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

[Bastian Balthazar Bux <BastianBalthazarBux@pnpitalia.it>]

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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