[SOLVED] No space to create more partitions, but there is free space
Linux - NewbieThis 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
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.