I want to install more software but I got a message saying my /opt partition is too small. How does one increase the size of a particular partition? Is there a way? Thanks.

How do you want your partition resized? Do you have some other partition next to it? Please post the output of 'fdisk -l'.

Disk /dev/hdc: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdc1 1 262 2104483+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hdc2 * 263 1568 10490445 83 Linux
/dev/hdc3 1569 8358 54532643 83 Linux
/dev/hdc4 8358 14593 50090669+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hdc5 8358 8421 514048+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdc6 8422 8485 514048+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdc7 8486 8549 514048+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdc8 8550 8613 514048+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdc9 8614 8677 514048+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdc10 8678 8808 1052226 83 Linux
/dev/hdc11 8809 9461 5245191 83 Linux
/dev/hdc12 9462 10114 5245191 83 Linux
/dev/hdc13 10115 14593 35977536 83 Linux


I wanted to enlarge the /opt partition, which is in the middle somewhere. I expect that I can't enlarge it without shrinking some other partition, right?

Do you need the partition next to it? Can't you just delete both then remake them?

The solution I only know is delete the next partition (backup the files first if they're needed), then increase the size of the target partition by a utility. I searched google and found e2fsresize and reiser_resize. I don't if they really work.

If a utility can't handle that, you have no choice but to backup the files of the partition (either copy files using cp or backup the whole partition image using dd) then remake it using fdisk or any other partitioning tool.

Yeah...figures. Thanks.