I'm using SuSE 8.2 pro, and I want to put Slackware 9.1 alongside it. All my important files are backed up, but when I try to resize the partition I'm not allowed because it is mounted.

The partition table looks something like this:

/dev/hda ~78 GB
/dev/hda1 swap swap ~800 MB
/dev/hda2 linux reiserfs ~77 GB

I've tried using cfdisk from both SuSE and the Slackware boot disk, but they don't have the option of resizing the partition, and YAST2's graphical resizer won't let be because /dev/hda2 is mounted.

How can I make about 8 GB free space for Slackware?

Apart from that, is it also possible to make a /home partition and copy the files I already have in SuSE over?

First off that seems outrageous to have a 77GB / partiton

Second, you could use PartImage from http://www.partimage.org/ to save your partiton to an image file and then reload that image file to another partiton.

Do you have another drive you could copy your stuff to and then reload SuSE and Slackware ( I say this because you really need to change your partition scheme )?

You could also use the 'dd' command within Linux to copy a drive to another drive.....and then blow away your current setup.

I know this may not offer a whole lot.......but that's what happens when you make a / partition with everything on it.

You may be able to boot off the SuSE cd again and act like you are going to do an install, and resize the current suse partition like that.........and then when it's done just reboot and install slack where the second suse install is

I don't think there are a lot of options here

Peace,
Whitehat

Thanks for the advice - I tried resizing with the install disk, but just got pissed off with it (resize_reiserfs is quite buggy, although the bug just caused it not to resize the partition).

In the end I just decided to reinstall SuSE and reformat the /dev/hda2 partition to ext3. Slackware now sits happily on /dev/hda3, and I even managed to set up a chainloader in LILO

If only I could get it to detect my sound card now....

edit: to warn anyone who is even stupider than me - I backed up all my data before doing any of this do not try it at home as I'm sure there is a much better way around it.