resize partiion with gpart not working
 

trying to increase sda1. decreased sda5, then sda2. that did not allow me the option to increase sda1. so i decreaseed sda4, that did not allow me to increase sda1 either. any help would be appreciated. trying to increase sda1.

You can only resize a partition if there is unallocated space (right) next to it. You can move the other partitions around to achieve that. Or, in your case, just delete the swap and put it in the extended - i.e. make it a logical.
You will need to fix fstab prior to re-booting if you do that of course.

how do i know if i delete the swap that the available space will go to sda1. resized the "/" partition and nothing came available to any of the partitions. don't mind deleting it and editing fstab. thnx for your input.

The space won't "go" anywhere - it's merely become "unallocated". You will have to expand any partition to use it.

That is a poor photo, better to use a screenshot.
BTW, I hope you are doing this from a liveCD - some things you just should (or can't) do from a running system.

i wasn't trying to give you a hard time, just making sure that i didn't want to reinstall everything. you were right, it did work. thnx so much. will keep your name noted next time i have a problem. the space came available after i deleted the swap file. thnx a million.