LinuxQuestions.org
Latest LQ Deal: Latest LQ Deals
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Newbie
User Name
Password
Linux - Newbie This Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question? If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 10-29-2012, 11:29 AM   #1
anon091
Senior Member
 
Registered: Jun 2009
Posts: 1,795

Rep: Reputation: 49
No space to create more partitions, but there is free space


Hey guys. I rarely get to load a new server, so I was going through setting up my slices, first made /, then /boot, then swap as primary partitions, then when I went to make /home even though I had like 130GB free space, it said I didnt have space available.

Couple questions:
What am I most likely doing wrong that it's telling me there's no space? It's CentOS if that matters.
Primary partitions are just ones that could be bootable, so am I picking the right ones to mark as primary?
 
Old 10-29-2012, 11:42 AM   #2
sundialsvcs
LQ Guru
 
Registered: Feb 2004
Location: SE Tennessee, USA
Distribution: Gentoo, LFS
Posts: 10,610
Blog Entries: 4

Rep: Reputation: 3905Reputation: 3905Reputation: 3905Reputation: 3905Reputation: 3905Reputation: 3905Reputation: 3905Reputation: 3905Reputation: 3905Reputation: 3905Reputation: 3905
Well, probably the partition-table is full. Print out the list of partitions and be sure you didn't mess one up. Research "extended partitions."
 
Old 10-29-2012, 11:42 AM   #3
jefro
Moderator
 
Registered: Mar 2008
Posts: 21,939

Rep: Reputation: 3619Reputation: 3619Reputation: 3619Reputation: 3619Reputation: 3619Reputation: 3619Reputation: 3619Reputation: 3619Reputation: 3619Reputation: 3619Reputation: 3619
Could there be some existing partition on the drive?

Not sure that is exactly true. Some things could change that would allow almost any number of os's to be booted to a single drive.
 
1 members found this post helpful.
Old 10-29-2012, 11:46 AM   #4
anon091
Senior Member
 
Registered: Jun 2009
Posts: 1,795

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 49
When I got to the partitioning screen, first thing I did was delete everything. Then I setup those 3 on the internal drives on the server, then it wouldn't let me do any more. But it did let me setup partitions on an external array after that, so must just be something with doing more on the internal drives.
 
Old 10-29-2012, 12:37 PM   #5
TobiSGD
Moderator
 
Registered: Dec 2009
Location: Germany
Distribution: Whatever fits the task best
Posts: 17,148
Blog Entries: 2

Rep: Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886
Please post the output of
Code:
parted -l
on that server, run as root.
 
1 members found this post helpful.
Old 10-29-2012, 01:03 PM   #6
anon091
Senior Member
 
Registered: Jun 2009
Posts: 1,795

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 49
I run that while booted off the centos dvd?
 
Old 10-29-2012, 01:09 PM   #7
TobiSGD
Moderator
 
Registered: Dec 2009
Location: Germany
Distribution: Whatever fits the task best
Posts: 17,148
Blog Entries: 2

Rep: Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886Reputation: 4886
Yes, this way we can see what exactly is the situation with your disks.
 
Old 10-29-2012, 01:10 PM   #8
anon091
Senior Member
 
Registered: Jun 2009
Posts: 1,795

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 49
do you know how I do that from the CD? I've never done it before
 
Old 10-29-2012, 01:27 PM   #9
rknichols
Senior Member
 
Registered: Aug 2009
Distribution: Rocky Linux
Posts: 4,770

Rep: Reputation: 2210Reputation: 2210Reputation: 2210Reputation: 2210Reputation: 2210Reputation: 2210Reputation: 2210Reputation: 2210Reputation: 2210Reputation: 2210Reputation: 2210
If you're in the graphical installer, press ctrl-alt-F2 to switch to a VT with a shell prompt.
 
1 members found this post helpful.
Old 10-29-2012, 03:37 PM   #10
anon091
Senior Member
 
Registered: Jun 2009
Posts: 1,795

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 49
okay thanks. I will try it next time I get to the server and post what it says
 
Old 10-29-2012, 09:45 PM   #11
sundialsvcs
LQ Guru
 
Registered: Feb 2004
Location: SE Tennessee, USA
Distribution: Gentoo, LFS
Posts: 10,610
Blog Entries: 4

Rep: Reputation: 3905Reputation: 3905Reputation: 3905Reputation: 3905Reputation: 3905Reputation: 3905Reputation: 3905Reputation: 3905Reputation: 3905Reputation: 3905Reputation: 3905
Yeah... "and relax... no rocket-science here... it's only ones and zeros." The partition-table is just "a table," located in the first sector of the drive and known to the controller hardware. It has a fixed number of entries, but (in the usual "we never thought we'd run out ... now what do we do?" Engineering Hack), the last entry can be a (tah, dahhh!) "extended partition" which can contain "more partitions." ("Whew! That was close!")

Once you boot the CD and run parted on the drive, it will tell you exactly what the partition-table now contains. From there, you can easily see your way to setting-up whatever you want.

Last edited by sundialsvcs; 10-29-2012 at 09:47 PM.
 
1 members found this post helpful.
Old 10-29-2012, 10:38 PM   #12
suicidaleggroll
LQ Guru
 
Registered: Nov 2010
Location: Colorado
Distribution: OpenSUSE, CentOS
Posts: 5,573

Rep: Reputation: 2142Reputation: 2142Reputation: 2142Reputation: 2142Reputation: 2142Reputation: 2142Reputation: 2142Reputation: 2142Reputation: 2142Reputation: 2142Reputation: 2142
Chances are you're hitting the 4-partition limit in the table. The partition table only allows 4 partitions in it, however one of those four can be an extended partition, which allows other partitions inside (odd, I know). If you're only going to have 3 partitions, you can make 3 primary and be fine. If you're going to have 4 or more partitions, you should set up 3 primary and 1 extended, with the rest of your partitions inside the extended.

You've only mentioned setting up 3 partitions and then encountering an error when attempting to set up the fourth. This shouldn't be a problem, but perhaps there's already a 4th hidden partition that you're not seeing in the GUI. That's why everyone here is asking to see the output of parted -l.
 
1 members found this post helpful.
Old 10-30-2012, 08:24 AM   #13
anon091
Senior Member
 
Registered: Jun 2009
Posts: 1,795

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 49
side question: now that I've done Alt+Ctrl+F2 to get to the shell prompt, how do I get back to the installer GUI?

OK, here's what I'm seeing when I do parted -l:

Under my /dev/sda, which is the RAID1 of the 148GB drives on the server where i'm trying to make all my slices. I'll list the number, size, type, file system, flags columns for each, figure the start & end isn't important for now
partition table: msdos
1, 524MB, primary, ext4, boot
2, 146GB, primary,*blank*,lvm

Then I have 4 volumes after that for my external RAIDs, all of which are the entire space, they have partition table:msdos with each using the full space as ext4 and primary for Type.

I don't think I need/want to use LVM, as these "system" partitions are going to be fixed sizes, but I can't say I'm totally up on the pros/cons of LVM either.

Thanks for all the help everyone, I'm REALLY trying to learn Linux, but I can't even get past setting up partitions apparently haha.
 
Old 10-30-2012, 08:26 AM   #14
anon091
Senior Member
 
Registered: Jun 2009
Posts: 1,795

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 49
I should probably say what I'm trying to do as well. I want to have each of these be their own slice

/
/boot
swap
/home
/tmp
/opt
/usr
/var

That way if one fills up, it won't bring all them down. We've had /var fill up before I'm told
 
Old 10-30-2012, 08:53 AM   #15
johnsfine
LQ Guru
 
Registered: Dec 2007
Distribution: Centos
Posts: 5,286

Rep: Reputation: 1197Reputation: 1197Reputation: 1197Reputation: 1197Reputation: 1197Reputation: 1197Reputation: 1197Reputation: 1197Reputation: 1197
You can have either 4 primary partitions, or three primary and on one extended, with the extended partition divided up into as many logical partitions as you like.

Quote:
Originally Posted by rjo98 View Post
first made /, then /boot, then swap as primary partitions, then when I went to make /home even though I had like 130GB free space, it said I didnt have space available.
As other have said, your description doesn't track with the actual limits, so there is something else there which you haven't described. Unless you post better detail on what is there, we can't give better detail on what to fix.

Quote:
Primary partitions are just ones that could be bootable, so am I picking the right ones to mark as primary?
In Linux logical partitions can be bootable. There is no significant difference in behavior or capability between a primary partition and a logical partition. If you wanted, you could allocate the entire drive as one extended partition, with no primary partitions, then allocate all your partitions as logical partitions.
 
1 members found this post helpful.
  


Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
min free space for different partitions sulekha Linux - General 9 06-20-2012 10:36 AM
Help removing free space to create Raw free space nightmare55 Linux - Newbie 11 10-01-2009 03:07 AM
Checking for free space of unmounted partitions (cli) easuter Linux - Software 2 08-10-2007 01:17 AM
partitions: space used/free and folders inside joshfields Linux - Newbie 2 05-18-2004 07:21 PM
Formating free space: WinXP pro and RH9 dualboot with free space on 3rd drive Vermicious Linux - General 2 03-22-2004 05:10 AM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Newbie

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:12 PM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration