For the first (and easier) part? I can tell you how to do that now. Make a directory, say 'morespace' in /. Edit fstab to mount it at boot. fstab should be in /etc. Add the following line to it:
Code:
/dev/hd? /morespace reiserfs defaults 1 2
where hd? is the newly formatted recovered space from your resized swap partition.
After you edit fstab, you can mount the new space without rebooting. Just issue a 'mount /morespace' as root, and the space will show up. The only problem with this solution, is making the space available to all your users, and REMEMBERING there is space there. But, it's a quick and dirty fix.
LVM is another beast entirely. Check out (I'm really disliking suggesting this) the howtos on 'logical volume management'. This requires a lot of forethought on your part, and pre-setup, in order to get going. You'll also have to probably install a new kernel, in some cases. Don't get me started on maintenance if something goes wrong. Once it's up and running, it's pretty handy to be able to resize your partitions on the fly.