fs/cgroup/hugetlb               cgroup     cgroup     rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,hugetlb
│ │ ├─/sys/fs/cgroup/pids                  cgroup     cgroup     rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,pids
│ │ ├─/sys/fs/cgroup/devices               cgroup     cgroup     rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,devices
│ │ ├─/sys/fs/cgroup/blkio                 cgroup     cgroup     rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,blkio
│ │ ├─/sys/fs/cgroup/net_cls,net_prio      cgroup     cgroup     rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,net_cls,net_prio
│ │ └─/sys/fs/cgroup/perf_event            cgroup     cgroup     rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,perf_event
│ ├─/sys/fs/pstore                         pstore     pstore     rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime
│ ├─/sys/kernel/debug                      debugfs    debugfs    rw,relatime
│ └─/sys/fs/fuse/connections               fusectl    fusectl    rw,relatime
├─/proc                                    proc       proc       rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime
│ └─/proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc               systemd-1  autofs     rw,relatime,fd=35,pgrp=1,timeout=0,minproto=5,maxproto=5,direct,pipe_ino=15860
├─/dev                                     udev       devtmpfs   rw,nosuid,relatime,size=8164012k,nr_inodes=2041003,mode=755
│ ├─/dev/pts                               devpts     devpts     rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000
│ ├─/dev/shm                               tmpfs      tmpfs      rw,nosuid,nodev
│ ├─/dev/mqueue                            mqueue     mqueue     rw,relatime
│ └─/dev/hugepages                         hugetlbfs  hugetlbfs  rw,relatime
├─/run                                     tmpfs      tmpfs      rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,size=1638012k,mode=755
│ ├─/run/lock                              tmpfs      tmpfs      rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=5120k
│ ├─/run/user/119                          tmpfs      tmpfs      rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,size=1638008k,mode=700,uid=119,gid=127
│ └─/run/user/1000                         tmpfs      tmpfs      rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,size=1638008k,mode=700,uid=1000,gid=1000
├─/home                                    /dev/sda1[/@home]
│                                                     btrfs      rw,relatime,space_cache,subvolid=258,subvol=/@home
├─/media/vinny/baba2b60-3d3b-4781-8320-c7a25dd3cf52
│                                          /dev/sda5  ext4       rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,data=ordered
└─/media/vinny/12886cb0-73e1-494a-8ec6-789b17d74e6a
                                       /dev/sda6  ext4       rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,data=ordered

Code:

vinny@vinny-Bonobo-Extreme:~$ df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev            7.8G     0  7.8G   0% /dev
tmpfs           1.6G  9.5M  1.6G   1% /run
/dev/sda1       301G  5.4G  294G   2% /
tmpfs           7.9G     0  7.9G   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs           5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs           7.9G     0  7.9G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1       301G  5.4G  294G   2% /home
tmpfs           1.6G     0  1.6G   0% /run/user/119
tmpfs           1.6G   16K  1.6G   1% /run/user/1000
/dev/sda5        55G   13G   40G  25% /media/vinny/baba2b60-3d3b-4781-8320-c7a25dd3cf52
/dev/sda6        53G   19G   31G  38% /media/vinny/12886cb0-73e1-494a-8ec6-789b17d74e6a

So I have a queshton ,,,,,,,,,,how do you get the installer to NOT install a boot loader ?

I let it install grub to /dev/sda1 ,,,and it did ,,but I would prefer not to do that again with a subsequent install .

I have a custom menu entry in Neon (Neon has the grub you get when you start the box ) that lets me load Kubuntu-17.04's grub ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Code:

menuentry 'Kubuntu-17.04' {
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
configfile /@/boot/grub/grub.cfg
}

NOW ,,,,next ,,,, rename the subvolumes edit their fstab's & my grub menu entry ,,,,,and do it all again with Neon-usr-LTS

VINNY

**vinnywright** · Apr 20, 2017, 06:30 PM

Originally posted by vinnywright View Post

NOW ,,,,next ,,,, rename the subvolumes edit their fstab's & my grub menu entry ,,,,,and do it all again with Neon-usr-LTS

VINNY

So half of this project is done now

From my curent Neon install , I edited the fstab of the new Kubuntu-17.04 install to @17.04 and @home17.04 and the /boot/grub/grub.cfg to reflect this , then my custom menu entry and ran update-grub then rebooted ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Dowww no good ,,,,,I get an error about cant find /@17.07/boot/bla bla bla ,,,,,,,,,,,,,, O heck I did all that editing ,,,,,and forgot to rename the targets

OK boot back to a running system LOL and rename @ to @17.04 and @home to @home17.04 ,,,,,,reboot select my 17.04 entry ,,,,and ,,,,,, yes it's good

Code:

vinny@vinny-Bonobo-Extreme:~$ sudo btrfs sub list -a /
ID 257 gen 2556 top level 5 path <FS_TREE>/@17.04
ID 258 gen 2556 top level 5 path <FS_TREE>/@home17.04

now to do the Neon-LTS and see how it is having 2 installs on 1 file system

VINNY

**oshunluvr** · Apr 22, 2017, 07:58 AM

To install from the *buntu ISOs without grub, the easiest way is to launch ubiquity from the terminal using the -b option:

sudo ubiquity -b

Good job getting it up so quickly! It doesn't sound like you ran into too many problems. When editing the grub.cfg to boot the first time, I always miss at least one entry - I finally figured out to only edit the first stanza (the main boot one) and skip all the others. Once you've booted, a simple update-grub fixes it automagically.

Not that it matters in this case, (since you wiped Ubuntu anyway) but ext3/4 formatted partitions can be converted to btrfs (and back again) using "btrfs-convert"

sudo btrfs-convert /dev/sda1

In case anyone else is interested, here's a great write-up on converting to btrfs from ext and moving a bootable OS into a subvolume: https://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-co...n-ubuntu-12.10

**oshunluvr** · Apr 22, 2017, 08:03 AM

BTW Jerry, if you're reading this: Add these functions to your btrfs GUI project: "EXT conversion" (to/from), "Moving an Installation into a Subvolume" and "Installation Subvolume Renaming"

**oshunluvr** · Apr 22, 2017, 08:10 AM

Also Vinny: Years ago I created a bootable grub partition. It has a grub.cfg that only has menu entries like yours in it. I just let each new install put grub somewhere so it creates the grub files and such, then I manually add or edit my custom grub.cfg. This keeps grub safe from being mucked with by any install on my system.

Code:

[FONT=monospace][COLOR=#000000]menuentry 'KDE Neon' {[/COLOR]
   insmod part_gpt
   insmod btrfs
   search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 8f0c1661-4e84-4512-b875-23bcfd5be1d8
   configfile /@KDEneon/boot/grub/grub.cfg
}

[/FONT]

**vinnywright** · Apr 22, 2017, 08:11 AM

Originally posted by oshunluvr View Post

To install from the *buntu ISOs without grub, the easiest way is to launch ubiquity from the terminal using the -b option:

sudo ubiquity -b

YES I new their had to be a way (THANK YOU)

their really should be a choice in the dropdown for the grub install location to not install it however

now ,,,,go take care of some outdoor things ,,,then get busy on this .

VINNY

**oshunluvr** · Apr 22, 2017, 08:23 AM

Me too! Nice day for it over here...

**vinnywright** · Apr 22, 2017, 08:30 AM

Originally posted by oshunluvr View Post

Also Vinny: Years ago I created a bootable grub partition. It has a grub.cfg that only has menu entries like yours in it. I just let each new install put grub somewhere so it creates the grub files and such, then I manually add or edit my custom grub.cfg. This keeps grub safe from being mucked with by any install on my system.

Code:

[FONT=monospace][COLOR=#000000]menuentry 'KDE Neon' {[/COLOR]
  insmod part_gpt
  insmod btrfs
  search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 8f0c1661-4e84-4512-b875-23bcfd5be1d8
  configfile /@KDEneon/boot/grub/grub.cfg
}

[/FONT]

Hummm that sounds interesting ,,,,will look into that .

VINNY

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BTRFS migration - maby

BTRFS migration - maby

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