can't create partition on free space
 

I have 160G hard with 5 partition hda1-Windows, hda2-Extended (hda5-ntfs), hda3-/boot and hda4-lvm physical volume. I also have 20G of free space that remained after the linux installation. I tried to create a partition but none of the programs let me. I don't know what to do. Can I add it to the volume group or do you have any other suggestions?

make sure all your paritions are not primary. i think you can only have 4 or something. some one feel free to correct me. i had that where an installed would only create primary paritions and it left 75gig unusable. suffice to to say i soon changed that! check in cfdisk.

anyway, you can certainly add the 20gig to your volume group using the normal 'pvcreate' 'lvextend' etc command.

however, i am not sure how LVM effects partitions i've never mixed lvm with normal disk partitions....

now I understand. so I have to many primary partitions. but what do I do? the free space is at the end and the extended partition is the second. and I cannot move the lvm and /boot so I can integrate it in the extended because I would like to make it fat32 (so both linux and windows could rw)

could you show me the outpuf ot cfisk, so i can vislualise it better.

i had a 160 gig hard disk spare - hdb -, so i was able to move the data onto that temporarily, redo the partitioning and move the data back.

Hi,

I'm not very sure what do you mean. Do you want to create a new partition and format is as FAT, or you would (also?) convert your NTFS partition (/dev/hda5) to FAT?

Anyway, probably you can move the LVM volume and the boot partition to the end of your harddisk and then expand /dev/hda2 so you can create the new partition inside. What tools have you been using?

Regards

there isn't cfdisk on fedora core 4 so fdisk -l (if this is what you want to see):
Disk /dev/hda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 1305 10482381 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 1306 9138 62918572+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda3 9139 9151 104422+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 9152 16902 62259907+ 8e Linux LVM
/dev/hda5 1306 9138 62918541 7 HPFS/NTFS

yes. i'd like to move the LVM and the boot so I can expand /dev/hda2. that would be perfect. i'm using parted (but I'm not an expert)

i wanted to see which are primary and which are logical.

Minor Start End Type Filesystem Flags
1 0.031 10236.730 primary ntfs boot
2 10236.731 71680.649 extended lba
5 10236.762 71680.649 logical ntfs
3 71680.649 71782.624 primary ext3
4 71782.625 132583.315 primary lvm

Well, parted should be fine, but then you will be moving partitions you have in use. Do you have something like a LiveCD? Maybe the Fedora CDs can be used so the partitions are not mounted and you can use parted to move them...

You can also try to do it from Windows and something like Partition Magic.

I have Ubuntu LiveCD (ver4.10), Knoppix 3.3 and Mepis. Wich should I use? And can you give me an example (it would be easier for me) of how to move a partition?
Partition Magic can't move LVM. thanks for help

you should have made partitions 3 and 4 logical. Presumably you can't create any new partitions. not sure how to help. if you moved everything off to another drive you could remake the partitions and move it back....

a live cd would appear to be the answer. if you used ubuntu (5.10) you could download anysoftware you might need from the apt repositories....

I'm sorry, but it's has been some time since I used parted the last time and I'm not on my PC now, so I wouldn't be able to give you step by step instructions. :(

You could try Knoppix. I know it comes with qtpart, which is a graphical tool for managing partitions. (Maybe it's also with Ubuntu and Mepis, but then I'm not sure).

Good luck!

tnx for the help. I'll try the livecd's and see what I can do. I'll be back with more information after.

well, I can't move the LVM because no program can detect it (Error: Could not detect file system). maybe if I could ungroup the LVM group but I don't think that's possible. If you have other suggestions I would be thankful

Does the LVM have enough space to keep the data from the NTFS partition (/dev/hda5)? Better: What about /dev/hda1? Could you save the files in /dev/hda5 there? Then you could delete that partition and create a Linux one, put the Linux system there and remove the LVM.

Next step would be to move the boot partition to the end of the disk and expand the extended partition so you can create your FAT partition there...

:-S

Of course all of it is very dangerous, so I would strongly recommend you to make a backup (in other place, like CDs) of your most sensible information, if not everything.

well, your suggestion seems to be the only one possible but is to risky for me now. Thanks anyway for the help. Maybe I'll try it sometime else when I'm not pressed by time