Re: [gentoo-user] TWO (probably stupid) questions about partitions

[Fernando Meira]

Hi Francesco,

thanks for your reply.
You gave me a new idea.
I can't create 2 partition as you proposed, but only one. This because I 
already have 3 primary and 1 extended. Yes.. big mess.. have to fix it 
later...
So, what I will do is this:
- leave around 32M in the beginning of the disk for a future /boot when I 
can alter the partitions table freely.
- create hda1, starting after 32M until the end of spare disk.
- move the system from hda4 to hda1, the way you said. BTW, "cp -a" or 
"rsync" would get better results?

Question: I had a bootable flag on my windoze partition before (hda1), 
though /boot was in hda4. Now should I move it to where /boot will stay, 
right?

Thanks,
Fernando.
On 8/11/05, Bastian Balthazar Bux <BastianBalthazarBux@×××××××××.it> wrote:
>
> Fernando Meira wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > this is how my disk is divided:
> > Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40007761920 bytes
> > 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4864 cylinders
> > Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> >
> > Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> > /dev/hda1 * 1 1275 10241406 7 HPFS/NTFS
> > /dev/hda2 1276 4208 23559322+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
> > /dev/hda3 4209 4271 506047+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
> > /dev/hda4 4272 4864 4763272+ 83 Linux
> > /dev/hda5 1276 4208 23559291 b W95 FAT32
> >
> > Now I want to clean hda1 (which has windows) and mount there /usr and
> > point $PORTAGE_TMPDIR there (because my gentoo system, in hda4, run out
> > of space). Once I'm doing this, I could split that partition into
> > smaller ones (e.g. to create /boot), but hda1 needs to be Extended. So,
> >
> > 1. Can /boot be inside an Extended partition? Would probably be place in
> > hda6...
>
> Don't know
>
> > 2. In case of not changing my boot config (my doing Q1), will I need to
> > re-install my bootloader in MBR anew? Or on other words, will MBR be
> > erased when cleaning hda1?
>
> MBR is not erased, but it need to know where /boot is, whit grub you
> need to repeat the
>
> grub
> root (hd0,x)
> setup (hd0)
> quit
>
> phase.
>
> Having different partitions for an home system (with the exception of
> /boot in hda1 ) has always revealed useless for me.
> Also allocating 100 Mb for hda1/boot your first partition is much bigger
> than the actual "/dev/hda4" .
>
> What about to move your entire system in that place ? When finished this
> leave to you the entire space hda4 space and the choice of what to with
> that.
>
> The easyer way I know to to this is
> 1) have handy a bootable livecd/resque disk.
> 2) substituite hda1 with
> - hda1 = "/boot" = 50-100 Mb
> - hda2 = "/" = all the rest
> 3) mkfs.[your preferred] /dev/hda1
> 4) mkfs.[your preferred] /dev/hda2
> 5) Stop all services you can
> 6) mkdir /mnt/TheFuture /mnt/ThePast
> 7) mount -obind / /mnt/ThePast
> 8) mount /dev/hda2 /mnt/TheFuture
> 9) mkdir /mnt/TheFuture/boot
> 10) mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/TheFuture/boot
> 11) cp -a /mnt/ThePast/* /mnt/TheFuture/
> 12) check with "ls -al /mnt/ThePast/" if there are hidden file to copy
> 13) change /mnt/TheFuture/etc/fstab /boot/grub/grub.conf
> 14) rerun your bootloader install phase (if grub see before)
>
> reboot
>
> Try to boot each of your S.O.
> Warning the previous mentioned hda1 may be called hdaX from the
> partitioner, check it.
>
> Hint, groub admit editing of the boot parameters pressing "e" key, may
> be handy if there are any mistake in grub.conf
>
> >
> > Question extra :) : what tends to be bigger /etc or /usr ?
>
> check it yourself
>
> #du -sh /etc /usr
>
> "usr" is the bigger partition in the system usually
>
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Fernando
>
>
> HIH, Francesco
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