I need to add some linux swap space using my fat32 partitions. My question is: will it be harmful for any of my OS (winshit&slack) if I "cut" some disk space from fat32 and "stick" it to linuxswap, doing everything under windows with PartitionMagic (cause I have some at least exp. with it)? Any better ideas?

Tnx. /D!lbert

If the space is taken from the end of the FAT32 partition then there should be no problems. If the space is taken from the beginning of the FAT32, in other words, to steal 1gig the files will have to be moved 1gig forward on the partition before the space is taken, then there is a chance something could go wrong. But PM is pretty good at not destroying data.

But when you are repartitoning hdd's there is always a chance that something could go wrong. IE: accidentally unplugging the computer will most difinitely have dire results no matter what partitioning app you use. Ya, I hot myself on the head after doing that.

Ok, cool, tnx. Another thing: sticking space to swap is safe to linux, isn't it?

When you have done your repartitioning - and thus have more space available for swap - you need to let linux know abot your intent to give it more swap-space.
Do you have an additional swap partition now or do you have just one - but now larger then before?
If its still only one - there is nothing to change in /etc/fstab.
If its one more, you will need to add it there - plus you will have to "format" it as swap space and then tell linux about it - like this:

mkswap /dev/_your_new_swap_partition

swapon /dev/_your_new_swap_partition

If you did all this repartitioning from within windows - you should check if linux still recognises the new larger swap area.
The output (in the 4-th line) of "top" tells you about this - among other things.
It' safest to:
1.) unmount all your swap-partitions
2.) make(reformat) the new swap space --> with mkswap /dev/...
3.) "mount" it back in with: swapon /dev/... for each of your swap-partitions

Things got little... shit. I Use PM, to cut 300MB from fat32 partition. Operation took hour, cause this fat is in the middle of the disk, so my root partition was moved down by circa 300MB. After reboot winshit works fine. But when I start Linux in BootMenu, I've got:
Loading Linux EBDA id to big; kernel setup stock overlaps Lilo second stage.
Ok, but things aren't so bad, I booted linux from diskette, and here I am now Everything seems to work, but I don't want to check it, cause I don't know what's up. I think: Is it only case of lilo?! Should I just try rewrite it?

Please help... and tnx4everything

PS.Now, I've 300MB unalocated space, prepared for swap, at the end of disk, near real swap part..

why not rewrite it? without doing so you will need a diskette bo boot linux and probably cannot use windows at all - how do you boot windows if you don't got lilo anymore?
Or something may have gone wrong - thats what backups are for :-) - but you cannot do anything about it now - I suppose - so why not try it...
What did you need the extra swap-space for? 300 MB is a lot (if it's a desktop)! And you already had a certain amount.

1) I didn't say I don't have lilo anymore It's in MBR, so it's safe&sound there.
2) I need to experiment with swap, cause I have 227MB swap with 256MB ram. System hangs when swap is full. You can: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=211200
3) i just want to be sure cause I didn't have hell of an idea what: "Loading Linux EBDA id to big; kernel setup stock overlaps Lilo second stage." means exactly...

I'd say that means, someting overwrote part of your mbr - cannot say for sure.
By reinstalling lilo you should be getting that fixed, but maybe your partitions where partly moved where they should not be - I don't know - you'll have to use Google...

lilo + [enter] did the trick I hope... Probably (as I think) lilo saves info about starting sectors of every partition. If they were moved... but It's just my sugestion, I'm not a lilo project developer... Who cares, it works, no errors, no fatals, It was a risky operation, but I survived Now, just to change the unalocated space to swap... 5,6 hours and I'm in home

the rest should not take you more than 10 minutes now - glad it worked - bye