Linux Lite Forums
Hardware - Support => Hard Drives and SSDs => Topic started by: JohnD on April 29, 2017, 06:08:17 AM
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Hello.
I've given LL a small partition of 2 GB for home, because I use a larger partition for the user files from different linux installations. But the home of LL is running out of space. So I've tried to resize it. I 've copied the hole partition as backup:
johnd@central-desktop:~$ sudo dd if=/dev/sda10 of=/media/central_home/Recovery/sda10.img bs=20M & watch --interval=1 "du -h /media/central_home/Recovery/sda10.img"
To make the home partition larger with GParted was not possible, I only could shrink it. Therefore I decided to delete it an build it new from scratch.
But GParted does not allow to build a new larger partition. I assume, that the sequence of the partition numbers is not the same than the sequence of the real partitions on the drive.
How can I check the real sequence of the partitions on linux command line? Ok. I assume only with fdisk and the list of start blocks start and end blocks. Can I reorganize it without problems?
Second Problem: If tried to use the free unallocated space at the end of the hard drive, but GParted tells me that I have to create an extended partition first. But (!) there is an extended partition and there are about 19 partitions. What may be the problem?
(http://i.imgur.com/QSEqUGo.png)
I've tried to resize sda20 on which LL home has lived, until Friday evening. ::)
Regards
JohnD
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Hello,
have you tried using
Menu>All>Disks
Update -
I have found some gparted tutorials about this for you, in case there is a small step needed -
https://askubuntu.com/questions/126153/how-to-resize-partitions
http://gparted.org/display-doc.php?name=help-manual&lang=C#gparted-resize-partition
https://www.howtogeek.com/114503/how-to-resize-your-ubuntu-partitions/
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Hello,
have you tried using
Menu>All>Disks
to increase the partition size ?
I'm not sure, I think: no, I have not. I thought, that it would be impossible to resize the parition since it is in use. Therefore I've tried to do it from another linux on the same system.
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Hello,
have you tried using
Menu>All>Disks
to increase the partition size ?
I'm not sure, I think: no, I have not. I thought, that it would be impossible to resize the parition since it is in use. Therefore I've tried to do it from another linux on the same system.
Hello JohnD,
you have to unmount it, it says one way is to use a live cd or usb.
I added some tutorial links above that I found on resizing using gparted.
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Hello.
How can I check the real sequence of the partitions on linux command line?
Regards
JohnD
Is this the correct command showing the orders you wanted, its shows the tree structure, size labels and mount point ?
sudo lsblk -o NAME,FSTYPE,SIZE,MOUNTPOINT,LABEL
or this command shows the order of partitions and the start and end numbers of the blocks used -
sudo fdisk -l
Update -
Hello,
I have just reread you post, the maximum number of primary partition is 4, it says on the Ubuntu link.
Of your, about 19 partitions, how many are primary ?
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Update -
Hello,
I have just reread you post, the maximum number of primary partition is 4, it says on the Ubuntu link.
Of your, about 19 partitions, how many are primary ?
Three. :)
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Hello JohnD,
you have to unmount it, it says one way is to use a live cd or usb.
I added some tutorial links above that I found on resizing using gparted.
Ok, I try it again. I looking for the CD/DVD with GParted, I've downloaded and burned on Friday.
See you later under GParted. ;)
Update: No success. GParted allows not to use the free hd space at the end of the drive.
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It will be on LL dvd.
Can you post the screenshot of
fdisk -l
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Can you post the screenshot of
fdisk -l
(http://i.imgur.com/59e7K1y.png)
I've deleted sda20 since my intial posting.
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Is this having windows (re; dos and ntfs) as the first partition ?
Or is this the issue
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/114485/fdisk-l-shows-ext3-file-system-as-hpfs-ntfs
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Is this having windows (re; dos and ntfs) as the first partition?
The first partition is the home of Windows 7.
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I think it makes it more complex when booting from Windows and Linux, as they each are using a different method to boot usually, but you can do both of course, there are some on the forum in addition to yourself who also do this. Hopefully they can help you.
I have 1 windows computer, and a 3 Linux Lite computers, but at each one it is only 1 OS installed, I don't dual boot etc. I have other distros in Linux Lite (ultimately controls them) using Virtual Box, so I can test things at a future time.(Python, and scripts)
Are you booting from Windows MBR and then using this to boot also Linux when selected at the start up menu?
Or it has Grub, and installed after this, Windows was installed first ?
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I have 1 windows computer, and a 3 Linux Lite computers, but at each one it is only 1 OS installed, I don't dual boot etc. I have other distros in Linux Lite (ultimately controls them) using Virtual Box, so I can test things at a future time.(Python, and scripts)
Maybe this is an option for the future. I've always prefered to install systems directly.
Are you booting from Windows MBR and then using this to boot also Linux when selected at the start up menu?
Or it has Grub, and installed after this, Windows was installed first ?
Windows 7 was installed first. Some linux distributions after it, always with grub as boot loader, like it is now. Last installation, after I have had some problems with the partition of an older installation of Linux, was Linux Lite 3.4.
I in this moment using a linux installation at sda12 on the same hard drive. (The distro is called Emmabuntüs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmabunt%C3%BCs). It's good for older computers and families with little children.)
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I understand how you explained to me, thank you :)
My oldest computer, it was in around year 2000, it is a P4 1GB ram, I use LL 2 series (late in 2 series).
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I now have played back my backup image of LL's home directory:
- I've build a new partition in the same place with GParted.
- I've copied the backup image with dd to the partition.
In fact I do use currently LL again. But I've failed to resize the home partition -- until now.
My oldest computer, it was in around year 2000, it is a P4 1GB ram, I use LL 2 series (late in 2 series).
My system is this:
System: Host: central-desktop Kernel: 4.4.0-75-generic x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3
Distro: Ubuntu 16.04 xenial
Machine: Mobo: ASRock model: N68-S Bios: American Megatrends v: P1.60 date: 09/21/2009
CPU: Dual core AMD Athlon II X2 240 (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB
clock speeds: max: 2800 MHz 1: 2100 MHz 2: 2100 MHz
Graphics: Card: NVIDIA C61 [GeForce 7025 / nForce 630a]
Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: nvidia (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,nouveau)
Resolution: [email protected]
GLX Renderer: GeForce 7025 / nForce 630a/integrated/SSE2 GLX Version: 2.1.2 NVIDIA 304.135
Audio: Card NVIDIA MCP61 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel Sound: ALSA v: k4.4.0-75-generic
Network: Card: NVIDIA MCP61 Ethernet driver: forcedeth
IF: enp0s7 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 1006.2GB (15.7% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST1000DM003 size: 1000.2GB
ID-2: USB /dev/sdb model: Flash_Disk size: 4.0GB
ID-3: USB /dev/sdc model: Transcend_2GB size: 2.0GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 29G used: 6.9G (26%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda16
ID-2: /var size: 3.7G used: 588M (17%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda18
ID-3: /home size: 1.9G used: 1.1G (59%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda20
ID-4: /tmp size: 5.6G used: 13M (1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda19
ID-5: swap-1 size: 2.05GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda10
ID-6: swap-2 size: 3.22GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda7
ID-7: swap-3 size: 0.46GB used: 0.09GB (19%) fs: swap dev: /dev/zram0
ID-8: swap-4 size: 0.46GB used: 0.09GB (19%) fs: swap dev: /dev/zram1
RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 30.5C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 183 Uptime: 4:09 Memory: 1150.1/1747.7MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.2.35
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I've fixed the problem of the home partition running out of space without resizing the partition.
- I checked with dd, which directories in /home are taking the most space. The result: It'was not home in general, but "/home/johnd/Downloads".
- I moved the two biggest directories from the directory "/home/johnd/Downloads" to my central Partition for user accounts from different Linux installations. This partition has about 300 GB, with 166 GB free.
- I renamed the local directory Downloads to "Downloads_local".
- I created a symbolic link in the local home dir to the dir Downloads in the central home partition.
The resulting free space
johnd@central-desktop:~$ sudo du -hs /home; LANGUAGE=en df -h /home
616M /home
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda20 1.9G 619M 1.2G 35% /home
With this structure
johnd@central-desktop:~$ ls -la /home/johnd | grep "^l"
lrwxrwxrwx 1 36 Apr 16 02:53 Documents -> /media/central_home/besto/Dokumente/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 35 Apr 17 16:03 Dokumente -> /media/central_home/besto/Dokumente
lrwxrwxrwx 1 36 Apr 30 02:21 Downloads -> /media/central_home/besto/Downloads/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 32 Apr 16 23:43 Pictures -> /media/central_home/besto/Bilder
lrwxrwxrwx 1 32 Apr 21 22:06 Videos -> /media/central_home/besto/Videos
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Great work JohnD :)
I have only just begun learning symbolic links, I begin Chapter 6 of the Command Line Book by W. Shotts, I began a first look at symbolic links and hard links in the previous Chapter and made a few beginner ones.
So it means downloads are now downloaded directly to the Central home partition, and in the newly named Downloads_local it has the symbolic links to the files so they are usable from here too ?
Will you have to create symbolic links manually for each new download, or have you set it to make these automatically some how ?
For me it sounds a very complex and advanced set up, but it is also very interesting how it works.
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Great work JohnD :)
THX :)
So it means downloads are now downloaded directly to the Central home partition [...]
Yes, the symbolic link "/home/Downloads" has the consequence, that all downloads, which are saved normally to "/home/Downloads" now are saved in /media/central_home/besto/Downloads", which is on another partition.
So it means downloads are now downloaded directly to the Central home partition, and in the newly named Downloads_local it has the symbolic links to the files so they are usable from here too?
No, Downloads_local is a directory with no connection to the symbolic linked directory. There are just some files in this directory, which I have saved in the former Downloads directory and I wanted to have a second Download directory which is not linked, if I would like to save a Download not in the linked directorcy.
Will you have to create symbolic links manually for each new download, or have you set it to make these automatically some how ?
No, you have to define the link one time.
One time you have to define a directory for mounting the partition you would like to use for user files:
johnd@his-desktop$ sudo mkdir /media/central_homeYou can use another dir name, which is not so pretentious. I've used "central_home" like "Central Intelligence". ;)
Now -- in my case -- there is this new directory in "/media" called "central_home", and you have to mount the partition for the user files to it. In my case the partition to mount is /dev/sda.
johnd@his-desktop$ sudo mount /media/central_home /dev/sda9 You can give the mount command the type of the file system it should mount, but in most cases it's unnecessary. ("johnd@his-desktop$ sudo mount -t ext4 /media/central_home /dev/sda9", "ext4", if the partition to mount is formatted to ext4 files system.)
A problem is, that you have to write the mount in the file "fstab" in the directory "/etc", because only then it will be mounted automatically, if Linux was shutdown. In my case fstab for Linux Lite is this:
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda16 during installation
UUID=d2b976ef-c177-4eeb-ba8a-9c0475e9c034 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /home was on /dev/sda20 during installation
# UUID=0dac0966-47b8-4554-a5c8-4e6c6f50524c /home ext4 defaults 0 2
UUID=0dac0966-47b8-4554-a5c8-4e6c6f50524c /home ext4 defaults 0 2
# /opt was on /dev/sda17 during installation
UUID=c81ae448-a938-4758-9e1c-5caa1a87d030 /opt ext4 defaults 0 2
# /tmp was on /dev/sda19 during installation
UUID=71e09fcb-bdcb-4516-8c63-4d4d5ccfbfb8 /tmp ext4 defaults 0 2
# /var was on /dev/sda18 during installation
UUID=2f4c1bbe-6548-4c81-b7be-2f79c5b26c13 /var ext4 defaults 0 2
# swap was on /dev/sda11 during installation
UUID=52a1d79c-d752-4904-b608-c2b66129a913 none swap sw 0 0
# swap was on /dev/sda7 during installation
UUID=a6ececfd-2af5-4877-abc4-52e90b7254ea none swap sw 0 0
# The central home partition:
UUID=3b77c81c-0afa-4c85-b160-e94458b1fabc /media/central_home ext4 defaults 0 2
johnd@johns-desktop:$
The last line says that /dev/sda9 should be mounted every time linux starts. Remarkable, that there is not written "/dev/sda9", but "UUID=3b77c81c-0afa-4c85-b160-e94458b1fabc" is another identification of my current "/dev/sda9".
The UUID is an id of the partition. You got them with the command blkid. For example:
johnd@johns-desktop:~$ blkid /dev/sda9
/dev/sda9: LABEL="home" UUID="3b77c81c-0afa-4c85-b160-e94458b1fabc" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="dcfb362e-09"
johnd@johns-desktop:~$
It's an unique id. The following -- for example -- is the complete answer of blkid, if I do not specify a single partition:
johnd@johns-desktop:~$ blkid
/dev/sda1: LABEL="DRIVE_C" UUID="AEAC7810AC77D177" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="dcfb362e-01"
/dev/sda2: LABEL="SchM-CM-<lerdaten" UUID="A8F46C31F46C0442" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="dcfb362e-02"
/dev/sda3: LABEL="Debian-Root" UUID="2d3f7e8e-cc94-493b-b3e2-0323d3a54bb1" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="dcfb362e-03"
/dev/sda5: LABEL="Bodhi-Linux" UUID="e8aadbe5-d9a0-44ed-aedb-62c8bf9eb969" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="dcfb362e-05"
/dev/sda6: LABEL="Parsix" UUID="92ae1f00-704b-4888-9011-c98e95bda345" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="dcfb362e-06"
/dev/sda7: UUID="a6ececfd-2af5-4877-abc4-52e90b7254ea" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="dcfb362e-07"
/dev/sda8: LABEL="usr" UUID="3f3f8ea3-a062-42ad-a903-f28ad02ade1d" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="dcfb362e-08"
/dev/sda9: LABEL="home" UUID="3b77c81c-0afa-4c85-b160-e94458b1fabc" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="dcfb362e-09"
/dev/sda10: UUID="52a1d79c-d752-4904-b608-c2b66129a913" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="dcfb362e-0a"
/dev/sda12: LABEL="Emmabuntu" UUID="a02cfa39-bcb5-49b6-990a-d665df2ac2a1" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="dcfb362e-0c"
/dev/sda13: UUID="7c3ecf43-4968-481e-9624-f886a432a1a4" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="dcfb362e-0d"
/dev/sda14: UUID="a0a0c585-baf2-4b17-94d0-0ac116bb5af0" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="dcfb362e-0e"
/dev/sda15: UUID="6464a3ab-f5e1-4ca8-9d4d-589e32db2ee0" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="dcfb362e-0f"
/dev/sda16: UUID="d2b976ef-c177-4eeb-ba8a-9c0475e9c034" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="dcfb362e-10"
/dev/sda17: UUID="c81ae448-a938-4758-9e1c-5caa1a87d030" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="dcfb362e-11"
/dev/sda18: UUID="2f4c1bbe-6548-4c81-b7be-2f79c5b26c13" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="dcfb362e-12"
/dev/sda19: UUID="71e09fcb-bdcb-4516-8c63-4d4d5ccfbfb8" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="dcfb362e-13"
/dev/sda20: UUID="0dac0966-47b8-4554-a5c8-4e6c6f50524c" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="dcfb362e-14"
/dev/zram0: UUID="972fce57-c4a5-4467-8939-f6700cf9042b" TYPE="swap"
/dev/zram1: UUID="6dcb7408-752d-4526-86ca-77bf85c5ef1b" TYPE="swap"
johnd@johns-desktop:~$
Finally to create the symbolic link, I've done this:
johnd@his-desktop$ sudo ln -s /media/central_home/besto/Downloads ~/Downloads
"~/Downloads" is short for "/home/johnd/Downloads", and "~" stands for the home dir of the currently logged in user.
Now "/home/johnd/Downloads" is a shortcut, a symbolic link to "/media/central_home/besto/Downloads".
For me it sounds a very complex and advanced set up, but it is also very interesting how it works.
Ok. But it's really not my first linux installation. I've tried some distros and installed also some of them for a friend. But I'm trying to learn linux also now. In fact I'm preparing for LPIC 1 and LPIC 2.
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Thank You for explaining :)
It is a very interesting set up you have JohnD.