Partition Problems
 

Hey. I have a situation. Right now I have Linux partitions set up all over my harddrive. However, my most recent job requires me to run a Windows program which I had limited success trying to run with wine or cedega, so I am forced to *hock, ptooey!* install Microsoft Windows. Since Kubuntu Breezy was recently released, I thought I might do things like this:

Resize my /home (ext3) partition with QtParted
Install *yech* Windows
Upgrade to Breezy

So far, I wasn't very successful as QtParted won't allow me to resize my /home partition. I tried logging into failsafe mode and unmount it, but it refused, saying it was busy.
Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

I think that you need to log in as root. The reason being is that if you log in as a user, you will have a login shell who's cwd is on the /home partition. Also, if you are running X, such as KDE or Gnome, then parts of the Desktop
environment will have locks on files located in your home directory also. The root user's home directory in on /root instead. Another option is to boot up with a live disk such as knoppix, so that your regular /home partition isn't mounted.
Yet another option is to boot up in rescue mode and resize the partition using a console based program like parted. In actuality, this isn't really different than the knoppix option, you are just using a live environment from your boot disk.

Thanks for the tip! Just one question, though: If I go with the Live CD option (I discovered I have a Kubuntu Live CD handy), how do I get the root partition back on which qtparted is installed?

Knoppix has the qtparted program on the disc. Perhaps Kubuntu Live does also.

You could try logging into kde/gnome, or whatever, as root and use qtparted that way. If a regular user isn't logged in, you should be able to unmount the /home partition and then resize it.

Knoppix has the qtparted program on the disc. Perhaps Kubuntu Live does also.

You could try logging into kde/gnome, or whatever, as root and use qtparted that way. If a regular user isn't logged in, you should be able to unmount the /home partition and then resize it.

Also remember that you may need to edit the /etc/fstab file to reflect your changes. Also, if you use Lilo, you will need to edit /etc/lilo.conf and rerun /sbin/lilo to save your changes. This is particularily true if you are installing Windows 98 or Windows ME, which must be located on the first partition.

Another option which could save you a lot of work is simply to purchase a hard drive to install windows on. Perhaps, you could reserve space on the drive for a fat32 partition that both systems can write on.