How do I increase the size of my Boot Partition?

[Shabakthanai]

My boot partition is too full. 13.62GiB of 13.97GiB. I reduced the size of my /home partition by 10GiB, but when I tried to expand my boot partition the option to increase its size doesn't appear. It shows my current almost full partition size with no way to increase the size by the space I created for it. I am using Gparted to make the changes.

I probably did not ask the right question, but Google Search did not produce anything useful.

Additionally, I am confused how Kubuntu saves data. When I installed Kubuntu 14.10, I made a boot partition of approximately 15GiB, not expecting much more than the initial installation and updates to be contained therein. Nevertheless, in quite a short time, I have used almost the entire boot partition.

I created a /home partition that is available to store all saved data. While there is plenty of room to hold more data, apparently some data I expected to be put in the /home partition was stored in the boot partition.

When I install an application to my computer, are the files that are required to operate that application stored in my /home partition, as I planned, or are they stored in the boot partition? That would explain why my boot partition is so full; it also would indicate the need for a larger boot partition.

The drive that contains Kubuntu 14.10 is a 256GiB SSD. Originally I set it up to have a 15GiB "/" partition, a 20GiB "Swap" partition with the balance of space the "/home" partition.

Because the data that uses the most space in my computer is a collection of movies, I have a TB Drive to contain movies. Additionally, I have a TB Drive "/svpersonal" for backups and private stuff.

I also have a 128GiB SSD that contains Kubuntu 15.04 and nothing else. Kubuntu 15.04 is not stable in my PC; it freezes after a few minutes, so I basically update/upgrade daily waiting for stability.

Is there a recommended size for a boot partition, so that I don't run the chance of overfilling my boot partition? Thanks!

[NickStone]

I am a little confused with your trying to increase your boot partition. Do you really mean root partition?

The boot partition does not need to be any larger than 150MB but you should be able to get away with sizing it to 100MB because the boot partition should only have files used to boot up your PC such as GRUB.

Also if you truly do have a separate boot partition to that of root it is not a good idea to resize the boot partition as this can prevent your PC from booting. The boot partition should also be formatted to ext2 rather than ext4 or any other format.

If you have a weird partitionning system on your pc I would be tempted to backup all your files and re-install Kubuntu with the following partitions:
/boot 150MB (should not need any more than this)
swap 2GB (you shouldn't need any more than this)
/root 20GB (if hard disk is 100GB or more)
/home remainder of disk space.

Hope this helps.

[Shabakthanai]

Dear Nick,

Thanks for your reply.

I do not think I have a weird partition setup, but perhaps. I have 4 drives on my computer, two SSD's, one 256GiB SSD that contains Kubuntu 14.10 and a 128GiB SSD that contains Kubuntu 15.04.

Because the only work I do on my computer involves Graphics, Audio & Video, movies, things that crunch a lot of numbers, I usually make my Swap Partition equal to my RAM. In this instance, I used less than my RAM, which is 32GiB. I set swap at approximately 20GiB.

I am guilty of interchanging Root and Boot. Until now, I thought they were the same thing. Been wrong for over 20 years. I don't remember noticing the difference in my partition editor; I just remember that I established the location of the OS during Installation by setting the mount point at "/", which I considered both the Root partition and the Boot partition.

In the past, in recent years, I have always provided 20GiB for the "/" partition. I recently was reading advice from one of our respected Gurus who suggested 10GiB was sufficient. In an attempt to honor him I decided to mostly take his advice and reduced the "/" partition from 20GiB to around 14GiB. Part of my reasoning was because I was putting the OS inside a much smaller SSD. Normally I would have used larger numbers and put the OS in a TB drive. If this is an important distinction and an error, I want to learn and do things right.

I set Linux Swap @ 20GiB, which after applying showed up more like 19GiB.

The reason I used the ext4 file system was because in a previous post, it was recommended. I enjoy speed, so I was told it was faster operating. Previously I used ext3 over ext2 for the same reason. I changed when ext4 was stabilized.

I am looking at the partition editor right now. I do not see any entry for a boot partition, so my error was mostly using incorrect terminology, I suspect. I can see that the partition that contains my OS is mostly used. The size of the drive is 13.97, while the used portion is 13.62GiB. That is the reason I wanted to increase the size of the drive. I reduced the size of my /home partition by 10GiB and planned to add this unallocated space to my Root partition. I hope I am using the terminology correctly now.

When I selected the Root partition, then Resize/Move, I found that an option to increase the partition was not available. That was the reason for this post.

If there is a way to increase my Root partition 10GiB, I think I would rather do that than reinstall. That is if by doing so, I am not accepting some other error I am not aware.

Before posting, I also installed GParted to see if it would perform differently and allow me to increase the partition as desired, but GParted gave the same results.

Additionally, I looked through the Root files and directories for large qualtities of data that might be removed to allow for space on the Root partition. I found a few things I could perhaps remove without hurting my system, but not enough to make much difference.

In any event, after shrinking the /home partition by 11GiB, adding it to my Root partition seems the wisest decision. If a wise decision can come from me, that is.

The only other information I did not include that may be important is I created an Extended partition to contain Linux Swap and /home, thinking I might want to temporarily add an OS in the Extended partition without using a primary. Probably a stupid decision, but the reason I did what I did.

Here is a view from my partition editor.



If you are willing to get me straightened out, I would appreciate it, especially adding the extra space to the Root partition.

I am a little confused with your trying to increase your boot partition. Do you really mean root partition?

The boot partition does not need to be any larger than 150MB but you should be able to get away with sizing it to 100MB because the boot partition should only have files used to boot up your PC such as GRUB.

Also if you truly do have a separate boot partition to that of root it is not a good idea to resize the boot partition as this can prevent your PC from booting. The boot partition should also be formatted to ext2 rather than ext4 or any other format.

If you have a weird partitionning system on your pc I would be tempted to backup all your files and re-install Kubuntu with the following partitions:
/boot 150MB (should not need any more than this)
swap 2GB (you shouldn't need any more than this)
/root 20GB (if hard disk is 100GB or more)
/home remainder of disk space.

Hope this helps.

[GerardV]

Hi Shabakthanai,

You cannot increase the size of your root partition because you try to shrink the extended partition, /dev/sdc2, to make room.
As far as I know you cannot do that.

As Nick said:
I

f you have a weird partitionning system on your pc I would be tempted to backup all your files and re-install Kubuntu with the following partitions:
/boot 150MB (should not need any more than this)
swap 2GB (you shouldn't need any more than this)
/root 20GB (if hard disk is 100GB or more)
/home remainder of disk space.

[Rod J]

OK, as far as I know he can shrink the extended partition (and with a bit of juggling increase the size of the root partition).

This is what I would do:

1. Make sure any important data is backed up before you do anything then boot from a liveCD with Gparted or KPartition Manager

2. Delete your current linuxswap partition (sdc5) (we'll use this space to increase the / partition later)

3. Shrink the extended partition (sdc2) at the beginning (left side) to the right

4. Increase the size of the root "/" (sdc1) partition from the end (right side) into the space now created

5. You probably don't need it but you could create a new swap partition at the end of the drive using the unallocated space

Do these steps one at a time and take your time doing it (double check everything).

[NickStone]

@Shabakthanai As you have mentioned that it is your root partition you want to increase in size, you can do this but the partition needs to be unmounted otherwise it won't work. You mentioned you have several hard disks, if you can boot up using one of the other hard disks (that is if they have an OS installed on it) then unmount the partitions of the hard disk you want to resize. Or boot up using a live DVD / USB (with gparted pre-installed) and you should be able to resize the partition.

But make sure you backup the partitions first otherwise you may lose some files.

Actually thinking about it I'm not sure you can resize an extended partition, but try my suggestion and see if it works.

[Shabakthanai]

Can you tell me what kind of data has gone into the Root partition to use all its available space? I have a need to do one more thing in Kubuntu 14.10 before I re-install if possible, but when I attempt to complete that task, I am stopped because the drive is too full right now. There must be some files that are not needed that if removed will not crash the system and still let me complete that task. I would explain what I need to do, but there is so much information already described in this post, that I am concerned the explanation will just make things more confusing. It could require as much information as already posted to explain and be understood, and probably will confuse the issue. Needless to say, if I lose everything, I will also lose money if I cannot complete that step. I am retired on a small fixed income and can't really afford additional expense if I can avoid it.

I looked at the temp files and cannot find any excess data that can be removed. The reason I previously asked if anything I thought might be stored in the Root partition which I thought was stored in /home was because I was already looking for data to remove to open a little space. I have always had plenty of drive space, so I have never tried to remove duplicate files. Is there any possibility of substantial duplicate data that I might be able to remove without crashing the system. Shoot, I have over one and a half TB of empty space and a drive so full that it may crash my computer and force me to lose some important stuff.

There is also the possibility of moving some data from Root to the open space of one of the TB drives until I finish my task and can re-install. Problem is, I don't know what can be moved from the Root partition that won't cause a system crash. If I use Muon and remove some applications will this open some space without crashing the system?

I have Gimp, Digikam, Yakuake, shoot, even kubuntu-restricted-extras, and other applications that are not required to keep the OS working. Are they stored in the Root part of the system or are they located in /home, where I thought they were stored. What I just mentioned should gain a couple of GB if they are in the Root part of the system and solve my problem without any financial loss. I just don't have the knowledge to understand what I can remove to gain space in the Root partition. If you know, it would be a great help?

Thanks for your patience, and help. I am really fortunate to be able to operate a computer at all; I have never had any one-on-one help to speak of in my learning process, so everything I have learned has been obtained in a very difficult way, through experimentation. Basically I got through the basics that I seem to understand, by crashing my computer and losing data, over and over until I found how things seemed to work. I still make some pretty big repetitive errors in things I really don't understand. It is why I am so grateful to you guys for the help you provide. It has been difficult, but I am able to do some pretty amazing things that I never thought I would be able, by just keeping on keeping on over the years. I hope I have been able to explain myself well enough for you to answer these latest questions. I am thinking if I could gain just a couple of GB of space, I should be able to re-partition and reinstall the OS without losing too much data in the process. I look forward to additional input, and thanks again. -Shab By the way, the reason, I have the Operating System in its own separate partition and /home not a part of it, is so that hopefully I won't lose data when a reinstallation becomes necessary. I am hoping that was a good idea too.

QUOTE=GerardV;374484]Hi Shabakthanai,

You cannot increase the size of your root partition because you try to shrink the extended partition, /dev/sdc2, to make room.
As far as I know you cannot do that.

As Nick said:
I[/QUOTE]

[Shabakthanai]

I am laughing. Hi Rod, good to see your smiling face. I believe I understand what you just posted and it makes sense. I believe I can accomplish what you recommend without screwing up. When I opened up the approximate 11GB of space at the right side of the /home partition, I thought I could use that space to expand my Root partition.

I don't have a working printer right now, so I will copy your instruction long hand. After I delete the Swap Partition and increase my Root partition, I will select the 11GB of unallocated space at the right side of the /home partition and identify it as Linux Swap. With this configuration, I may be able to avoid re-installation of the OS. At least I should be able to operate my computer without loss of data.

With this configuration, is the make-up of my partitions workable enough to not reinstall?

Off topic, I have been growing a food garden this past couple of months. It is the first time I have been a farmer. It is a lot of fun, and the food that I have already harvested is better than anything purchased in the grocery stores. I expect you are in the middle of winter now. I hope it is a mild one. So good to know you are keeping an eye on me and my problems, my friend. Later. -Shab

OK, as far as I know he can shrink the extended partition (and with a bit of juggling increase the size of the root partition).

This is what I would do:

1. Make sure any important data is backed up before you do anything then boot from a liveCD with Gparted or KPartition Manager

2. Delete your current linuxswap partition (sdc5) (we'll use this space to increase the / partition later)

3. Shrink the extended partition (sdc2) at the beginning (left side) to the right

4. Increase the size of the root "/" (sdc1) partition from the end (right side) into the space now created

5. You probably don't need it but you could create a new swap partition at the end of the drive using the unallocated space

Do these steps one at a time and take your time doing it (double check everything).

[Rod J]

Hi Shabakthanai,

Good to hear that you are getting into your gardening ... yeah, it's quite cold here now, about 12C during the day and some nights down to -4C or so (quite mild compared to your winters though I guess).

With this configuration, is the make-up of my partitions workable enough to not reinstall?

Yes, everything should be quite OK after this change.

In answer to your question about where programs go when installed:
They almost always go into the root partition somewhere. Wine programs will be installed to your home though. If you install a utility called "K4DirStat" It will show you graphically where on your root partition the space is being used. Maybe wait until your root partition is expanded first though because you mightn't have enough room to install much more there anyway! Also, try this from Muon: Click on "Status" at the bottom left, then click on "Installed auto-removeable" -- there you will see any redundant packages that can be removed/purged to regain space (usually old kernels which take quite a bit of space).

Partition explanation: When you freed up space to the right of your home partition (sdc6) you couldn't use it to expand your root partition because the space for partitions needs to be contiguous ... you can't have a bit of a partition here and there all over a drive, it just doesn't work that way (for partitions at least).

I hope my method outlined above works OK. Good luck!

Rod.

[Shabakthanai]

Well guys, I am very happy. I am attaching the new partition configuration. When I made the changes, I actually used all the available newly created space, but when the apply was completed, some space was lost and is shown as unallocated. Nevertheless, I am running my computer without problem, so I think this new partition configuration is stable and going to work without any further changes. Graphically it looks pretty unusual, but it was an interesting bit of work and I learned a lot.

My Root partition is a little over 30Gib now. It doesn't appear that I have lost any data in the /home partition, and my new Linux Swap is only 11+ Gib, but with 32GB of RAM I probably have more fast memory than I can otherwise use.

Here is an image of the graphics of how the partitions are after the changes. There always seems to be space that is either unallocated or used for an unexplained purpose each time I install or make changes to the partitions, so the fact that the graphic is a bit weird looking doesn't surprise me. At least I don't seem to be facing an immanent sustem crash.



Thanks to all of you. You are the greatest bunch of guys. I am even glad I had to go through this set of problems. I learned a lot and understand a little more.

Rod, your explanation got my thinking in a better order and much of the pressure I was feeling left. You all were just great too. I wish there was a better way to respond than a simple thanks. It does not diminish my gratitude. I hope the process will assist others. When I finally understood the process, things worked quite simply. -Shab

[Rod J]

Good, glad it worked out for you!

I think what is most likely causing the unallocated space is that you are probably moving the sliders with the mouse when you are resizing the partitions (which is fine, I do it that way too) but it can be rather inaccurate. You need to check that the numbers in the boxes match up so no space is wasted after moving the slider.

[Rod J]

I've just noticed something odd about the used space in your root partition, Shab.

In the earlier screenshot the used space was 13.62Gb but in the later screenshot the used space is 14.98Gb. So it has increased by 1.36Gb in just a few hours? Some of the increase might be due to expanded file structures because of the increase in the size of the partition but I don't think that would account for that much. I could be wrong there, not sure. I wonder what the used space is now? I wonder if something is filling your drive up? Perhaps a runaway process or log or something? Does your drive activity indicator show constant usage of the drive?

I think this needs to be investigated otherwise you may find you're running out of space again before long.

[Buddlespit]

could you post the results of

$ sudo df -h

disregard, I didn't realize how old this was