How to change the size of partitions? (resolved)

Tramlink · January 6, 2013, 6:54pm

I have a main drive of 160GB however, my file system is only 77GB and I am running out of space. The remaining 84GB Extended partition consists of a 73GB ext4 partition and 2 Linux swap files one of 4.3GB and another of 6.5GB.

Thus 73GB is not being used by the file system how do I increase the size of the file system partition?

I am using mint 13 64bit.

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · January 6, 2013, 8:52pm

Any reason you have 2 swap partitions ?

You can use gparted resize the partitions … but be sure to have a LiveCD/LiveUSB handy in case the UUID’s of the partitions change and the system becomes unbootable.

[EDIT]

See my next posting.

.

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · January 6, 2013, 9:06pm

Come to think of it, you’ll need a LiveCD/LiveUSB anyway … because you’ll need to boot to it to run gparted … you CANNOT resize mounted partitions.

So you’ll need to boot to a LiveCD/LiveUSB, THEN use gparted to resize the partitions

Tramlink · January 7, 2013, 9:14am

I have no clue why I have two swap files is there any way to find out if I can remove one of them? What are the UUID’s is it rhe same as the boot record?

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · January 7, 2013, 3:28pm

I have no clue why I have two swap files is there any way to find out if I can remove one of them?

As long as you don’t dual boot 2 Linux distros …

YES … post the contents of:

gedit /etc/fstab

and the output from:

sudo fdisk -l

and

sudo blkid

And we can work out which one you must keep

What are the UUID's is it rhe same as the boot record?

NO … there are 2 ways of defining a partition in fstab.

a) by its “device” … /dev/sdXY
or
b) by ts UUID (Universally Unique IDentifier) … a long string of numbers and letters, that you’ll see from the “blkid” command.

UUID’s are what are used (now) by default … and rearranging partitions shouldn’t change the UUID so fstab entries should still work … that said, occasionally they do change … and require you to edit fstab, or reinstall the GRUB bootloader.
(Don’t panic … we can easily sort this if it happens)

Tramlink · January 8, 2013, 10:14pm

Read outs as requested. The system is Duel boot with Win XP on a separate hard disk Named clive1. There is only one Linux mint 13 on the second hard disk.

When mint was installed it only used 50% of the available hard disk space why did it not use all available space?

/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).

proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0

/ was on /dev/sdb7 during installation

UUID=4d9cd1eb-9ff2-4fc3-878e-21bc3134853b / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1

swap was on /dev/sdb5 during installation

UUID=b9b68dc9-f641-402a-9162-a302820398db none swap sw 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for userone:

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa970a970

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 312576704 156288321 b W95 FAT32

Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00031f7b

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 2048 82812927 41405440 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 149481470 312580095 81549313 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 299810816 312580095 6384640 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb6 291424256 299804671 4190208 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb7 149481472 291422207 70970368 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

~ $ sudo blkid
/dev/sda1: LABEL=“CLIVE1” UUID=“3B0D-1C00” TYPE=“vfat”
/dev/sdb1: UUID=“613e9e0e-6a78-4046-bee5-3b498c55cbe7” TYPE=“ext4”
/dev/sdb5: UUID=“b9b68dc9-f641-402a-9162-a302820398db” TYPE=“swap”
/dev/sdb6: UUID=“2406e6c0-e8a3-4a99-84c9-0270bcf7858a” TYPE=“swap”
/dev/sdb7: UUID=“4d9cd1eb-9ff2-4fc3-878e-21bc3134853b” TYPE=“ext4”

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · January 9, 2013, 12:18am

When mint was installed it only used 50% of the available hard disk space why did it not use all available space?

Because you already had another version of Linux on the drive (and still do) … so it used the largest available single block of space.

IF you only want the one version of Linux (the one that fstab came from), you can delete the sdb1, and sdb6 … resize the extended partition to be just big enough to contain sdb5 (swap) … move sdb5 and the extended partition to the beginning of the drive … then resize sdb7 to fill the rest of the drive.

BUT

This WILL break the bootloader … leaving both Windows on sda1 and Linux on sdb7 unbootable … so you’ll need to reinstall GRUB

If you have any questions … ask them now … and make sure you have a LiveUSB of the same version of Linux you are keeping.

[EDIT]

Actually, before you go any further … can you send the contents of:

gedit /boot/grub/grub.cfg

when posting the contents, can you be sure to surround it with code tags (to preserve formatting).

Tramlink · January 9, 2013, 10:20am

# # DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE # # It is automatically generated by grub-mkconfig using templates # from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub #
BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header

if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
set have_grubenv=true
load_env
fi
set default=“0”
if [ “${prev_saved_entry}” ]; then
set saved_entry=“${prev_saved_entry}”
save_env saved_entry
set prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
set boot_once=true
fi

function savedefault {
if [ -z “${boot_once}” ]; then
saved_entry=“${chosen}”
save_env saved_entry
fi
}

function recordfail {
set recordfail=1
if [ -n “${have_grubenv}” ]; then if [ -z “${boot_once}” ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
}

function load_video {
insmod vbe
insmod vga
insmod video_bochs
insmod video_cirrus
}

insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root=‘(hd1,msdos7)’
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 4d9cd1eb-9ff2-4fc3-878e-21bc3134853b
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=auto
load_video
insmod gfxterm
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root=‘(hd1,msdos7)’
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 4d9cd1eb-9ff2-4fc3-878e-21bc3134853b
set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale
set lang=en_GB
insmod gettext
fi
terminal_output gfxterm
if [ “${recordfail}” = 1 ]; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=10
fi

END /etc/grub.d/00_header

BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme

set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray

END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme

BEGIN /etc/grub.d/06_mint_theme

set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=white/light-gray

END /etc/grub.d/06_mint_theme

BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux

function gfxmode {
set gfxpayload=“${1}”
if [ “${1}” = “keep” ]; then
set vt_handoff=vt.handoff=7
else
set vt_handoff=
fi
}
if [ “${recordfail}” != 1 ]; then
if [ -e ${prefix}/gfxblacklist.txt ]; then
if hwmatch ${prefix}/gfxblacklist.txt 3; then
if [ ${match} = 0 ]; then
set linux_gfx_mode=keep
else
set linux_gfx_mode=text
fi
else
set linux_gfx_mode=text
fi
else
set linux_gfx_mode=keep
fi
else
set linux_gfx_mode=text
fi
export linux_gfx_mode
if [ “${linux_gfx_mode}” != “text” ]; then load_video; fi
menuentry ‘LinuxMint, with Linux 3.2.0-23-generic’ --class linuxmint --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode
insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root=‘(hd1,msdos7)’
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 4d9cd1eb-9ff2-4fc3-878e-21bc3134853b
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-23-generic root=UUID=4d9cd1eb-9ff2-4fc3-878e-21bc3134853b ro quiet splash $vt_handoff
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-23-generic
}
menuentry ‘LinuxMint, with Linux 3.2.0-23-generic (recovery mode)’ --class linuxmint --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root=‘(hd1,msdos7)’
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 4d9cd1eb-9ff2-4fc3-878e-21bc3134853b
echo ‘Loading Linux 3.2.0-23-generic …’
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-23-generic root=UUID=4d9cd1eb-9ff2-4fc3-878e-21bc3134853b ro recovery nomodeset
echo ‘Loading initial ramdisk …’
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-23-generic
}

END /etc/grub.d/10_linux

BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_lupin

END /etc/grub.d/10_lupin

BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen

END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen

BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+

menuentry “Memory test (memtest86+)” {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root=‘(hd1,msdos7)’
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 4d9cd1eb-9ff2-4fc3-878e-21bc3134853b
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry “Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)” {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root=‘(hd1,msdos7)’
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 4d9cd1eb-9ff2-4fc3-878e-21bc3134853b
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}

END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+

BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober

menuentry “Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (on /dev/sda1)” --class windows --class os {
insmod part_msdos
insmod fat
set root=‘(hd0,msdos1)’
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 3B0D-1C00
drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
chainloader +1
}

END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober

BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom

This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the

menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change

the ‘exec tail’ line above.

END /etc/grub.d/40_custom

BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom

if [ -f $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then
source $prefix/custom.cfg;
fi

END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###

As requested.

I am only offered one version of Linux at the boot menu and that is mint 13 I thought it had over written the other version of Linux.

I have a Live DVD of mint 13 64bit Mate which is the Linux that I am using.

I also have a GRUB 2 Recovery disk if that’s of any use. Can access the internet via another computer if required.

So what’s the next stage?

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · January 9, 2013, 3:15pm

OK, boot to the LiveCD … fire up Gparted …

Be SURE to perform these operations on sdb (Not sda which is currently the Windows drive) … as a matter of fact, it may be worth disconnecting the Windows drive whilst you resize the partitions on the Linux drive.

and be SURE to backup anything you can’t afford to loose FIRST.

IF you only want the one version of Linux (the one that fstab came from), you can delete the sdb1, and sdb6 … resize the extended partition to be just big enough to contain sdb5 (swap) … move sdb5 and the extended partition to the beginning of the drive … then resize sdb7 to fill the rest of the drive.

Once you’ve done that … close Gparted, open a terminal, and send the output from:

sudo fdisk -l

and

sudo blkid

BE AWARE … this WILL break booting of both Windows and Mint … and we’ll have to reinstall GRUB later.
(so be prepared either to connect to the internet from the LiveCD to post the output, or from another PC)

Effectively, you need to KEEP sdb5 and sdb7

sdb5 stays the same size

sdb7 is resized to fill the rest of the drive.

.

Tramlink · January 9, 2013, 4:51pm

Will have to put this on hold for a few days as my wife is in hospital at present.

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · January 9, 2013, 5:21pm

Okey dokey … pass on my best wishes to the Mrs, whatever the problem

and gimme a shout when you’re ready.

Tramlink · January 15, 2013, 2:42pm

My wife is home now so I can move forward with this project.

Before going further would it be a quicker better option to formate the whole drive and reinstall mint13 64bit instead of resizing the partitions.

Another options if I formate the other partitions with the other version of Linux will mint then see them as empty drives that i could use to store files thus clearing space on my existing partition?

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · January 15, 2013, 3:17pm

Both are workable options, but only you can decide which suits you best.

Formatting just the partitions, will require you to mount the new partition in fstab, but it will only be usable as “storage”. ie. it will NOT be available for installing applications … technically you cold copy your /home directory’s contents to it, then mount it as your /home directory (effectively giving what’s currently being used as /home back to the rest of the system , but this requires more work.

Formatting the whole thing and starting afresh gives you the option to sort any issues … but wiil also require you to re-tweak it the way you like, and to copy off (backup) what you cannot afford to loose.
(and obviously it will get the partition scheme back in order … not that that’s really important)

Resizing partitions … luckily Linux doesn’t care if it’s in a logical partition, so this is still an option.

All 3 carry risks to Windows but not much … really just a case of being careful not to select /dev/sda at any point.

So the choice is yours … pick one, and we’ll discuss then move ahead with it … if you want

Tramlink · January 16, 2013, 2:57pm

Have decided to resize the partition and will post the required information once have finished .

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · January 16, 2013, 3:16pm

Okey dokey … good luck

I hope you’ve backed up anything you cannot afford to loose … ANY partition manipulation carries a small risk of data corruption.

Tramlink · January 16, 2013, 3:44pm

All the most important documents are held in dropbox and the system is backed up to a Drive on the LAN.

What I have noticed is that I could not reduce the size of “resize the extended partition to be just big enough to contain sdb5 (swap)” I had to extend the extended partition to fill the drive and then… resize sdb7 to fill the rest of the drive (the extended partition).

At present this will take another hour and 5 mins.

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · January 16, 2013, 3:55pm

Sorry … I thought sda7 was outside the extended partition … that should be fine.

Tramlink · January 16, 2013, 5:06pm

Requested Info:

mint@mint ~ $ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa970a970

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 312576704 156288321 b W95 FAT32

Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00031f7b

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb2 2048 312580095 156289024 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 299810816 312580095 6384640 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb6 10240 299808767 149899264 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order
mint@mint ~ $

mint@mint ~ $ sudo blkid /dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs" /dev/sda1: LABEL="CLIVE1" UUID="3B0D-1C00" TYPE="vfat" /dev/sr0: LABEL="Linux Mint 13 MATE 64-bit" TYPE="iso9660" /dev/sdb5: UUID="b9b68dc9-f641-402a-9162-a302820398db" TYPE="swap" /dev/sdb6: UUID="4d9cd1eb-9ff2-4fc3-878e-21bc3134853b" TYPE="ext4" mint@mint ~ $

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · January 16, 2013, 5:29pm

OK, whilst still booted to the LivecD … open a terminal and run:
sudo mount /dev/sdb6 /mnt
then
sudo grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt/boot /dev/sda
now REBOOT to the hard drive (ie. without the LiveCD)

It should boot into Mint 13 … then in Mint 13, open a terminal and run:

sudo update-grub

When that’s done … reboot to see that you’re offered both Windows and Mint.

Tramlink · January 16, 2013, 5:55pm

Mint and windows working just fine.

By-the-way

sudo update-grub

dose not exist on my system.

But this did not cause any problems.

Thanks for the assistance.