Hi there

I installed RH ES3 to a machine that have:
/dev/hda1 /boot ext3
/dev/hda2 / ext3
/dev/hda3 swap swap
(that kind of partition is quite fool but it was automatically selected by the RH installation - my mistake anyway)

and i attempt to change it to :
/dev/hda1 /boot ext3
/dev/hda2 / ext3
/dev/hda3 swap swap
/dev/hda4 /usr ext3
/dev/hda5 /home ext3
/dev/hda6 /var ext3

how this is possible without losing any data?

can i activate LVM (Logical Volume Managment) somehow?

I've knoppix 3.6 - maybe qtparted helps? how?

qtparted can resize and possibly even move partitions provided they are not mounted (in use) You'd better make a back-up though and take it one step at a time. I've had a disasterous experience trying to do exactly that. I managed to ove and resize the partitions, but most of my files got corrupted.

I try with rescuecd (systemrescuecd-x86-0.2.15) which have parted and it says:
#parted /dev/hda
>print (printing: /dev/hda2 1014.001 8505.200 ext2)
>resize 2 1014.001 5000
>No Implementation: This ext2 filesystem has a rather starange layout! Parted can’t resize this (yet).
why parted not support this?
Any suggestions?

I answer to me

----------------
What i try without help:
I booted with knoppix 3.6 and
# tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/hda2
# e2fsck -f /dev/hda2
opened qtparted and tried to reduce the size
bu i got an error with "...ped_file_system_open..."
no luck
then i booted with RescueCd and
#parted
>print
>resize 2 xxxx 5000
>No Implementation: This ext2 filesystem has a rather strange layout! Parted can’t resize this (yet).
>quit
and find from internet that : "This is definitely not an ext3-specific issue because I converted the ext3 partitions to ext2 with tune2fs and parted did exactly the same thing."
----------------

But finally this worked (!/home):
i booted with RescueCd and
# tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/hda2
# e2fsck -f /dev/hda2
# run_qtparted (i checked the usage of /dev/hda2)
hda2: User space 2,18Gb/7,72Gb ext2
quit
<ctrl-alt-del>
rebooting bccd-2.2.0 (bccd has ext2resize 1.1.17)
# 4 quickboot
# ext2resize -d /dev/hda2 4000m
# exit
<ctrl-alt-del>
booting RescueCd
# fdisk /dev/hda
Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-4): 2
Command (m for help): n
Partition number (1-4): 2
First cylinder (39-784, default 39):
Using default value 39
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (39-784, default 784): +4500M
n
e
<defaults (rest)>
n
+2000M (for /usr)
n
defaults (rest for /var)
p (to verify: hda5 usr and hda6 var)
Command (m for help): w
# tune2fs -j /dev/hda2
# e2fsck -f /dev/hda2
<at this part i test that rh es3 starts without problems -> ok>
# mkfs -t ext3 /dev/hda5
# mkfs -t ext3 /dev/hda6
# e2label /dev/hda5 /usr
# e2label /dev/hda6 /var
# badblocks -v /dev/hda5
# badblocks -v /dev/hda6
# mkdir /mnt/hda2
# mount /dev/hda2 /mnt/hda2
# vim /mnt/hda2/etc/fstab
><insert> and added two lines:
>LABEL=/usr /var ext3 defaults 1 2
>LABEL=/var /var ext3 defaults 1 2
><esc>:wq
# mv /mnt/hda2/usr /mnt/hda2/oldusr
# mv /mnt/hda2/var /mnt/hda2/oldvar
# mkdir /mnt/hda2/var
# mkdir /mnt/hda2/usr
# mount /dev/hda5 /mnt/hda2/usr
# mount /dev/hda6 /mnt/hda2/var
# cd /mnt/hda2/oldusr; find . | cpio -dumpv /mnt/hda2/usr
# cd /mnt/hda2/oldvar; find . | cpio -dumpv /mnt/hda2/var
# rm -rf /mnt/hda2/oldusr
# rm -rf /mnt/hda2/oldvar
# umount /mnt/hda2/usr
# umount /mnt/hda2/var

and rebooting rh es3 -> ok.

This link helps me a lot: http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedor.../msg02379.html