partition activation
 

installed debian with a /, swap, and a 1gb part. unfortunately the deb install gave me no chance to activate as /usr/local the 1gb part. how can i activate a /usr/local or would it be possible to merge it into the / part. for more room. the parts. are setup in this order: /(hda5), 1gb(unassigned hda6), and swap(hda7). thanks for ur response.

you can use partedit to make your / bigger,
or make a partition with the leftover space and mount it at /usr/local
with an entry in fstab

ivansv,

Sure, you can add additional space to /, or anywhere you like for that matter.

Simply do the following:

1. Because you have three partitions right now, you will need to make an extended partition first. Depending on how much room you have left on your drive, run fdisk and set aside as much room as you can/need. I believe the ID to give for an extended partition is 5.

2. Now, create a primary partition in the extended partition space. This new partition will start at the same block as the extended partition so dont freak out :) Look at it this way, you are reserving a big empty space ( extended partition ) and filling it with useable partitions.

3. Once the new primary partition is created, save the new partition scheme and exit out of fdisk.

4. Format your new partition with whatever type of file system you like.

# mke2fs /dev/hda9 // whatever you named your new partition. This uses the ext2 filesystem.

5. As root do the following:

# cd /
# mkdir usr
# cd usr
# mkdir local

This will create the /usr/local directory you need in the root directory tree.

6. Now simply mount your new partition in /usr/local

# mount /dev/hda9 /usr/local

All the space you set aside with the new partition should be available.

7. To have the /dev/hda9 mount done automatically at boot add the following to your /etc/fstab file

# /dev/hda9 /usr/local ext2 noatime 0 0

Substitute the file system type with the type you used when formating the partition.

That should do it.

Good luck.

he has an extended drive already. hda5,6, and 7 is the proof.
a partition in an extended partition is called a logical partition, but that's
not really important.

it looks like he just has hda6 not mounted.

please don't take offense.

partition activation
 

fellows, thanks for ur responses. breezwell, whansard is right i already have an ext part which means i can skip ur first 3 steps and use the rest. thanks for pointing me in the right direction, this is an area where i need some reading up on.

No offense taken.
I just tend to type faster than my brain works at time.