i filled / up. don't ask how!

currently i am partitioned as:

hda1 win98
hda2 win98
hda3 win98
hda4 extended
hda5 /
hda6 /swp

i then have LOADS of free space as i just got a new hard disk.

i would actually like a separate /usr and /home in the extended partition - rather than make / bigger (actually would like to make it smaller!)

my questions are:

1) can simply edit fstab to mount /usr and /home in new partitions?

2) how do i resize the linux filesystems after i resize the partitions with booit NG?

1. Yes, after you edit/resize/add/remove partitions, you must update /etc/fstab to reflect the new state of affairs.

2. It depends on which filesystems you're using. If you're using resierfs (find out by looking in /etc/fstab), use the "resize_reiserfs" command.

Back up anything important before you start messing around with this stuff.

Lyle

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, relief!

breathing space at last!

created a new /home partition but didn't remove old partition from fstab and the system wouldn't boot at all. Used Damn Small Linux to get in to my / partition and edit fstab using vi - an app i have only used to set up ppp in DSL once! Oh for the want of one little #!

Fixed now tho!

So, I now have some breathing space on /

I still need to enlarge / or create /usr in my acres of free space

creating a new /home was easy as you can do it as root but how can i do /usr?

could i create the partition on my system -> hda8
boot into damn small
rename /usr to /usr2
mount hda8 and create /usr, copy /usr2 over
edit fstab
/dev/hda8 /usr ext3 defaults 0 0

would that work? suggestions?!

after i move /usr (if i can) how can i resize /? because it will be huge and / is tiny without usr! can you resize ext3?

"how can i do /usr?"

mkdir /newusr
mount /dev/hda8 /newusr
cp -pR /usr/* /newusr
edit fstab
/dev/hda8 /usr ext3 defaults 0 0

Then reboot. If it works OK then
boot into damn small
mount / partition on /spare1
rm /spare1/usr/* -R
rmdir /spare1/newusr


___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

You may use "GNU parted"
Regards

cheers, jailbait, that looks good, I have a few questions tho:

so here I have copied /usr to /newusr, does the cp -pR retain permissions?

also, when i edit fstab shouldn't it be

/dev/hda8 /newusr ext3 defaults 0 0

then, i don't really understand the next steps! i know i need to delete /usr and rename /usrnew to /usr...could you explain a bit more, please?

"so here I have copied /usr to /newusr, does the cp -pR retain permissions?"

Yes. -p means preserve permissions. See:
man cp

"also, when i edit fstab shouldn't it be
/dev/hda8 /newusr ext3 defaults 0 0
then, i don't really understand the next steps! i know i need to delete /usr and rename /usrnew to /usr...could you explain a bit more, please?"

It should be:
/dev/hda8 /usr ext3 defaults 0 0
At that point you have all of /usr duplicated in 2 locations. You have one copy on /usr and a second copy on /dev/hda8. The fstab entry says to make the /dev/hda8 copy available on the /usr mountpoint after you reboot. The copy on /usr disappears. It is physically still there but it is not accessable anymore. At that point you also have no further use for /newusr which is merely an empty directory after reboot. You can delete /newusr any time after you reboot. /newusr doesn't have to be deleted with damn small Linux.

You cannot rename mount points so before you reboot you could not rename /newusr to /usr. Because some of the /usr directories are on the PATH you cannot rename or delete /usr before or after you reboot.

So to get rid of the old /usr tree hidden on / and actually free up the space you have to boot into damn small Linux, mount your / partition and delete everything on /usr but leave the empty /usr directory as a mount point.

___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

cheers, that's excellent. I think I am actually just going to make / larger rather than have a separate /usr but only for the time being.

useful information tho about how fstab and mounting works. the command for preserve permissions is something i should have looked at earlier. i copied my /home directory around in a gui and lost all the permissions. i reset all of them to -rwx-rx-rx -dibble -users is that correct?

so, let me make sure i understand this.

all tho /usr has been copied to a dir /usrnew on /dev/hda8 when it is actually mounted at reboot it becomes /usr and you can't delete the old /usr because it is "hidden" by the new /usr on hda8. That's right isn't it?

"i reset all of them to -rwx-rx-rx -dibble -users is that correct?"

-rwxr-xr-x -dibble -users is what most of the permissions should be for directories and executable files. For non executable files most of the permissions should be -rw-r--r-- -dibble -users You may have a few odd files that need permissions different than the two normal permissions.

"all tho /usr has been copied to a dir /usrnew on /dev/hda8 when it is actually mounted at reboot it becomes /usr and you can't delete the old /usr because it is "hidden" by the new /usr on hda8. That's right isn't it?"

You only have one /usr directory. IIt is located in your / partition. It can function as a mount point or as a directory but not both at the same time.

You cannot have two mount points pointing to the same partition at the same time. So at no time are both /usrnew and /usr mount points for /dev/hda8 simultaneously.

At one point in the sequence of events I described you have all of the /usr tree duplicated. One copy is on /dev/hda8. The other copy is on /usr. You can use /usr to access the /usr tree on the / partition or you can use /usr as a mount point for /dev/hda8, but you cannot do both simultaneously.

___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

cheers again jailbait

as i said i decided not to do that for the time being - this what i did do (by way of a thread finisher):

my partitions were:

hda1 win98
hda2 win98
hda3 win98
hda4 extended
hda5 /
hda6 /swp
hda7 /home

after I added the new home. using bootit NG i used "slide" to move /swp and /home to give me 1028 megs of space AFTER /. I then used parted to resize /, which is an ext3 filesystem.

that's about it. cheers guys. dibble.