recommendations dual boot 1 Primary 1 Extended Partition

[infoholico]

Hello,

I installed my first linux more than a year before just to try it, it was Lubuntu, when I installed this OS I didn't think I would be so charmed by Linux that I would definitely quit using Windows, then I (or the installer) made the partitions needed and my Harddrive is now as the following:

Hello, when I made my first steps into Linux with Lubuntu I made 4 Partitions to my HDD
1. Windows 74 GB NTSF Primary Partition

2. Backup 55 GB NTSF Extended Partition
3. Linux 20 GB EXT4 Extended Partition

4. Swap 750MB Swap Swap Partition




Nowadays Kubuntu is my main system, but I can't get rid of Windows (may the Others take it) and I'd like to expand my Linux partition and/or make my bakup one my /home directory but I don't know how to do it, I didn't do it during installation because I was afraid about losing my data on that partition.

What would you recommend?

Thanks in advance

[oshunluvr]

Please clarify: Do you want to keep windows or delete it? Do you want to expand your install partition ( / ) or re-locate /home or some other re-alignment? How much RAM do you have and is this a laptop or desktop (this is about swap size)?

[infoholico]

Ok, I'm sorry.

Do you want to keep windows or delete it?
I want to keep it but as it is not my main OS I could resize it without problem.

Do you want to expand your install partition ( / ) or re-locate /home or some other re-alignment?
Could be any of this options, whatever is better, but I think relocating my /home folder could work for freeing HDD space in my Linux partition but I'm afraid about losing everything in my backup partition.

How much RAM do you have and is this a laptop or desktop (this is about swap size)?
It has 2GB RAM, it's a desktop and it's not about Swap size.


The main point here is I'd like to resize windows partition to give Linux (or /home folder) more HDD space, I've thoought about:

1- Reduce Windows, move backup partition, increase Kubuntu partition (without moving /home)
2- Reduce Windows, increase backup, move /home folder (I don't know how to do it or if it will wipe my backup partition while doing it)
3 I hear/read options


Thanks

[oshunluvr]

Well, obviously something needs to be reduced to free up some space. Several choices will work here, but here's my suggestions:

1. Boot to windows, delete/uninstall anything/everything you're not using. Defrag.
2. Reboot to Kubuntu and shrink the windows partition. Be sure to leave some free space on it just in case you need to return to it and install something.
3. Reboot to Windows to be sure all is well there.

Back to Kubuntu:
Now you have all the free space you can get available to Linux. Without delving into what's in your backup or what you use it for - now's the time to evaluate how much you really need there. Keep in mind that a backup is only as good as where it's stored. In this case: Backing up from one partition to another does nothing to protect you from hardware failure, only from your own mistakes or a file system corruption. Re-installing Kubuntu takes less time than restoring a backup - excepting of course for the time it takes to set up things the way you need or like. With this small of a HD, you might consider a cloud or portable backup solution to free up some more space for your daily use.

Some other things to keep in mind:

A typical Kubuntu install will rarely grow beyond 8GB or so. 12GB is plenty IMO. Most of your space will be taken up by your /home.

Judging by the size of your HD, I'm guessing this a an older machine? Notable only because that means you're using MBR hard drive partitioning. This means you can only have 4 primary partitions, which you likely already do. One of the 4 can be an extended partition, which can hold Logical partitions (63 of them) but unless one of your existing partitions is already an Extended partition, you can't add any in your current config. Not to worry - this too is "fixable."

It seems the simplest solution for you will be to boot to a Gparted LiveCD and use Gparted to shrink windows, delete swap and re-create it next to the window partition, move /backup "left" thus move the remaining free space toward your / partition, and finally move / to the left and expand it to fill the free space. The "move left" and "expand right" means this will take some time. DON"T try this during a storm when you might lose power!

I recommend deleting and re-creating the swap partition only because it's much faster to create a swap partition than moving that much (750MB) of data twice in this operation.

In the event you really want to add a /home partition, you can delete swap, create an Extended partition, and create a swap partition along with your new /home.

[oshunluvr]

Another thought - just something to consider or study up on for future use: changing your file system to btrfs would solve most of your problems. This new and still under development file system can use sub-volumes to segregate data rather than separate partitions. The net effect is 1 large partition but data is kept in separate sub-volumes and any free space is available for use by any sub-volume within the main file system.

The file system is still under development, but myself and at least one other person on this forum use it daily and have been for years without problems.

I'm not suggesting you leap into it, but reading a bit about it might interest you.

[oshunluvr]

Another note: Re-creating swap will change it's UUID. This will cause swap to fail the first time you boot into Kubuntu after all the above is done. No worries though, just edit /etc/fstab after the reboot and replace the old UUID with the new one. Then either re-start swap or it will restart itself on the next reboot.

[Teunis]

About btrfs, I've used it successfully for about 9 months until it had a sector limit error.
Something that did NOT work a few months ago is to use btrfs as root because grub2 doesn't recognise it.

About the UUID, as this is a stationary machine you could just as well put /dev/sdax in fstab.

[jlittle]

... you could just as well put /dev/sdax in fstab.

Or use a label. Much nicer, IMO.

Regards, John Little

[infoholico]

Thanks, but I have 1 Primary Partition, 1 Extended Partition (with two logical partitions backup and Kubuntu) and 1 Swap partition, some time ago I reduced Primary partition but couldn't attach the unallocated space to the extended partition, what can I do?



There is another image, I think it's a little bigger.

[oshunluvr]

Something that did NOT work a few months ago is to use btrfs as root because grub2 doesn't recognise it.

Sorry to say, but this isn't true. Grub2 has been able to boot directly to a btrfs partition since Ubuntu 11.04-beta1 but there were a couple easily defeated issues: you had to use zlib compression, not lzo and you could not install grub to a btrfs partition boot record. I've been booting directly to a btrfs partition on three machines since 11.04 release. Obviously, I can't speak to what was was wrong with your personal install, but it worked fine here.

As far as the Sector Limit error I've never encountered it nor could I find any reference to it on the web - admittedly, I did only a cursory search.

My experience with btrfs has been flawless with the exception of being unable to move a partition containing a btrfs file system. The data on it was backed up anyway, so I ended up just recreating and restoring it.

The advantages of it in some instances make it well suited to many situations - like limited hard drive space - so I mentioned it. However, the lack of userspace GUI tools makes me reluctant to recommend it to most. Command line is rather required at this stage. My server, desktop and laptop are all using btrfs with a few small exceptions, like swap space.

[oshunluvr]

@infoholico: I don't see any free space in the photo, but you would have to get the free space next to the extended partition, then expand the extended partition into the free space, then expand the logical partition. Likely that fact that your windows is sda1, swap space is sda2, and extended is sda3 - your free space was in between sda1 and sda2. Shrink sda1 like I suggested above, delete the swap partition, then try again. When you're all done, re-create the swap space at the end or as a logical partition.

[SteveRiley]

Another note: Re-creating swap will change it's UUID. This will cause swap to fail the first time you boot into Kubuntu after all the above is done. No worries though, just edit /etc/fstab after the reboot and replace the old UUID with the new one. Then either re-start swap or it will restart itself on the next reboot.

There's another step to follow if the UUID of the swap partition changes. The file /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/resume, created when the system is initially built, is not automatically updated. If you don't change the UUID in this file from the old one to the new one, your system will experience a boot delay and issue some confusing error messages during start.

[oshunluvr]

There's another step to follow if the UUID of the swap partition changes. The file /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/resume, created when the system is initially built, is not automatically updated. If you don't change the UUID in this file from the old one to the new one, your system will experience a boot delay and issue some confusing error messages during start.

Interesting, I didn't know this one. Does this persist a second reboot or eventually correct itself? Probably rebuilding the initramfs fixes it, right?

[vinnywright]

There's another step to follow if the UUID of the swap partition changes. The file /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/resume, created when the system is initially built, is not automatically updated. If you don't change the UUID in this file from the old one to the new one, your system will experience a boot delay and issue some confusing error messages during start.

what is this the UUID of ? it matches nothing on my system as far as partitions go ??
and their has been no change in partitioning or such since the install ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,dig dig ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,OOPS scratch that will formating a swap partition change the UUID?
look , fstab reads like this

vinny@vinny-HP-G62:~$ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=51916d2f-8366-4c7a-bccf-c40cc9d9b3bc / ext3 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=89534f2e-ad31-4941-87b0-22e9875efac8 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/sda3 /mnt/disk ext4 defaults 0 2
/dev/sda7 /mnt/disk1 ext4 defaults 0 2

and the /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/resume reads like this

vinny@vinny-HP-G62:~$ cat /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/resume
RESUME=UUID=89534f2e-ad31-4941-87b0-22e9875efac8

BUT blkid reads as thus

vinny@vinny-HP-G62:~$ blkid
/dev/sda1: UUID="419b2146-8e8a-4d97-90ed-89e519e1dc0d" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sda2: UUID="686ed85e-a21b-4a72-aa03-5e9b6c7d50b0" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda3: UUID="e1f3a7e8-8884-4598-a25c-ecb5056462c9" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda5: UUID="51916d2f-8366-4c7a-bccf-c40cc9d9b3bc" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda6: UUID="ae361395-96de-41d9-8425-84ad84a2f965" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda7: UUID="6d8f8f09-a999-4405-ad9a-e0df9224a3ba" TYPE="ext4"

so maby when I installed slackware to /sda6 it formated swap and the UUID changed ?
I do not note a boot delay however ,,,,,,,at least I dont think so , he he & suspend works ?

VINNY

[SteveRiley]

Interesting, I didn't know this one. Does this persist a second reboot or eventually correct itself? Probably rebuilding the initramfs fixes it, right?

That file gets created when the system is built and is then never touched again. update-initramfs does not verify that the UUID currently in the file is still correct -- it blithely copies the resume file as-is into the initrd.img each time an image is created, updated, or rebuilt. I encountered this issue when I removed and recreated a swap partition and then rebooted. Boot time was suddenly much longer, and the error

Begin: Waiting for resume device ...

appeared on the screen. Google, as always, showed the way, and revelation came in the form of Launchpad bug 206358.

Once I changed the contents of the resume file to the new UUID, and then rebuilt the initrd.img to incorporate the change, the error went away, and boot time decreased back to normal.