[lug] re-partition the primary master

[Terry Branaman]

On Fri, 2002-06-28 at 10:15, Paul Bille wrote:
> I'm in the process of upgrading to from RedHat7.0 Guiness to RedHat7.3
> Valhalla.  After scanning for the packages to upgrade, I get a message
> to the effect 
>     /usr partition is too small, need 550+ mb
> 
> Can I re-partition the primary master without loosing all the data on
> the drive?
> 
> It's a dual boot system with LINUX and Windows installed on the master
> 10gb drive partitioned as follows: Primary Master 10GB
> 	hda1	2048mb		/dos
> 	hda2	 104mb		/
> 	hda3	 104mb		LINUX swap
> 	hda5	1542mb		/usr	
> 	hda7	  54mb		/var
> 	hda8	6063mb		/home
> 
> There is a 1.6GB slave with Windows data and an unused Win operating
> system: Secondary Slave 1.6GB
> 	hdb1	1584mb		Win FAT32
> 
> I have a /usr partition with 1.5GB that is only %72 utilized with RH 7.0
> but apparently RH 7.3 needs > 2GB.  I wonder if I'll be able to
> re-partition to take some of the space from /home and use it for /usr
> without loosing all the data in /usr.
> 
> I'd like to preserve the LINUX system configuration information as well
> as the Windows installation on the primary master, hence I prefer to do
> a LINUX upgrade rather than a clean install.
> 
> Anyone been down this road?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Paul 
> http://bille.cudenver.edu/author/
> 
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What about adding a new drive, or replacing hdb? You could then do a clean 
install of Linux without having to touch your existing partitions, and
then copy the appropriate configuration files. Or, after adding and 
partitioning the new drive, copy the old configuration over and do the
upgrade. Less risky than trying to modify the existing partitions, and
drives are dirt cheap - $100 for 100 GB, or $60 for 60 GB according to
Sunday's newspaper ads.

Personally, I don't feel that a 1.6 GB drive is big enough to worry
about given the price of 40 GB and larger drives; my time to try to
resize partitions is worth more than the cost of the replacement drive.
Plus, while creating the new configuration, my old one remained
untouched in case I needed to back out anything from the new one. Then,
once the new install is in place and tested, the linux partitions on hda
can either be redone or left for backup purposes.