Help with install to 5th partion
I'm trying to install Suse 9.3 as a second linux install. My current HD setup is as follows... hda1 / hdb1 swap hdb2 home hdb3 usr hdb4 var I tried installing 9.3 and resizing hdb4/var, but yast advises that I already have 4 primary partitions. How can I change things to do a second linux install, while keeping my ability to boot the existing install? I have about 2.7GB free space on hda, lots of space in hdb, particularly home and var. Many thanks, -- Jim Flanagan linuxjim@jjfiii.com
Jim, On Saturday 23 April 2005 16:54, Jim Flanagan wrote:
I'm trying to install Suse 9.3 as a second linux install. My current HD setup is as follows...
hda1 / hdb1 swap hdb2 home hdb3 usr hdb4 var
I tried installing 9.3 and resizing hdb4/var, but yast advises that I already have 4 primary partitions. How can I change things to do a second linux install, while keeping my ability to boot the existing install?
I have about 2.7GB free space on hda, lots of space in hdb, particularly home and var.
You've got a problem. You only get four primary partitions. If you want, more paritions, you have to created an extended partition table in one of the primary partition slots. From there you can created a relatively unlimited number of extended partitions. Linux (and Windows, for that matter) will cover up the distinction between primary and extended partitions. As it stands, you'll have to evacuate the contents of your hdb4 partition, use a partitioning tool to turn that partition's space plus the currently unused 2.7 GB into an extended partition and then add back the old hdb4's worth of space as the first extended partition and the remaining 2.7 GB as the second extended partition. Now what was hdb4 is hdb5 (hdb4 is not to be used--it's the extended partition table's slot in the primary partition table) and your new 2.7 GB partition will be hdb6. You can restore your old hdb4 data to hdb5 and make a new file system in hdb6.
Many thanks,
Good luck. I strongly recommend you look up some tutorial and reference material on partitioning for PC disks before you start manipulating your partitioning configuration.
-- Jim Flanagan
Randall SChulz
On Sat, 2005-04-23 at 18:54 -0500, Jim Flanagan wrote:
I'm trying to install Suse 9.3 as a second linux install. My current HD setup is as follows...
hda1 / hdb1 swap hdb2 home hdb3 usr hdb4 var
I tried installing 9.3 and resizing hdb4/var, but yast advises that I already have 4 primary partitions. How can I change things to do a second linux install, while keeping my ability to boot the existing install?
I have about 2.7GB free space on hda, lots of space in hdb, particularly home and var.
As long as I have been working with PC's (over 15 years) you can only have 4 primary partitions. You will have to delete hdb4 and make it an extended partition and then you can more then 4 partitions. -- Ken Schneider UNIX since 1989, linux since 1994, SuSE since 1998 "The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is probably the day they start making vacuum cleaners." -Ernst Jan Plugge
On Sat, 2005-04-23 at 18:54 -0500, Jim Flanagan wrote:
I'm trying to install Suse 9.3 as a second linux install. My current HD setup is as follows...
Ken Schneiderwrote As long as I have been working with PC's (over 15 years) you can only have 4 primary partitions. You will have to delete hdb4 and make it an extended partition and then you can more then 4 partitions.
OK guys, thanks. What I did as a temp fix was to move some stuff off of HDA1 and freed up about 3GB space, made a primary partition HDA2 and did the install there. Not enough space there to put all the stuff I want to, but it is enought to test out how 9.3 runs on this box. I left HDB alone for now. Worked OK. This is on my 266mhz PII server. Its a little slow, but with the default KDE install it seems at least as fast as 8.2. Not bad. I suppose what I should do on the next clean install is make home on a primary partition, and put all others on extended partitons. Does this difference affect speed in any way? Also, how would I uninstall one of these installations? Do I simply delete the hdx and change the grub entry? Many thanks, -- Jim Flanagan linuxjim@jjfiii.com
Jim Flanagan wrote:
OK guys, thanks. What I did as a temp fix was to move some stuff off of HDA1 and freed up about 3GB space, made a primary partition HDA2 and did the install there. Not enough space there to put all the stuff I want to, but it is enought to test out how 9.3 runs on this box. I left HDB alone for now. Worked OK. This is on my 266mhz PII server. Its a little slow, but with the default KDE install it seems at least as fast as 8.2. Not bad.
Why this compulsion to use only primary partitions? You're severely limiting yourself by doing that.
Jim, On Sunday 24 April 2005 00:21, Jim Flanagan wrote:
On Sat, 2005-04-23 at 18:54 -0500, Jim Flanagan wrote:
I'm trying to install Suse 9.3 as a second linux install. My current HD setup is as follows...
...
I suppose what I should do on the next clean install is make home on a primary partition, and put all others on extended partitons. Does this difference affect speed in any way?
There's absolutely no performance difference between a primary and an extendd partition. By the time the system is up and running, it has a simple mapping of device minor number to an internal partition table that tells where on the disk that partion starts and where it ends. How the entries in that table were derived (from primary or secondary partition entries) is irrelevant.
Also, how would I uninstall one of these installations? Do I simply delete the hdx and change the grub entry?
I'm not entirely sure what you mean. You can always install over an existing installation. You can also erase (write over) a partition from a running Linux as long as you don't do it to your root partition or any other partition that is still mounted or which holds files critical to the continued normal operation of the system.
Jim Flanagan
Randall Schulz
Jim,
On Sunday 24 April 2005 00:21, Jim Flanagan wrote:
On Sat, 2005-04-23 at 18:54 -0500, Jim Flanagan wrote:
I'm trying to install Suse 9.3 as a second linux install. My current HD setup is as follows...
I suppose what I should do on the next clean install is make home on a primary partition, and put all others on extended partitons. Does this difference affect speed in any way?
Randall Schulz wrote:
There's absolutely no performance difference between a primary and an extendd partition. By the time the system is up and running, it has a simple mapping of device minor number to an internal partition table that tells where on the disk that partion starts and where it ends. How the entries in that table were derived (from primary or secondary partition entries) is irrelevant.
Also, how would I uninstall one of these installations? Do I simply delete the hdx and change the grub entry?
I'm not entirely sure what you mean. You can always install over an existing installation. You can also erase (write over) a partition from a running Linux as long as you don't do it to your root partition or any other partition that is still mounted or which holds files critical to the continued normal operation of the system.
Hi Randall, What I meant to ask was what is the preferred way to uninstall a suse linux installation? Is there an uninstall routine, or do you just wipe out that partiton? -- Jim Flanagan linuxjim@jjfiii.com
Jim, On Sunday 24 April 2005 10:04, Jim Flanagan wrote:
Jim,
...
Also, how would I uninstall one of these installations? Do I simply delete the hdx and change the grub entry?
I'm not entirely sure what you mean. You can always install over an existing installation. You can also erase (write over) a partition from a running Linux as long as you don't do it to your root partition or any other partition that is still mounted or which holds files critical to the continued normal operation of the system.
Hi Randall,
What I meant to ask was what is the preferred way to uninstall a suse linux installation? Is there an uninstall routine, or do you just wipe out that partiton?
Preferred? Not that I know or can think of. There are probably some "best practices" related to installation planning and configuration management, the need for which you're now coming to understand. However, apart from saving any data or configuration information on the installation you're going to abandon, nothing is required before wiping it out, whatever means you choose to use to do so. Basically, there's no such thing as "uninstalling" an operating system. Unlike an application or other software package running within an operating system, the removal of which obviously must be done selectively (removing only those things it created, and sometimes not 100% of those), there's no larger software environment within which an operating system runs that must be preserved while that OS itself is removed. Just overwrite it, erase it, remove the disk on which it resides and stomp on it...whatever.
Jim Flanagan
Randall Schulz
On Sunday 24 April 2005 10:04, Jim Flanagan wrote:
Also, how would I uninstall one of these installations? Do I simply delete the hdx and change the grub entry?
I'm not entirely sure what you mean. You can always install over an existing installation. You can also erase (write over) a partition from a running Linux as long as you don't do it to your root partition or any other partition that is still mounted or which holds files critical to the continued normal operation of the system.
Hi Randall,
What I meant to ask was what is the preferred way to uninstall a suse linux installation? Is there an uninstall routine, or do you just wipe out that partiton?
Preferred? Not that I know or can think of. There are probably some "best practices" related to installation planning and configuration management, the need for which you're now coming to understand.
However, apart from saving any data or configuration information on the installation you're going to abandon, nothing is required before wiping it out, whatever means you choose to use to do so.
Basically, there's no such thing as "uninstalling" an operating system. Unlike an application or other software package running within an operating system, the removal of which obviously must be done selectively (removing only those things it created, and sometimes not 100% of those), there's no larger software environment within which an operating system runs that must be preserved while that OS itself is removed. Just overwrite it, erase it, remove the disk on which it resides and stomp on it...whatever.
Thanks Randall, thats what I needed to know. I was thinking that was the way to do it, but now I know. Stomp is good ;) Now, as to planning, is there any good reason to make seperate partitions for /, home, usr, var? I have seen advise that at least making a seperate home partition is recomended, in case you want to do an upgrade later. But, as I can see from recent and old posts, upgrade is not the best way, rather new install is. This being the case, is there any compelling reason not to just put the entire install on one partition? -- Jim Flanagan linuxjim@jjfiii.com
On Sunday 24 April 2005 01:42 pm, Jim Flanagan wrote:
Now, as to planning, is there any good reason to make seperate partitions for /, home, usr, var? I have seen advise that at least making a seperate home partition is recomended, in case you want to do an upgrade later. But, as I can see from recent and old posts, upgrade is not the best way, rather new install is. This being the case, is there any compelling reason not to just put the entire install on one partition?
A /home partition is good to have even in the case of a fresh install. As well as any other partitions you want to keep between fresh installs. I keep: /home /ftparea (where I download things) /vmware and a few others.
Jim, On Sunday 24 April 2005 10:42, Jim Flanagan wrote:
On Sunday 24 April 2005 10:04, Jim Flanagan wrote:
Also, how would I uninstall one of these installations? Do I simply delete the hdx and change the grub entry?
I'm not entirely sure what you mean. You can always install over an existing installation. You can also erase (write over) a partition from a running Linux as long as you don't do it to your root partition or any other partition that is still mounted or which holds files critical to the continued normal operation of the system.
Hi Randall,
What I meant to ask was what is the preferred way to uninstall a suse linux installation? Is there an uninstall routine, or do you just wipe out that partiton?
Preferred? Not that I know or can think of. There are probably some "best practices" related to installation planning and configuration management, the need for which you're now coming to understand.
...
...
Now, as to planning, is there any good reason to make seperate partitions for /, home, usr, var? I have seen advise that at least making a seperate home partition is recomended, in case you want to do an upgrade later. But, as I can see from recent and old posts, upgrade is not the best way, rather new install is. This being the case, is there any compelling reason not to just put the entire install on one partition?
It's more tedious to re-install, but far less likely to create big problems (or just a lot of little ones). It is for all practical purposes impossible to write installation software that can accommodate all the possible forms an installed system may have evolved into over the course of its production life. Ideally, you install into a new partition, keeping your old installation intact as a fall-back. SuSE's installer is good enough to detect all bootable file system volumes (including non-Linux ones) and build a Grub configuration that makes them all available to you during boot. I used to go with a very fine-grained partitoining scheme, but no longer. Now I just put /home on a separate partition. Unless there's no need for any data continuity between an old installation and a new one, having home directories completely separated from systems ones is a very good idea and significantly simplifies the installation of a new system. As it turns out, when I install non-RPM-based packages, I typically put them all in /usr/local, so now I'm thinking that having a partition for that might be a good idea, too. Beyond that, disks are so large that it's easy to simply use a very liberal estimate of the amount of space the system will need (say, 20 GB) and install everything except /home there. But by all means, keep your home directories on a separate partition. Don't forget some swap space, too. You can swap to a file, but there's a little extra overhead, and it eats into your file system allocation.
Jim Flanagan
Good luck. Randall Schulz
Jim,
On Sunday 24 April 2005 10:42, Jim Flanagan wrote:
On Sunday 24 April 2005 10:04, Jim Flanagan wrote:
Also, how would I uninstall one of these installations? Do I simply delete the hdx and change the grub entry?
I'm not entirely sure what you mean. You can always install over an existing installation. You can also erase (write over) a partition from a running Linux as long as you don't do it to your root partition or any other partition that is still mounted or which holds files critical to the continued normal operation of the system.
Hi Randall,
What I meant to ask was what is the preferred way to uninstall a suse linux installation? Is there an uninstall routine, or do you just wipe out that partiton?
Preferred? Not that I know or can think of. There are probably some "best practices" related to installation planning and configuration management, the need for which you're now coming to understand.
...
...
Now, as to planning, is there any good reason to make seperate partitions for /, home, usr, var? I have seen advise that at least making a seperate home partition is recomended, in case you want to do an upgrade later. But, as I can see from recent and old posts, upgrade is not the best way, rather new install is. This being the case, is there any compelling reason not to just put the entire install on one partition?
It's more tedious to re-install, but far less likely to create big problems (or just a lot of little ones). It is for all practical purposes impossible to write installation software that can accommodate all the possible forms an installed system may have evolved into over the course of its production life.
Ideally, you install into a new partition, keeping your old installation intact as a fall-back. SuSE's installer is good enough to detect all bootable file system volumes (including non-Linux ones) and build a Grub configuration that makes them all available to you during boot.
I used to go with a very fine-grained partitoining scheme, but no longer. Now I just put /home on a separate partition. Unless there's no need for any data continuity between an old installation and a new one, having home directories completely separated from systems ones is a very good idea and significantly simplifies the installation of a new system. As it turns out, when I install non-RPM-based packages, I typically put them all in /usr/local, so now I'm thinking that having a partition for that might be a good idea, too.
Beyond that, disks are so large that it's easy to simply use a very liberal estimate of the amount of space the system will need (say, 20 GB) and install everything except /home there.
But by all means, keep your home directories on a separate partition.
Don't forget some swap space, too. You can swap to a file, but there's a little extra overhead, and it eats into your file system allocation.
Randall Schulz
Thanks for the help Randall. All good info. I'll be doing the permanant installs soon. Many thanks, -- Jim Flanagan linuxjim@jjfiii.com
Jim Flanagan wrote:
I'm trying to install Suse 9.3 as a second linux install. My current HD setup is as follows...
hda1 / hdb1 swap hdb2 home hdb3 usr hdb4 var
I tried installing 9.3 and resizing hdb4/var, but yast advises that I already have 4 primary partitions. How can I change things to do a second linux install, while keeping my ability to boot the existing install?
I have about 2.7GB free space on hda, lots of space in hdb, particularly home and var.
You can only have 4 primary partitions. You'll have to convert one of your partitions, to an extended partition, in which you can then create several logical partitions. Your first logical partition will be hdb5.
participants (5)
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Bruce Marshall
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James Knott
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Jim Flanagan
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Ken Schneider
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Randall R Schulz