Linux - DesktopThis forum is for the discussion of all Linux Software used in a desktop context.
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.
I'm in a pickle. I am a long time Ubuntu user, but don't have a lot of time under the hood.
Can I increase the size of the 1.1 GB swap partition? If not, when it fails does it make the system completely unusable?
Also, can I use a live CD to stabilize the system before it dies completely?
Any help will be appreciated. Thank you.
I attached a df -hT output below.
I have two partitions on a 650GB HDD (divided roughly 50-50)
Partition 1 = Ubuntu 14.04
Partition 2 = Ubuntu 16.04
External HDD 1 TB 2 partitions; 462 GB and 537 GB
When I installed the 650 GB drive,
I kept Ubuntu 14.04 to save a lot of my data.
In the other drive I installed Ubuntu 16.04
Background:
The two partitions worked well until a few months ago. There seemed to be plenty of space available, except the 1.1 GB Swap file was getting full.
Long story short, I planned to copy everything to the external drive and nuke the entire drive. Then I was going to install Ubuntu 18.04.
About 6 months went by without doing the project.
I was also adding many new and important files to both partitions.
I used the partitions interchangeably. I had important files stuck in numerous folders scattered through both partitions and had transferred many to the external drive as a backup.
My naming scheme made it impossible for me to be certain if the duplicate folders contained all the files I wanted to save. To be certain, I had to check each folder and cross reference them to the external HDD. It took enormous time.
So, through the months, the 14.04 partition was getting more unstable. The 16.04 partition is also going bad.
I did not realize the swap partition had become full, causing more problems as it progressed.
"I'm in a pickle. I am a long time Ubuntu user, but don't have a lot of time under the hood.
Can I increase the size of the 1.1 GB swap partition?"
Yes, but in order to recommend the swap partition size you need to post what hardware you have especially how much RAM you have.
Copy&paste this in the terminal and post your results. inxi -Fxxxzdr
an OCD note, because sometimes words matter.
You interchange "swap partition" and "swap file" which are two distinct things and would be handled differently. Whereas swap space is somewhat generic.
I kept Ubuntu 14.04 to save a lot of my data.
I used the partitions interchangeably. I had important files stuck in numerous folders scattered through both partitions and had transferred many to the external drive as a backup.
That's why we recommend a separate /home partition — then you get to keep it if you reinstall the OS and all your data is safely in one place.
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 93.4GB 93.4GB primary ext4 boot
93.4GB 93.4GB 808kB Free Space
2 93.4GB 640GB 547GB extended
9 93.4GB 172GB 78.7GB logical ext4
7 172GB 328GB 156GB logical ext2
6 328GB 522GB 194GB logical ext4
8 522GB 635GB 113GB logical ext4
635GB 635GB 910kB Free Space
5 635GB 640GB 5388MB logical linux-swap(v1)
640GB 640GB 2613kB Free Space
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo parted /dev/sdb "print free"
Model: TOSHIBA External USB 3.0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
32.3kB 1049kB 1016kB Free Space
1 1049kB 1075MB 1074MB primary ext3
2 1075MB 538GB 537GB primary ext3
3 538GB 1000GB 462GB primary ext3
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ swapon -s
Filename Type Size Used Priority
/dev/sda5 partition 5261252 2220740 -1
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crippled
Here's what you asked for
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ inxi -Fxxxzdr
The program 'inxi' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt install inxi
You will have to enable the component called 'universe'
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crippled
Here's what you asked for
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ inxi -Fxxxzdr
The program 'inxi' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt install inxi
You will have to enable the component called 'universe'
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$
Ten partitions? What a mess. Looks like you have a botched installation. The only thing I could recommend is to do a complete reformat of your drive wiping out all your partitions and re-install Ubuntu. You will loose all your data but you will fix that mess. Make sure you have at least 2GB swap partition but you may need it larger because you never posted the amount of RAM your device has.
4GB DDR2 RAM
AMD Phenom 9850 Quad core Western Digital
650 GB internal HDD
1 TB External HDD
I'm using a desktop system I built about 10 years ago.
The 650 GB HDD, If I remember correctly, was originally partitioned into about 2 sections 60% for to Ubuntu 16.04 and about 40% to Ubuntu 14.00 and 1.1 GB partition I thought was the Swap section
Through the years, the drive has gotten chopped up into about 4 or 5 various partitions. I don't know how it happened, but that's what I can remember at the moment.
Almost forgot I have a 1 TB external HDD. which I guess is 3 partitions
But ... I just tried to check it with GParted - it will not load. Maybe it's because I have an out-of-date version of Firefox.
Is there is a way to open GParted from the terminal?
Last edited by Gnusboy; 05-25-2020 at 04:07 PM.
Reason: Added more information
Firefox has nothing to do with it. If you have a USB thumb-drive you can boot up with a live USB and run Gparted that way. If you can't do that with a live USB of Ubuntu, you can download a MX Linux ISO and put it on an USB and run Gparted from it without installing MX Linux. https://mxlinux.org/products/
Your /dev/sda5 is a swap partition which is about 5 GB. Where did the 1.1 GB originate from? Version 18 switched from a swap partition to a swap file. 14 and 16 might be sharing the same swap partition but without seeing each /etc/fstab file we can not tell what operating system is associated with what partition(s) or if you are using a swap file. It depends on how you use your computer and what applications you run whether or not your running out of memory. If you have a dozen of tabs open on a old version of firefox that would use up a lot of memory.
Your /dev/sda5 is a swap partition which is about 5 GB. Where did the 1.1 GB originate from? Version 18 switched from a swap partition to a swap file. 14 and 16 might be sharing the same swap partition but without seeing each /etc/fstab file we can not tell what operating system is associated with what partition(s) or if you are using a swap file. It depends on how you use your computer and what applications you run whether or not your running out of memory. If you have a dozen of tabs open on a old version of firefox that would use up a lot of memory. I'm being very careful how many tabs are open.But the system continually slows to a stop, which locks everything. It does come back to operation "in a while." It will gray-out the screen - for a few seconds or several minutes. It also makes typing very slow - I type letters and there is a lag between what I type and the time it takes to appear on screen. I don't know what causes any of that.
sda8 being 100% full could pose some problems depending on what it is used for i.e / or /home/ etc. sda9 is 92% which is almost full.
gparted is a graphical front end for parted. You have posted the same information.
Another thing that is interesting is that lsblk reports your sda7 as ext2 but parted reports it as ext4.
The 1.1 partition I think was created when I partitioned the HDD, but not sure. The last time I ran Gparted the sda 7 was not reporting anything. But I'm pretty sure it's not an EXT 2.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.