I have 10 GB drive with win98SE taking 2 GB and 9.04 taking 2.3 GB, then the rest is unallocated space. I am trying to use upgrade manager in 9.04 to upgrade to 9.10 (I have 9.10 CD but it fails to install - tried to download it several times. I know upgrade manager solution works in principle, but upgrading to 9.10 says it needs another 1GB of space.

I have used 9.04 live disc to start GParted but there seems no way to resize the 9.04 partition to use the unallocated space - can only resize it down. Making the unallocated space a partition does not seem to help. How can I go from here to make enough space to upgrade to 9.10 and keep Win 98 (sorry, needed for testing purposes)

From a Ubuntu terminal run "sudo fdisk -l" and post (all) the output.
BTW upgrades of Ubuntu are often (usually) a bad idea.

gale@gale-desktop:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for gale:

Disk /dev/sda: 10.2 GB, 10262568960 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1247 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x6b736964

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 284 2281198+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda2 922 1247 2618595 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 922 1225 2441848+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 1226 1247 176683+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
gale@gale-desktop:~$

You need to resize the extended partition /dev/sda2 first. Once that's done, you should be able to resize the logical partition /dev/sda5 within it.

Can you say how? I am in the live 9.04 CD and if I right click /dev/sda2 the only choice is manage flags. I can resize /dev/sda5 but only downwards...

Maybe the swap partition is mounted? Try clicking /dev/sda6 and turning the swap off.

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That was it. I could resize the extended then the logical partition after that, thanks. .