wrong folder sizes during setup...

[bongo_zg]

I installed OpenSuse 11.3, and during setup I obviously configured folder sizes at the wrong way.
current sizing (by df -h) is:

Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda6              20G   14G  5.4G  72% /
devtmpfs              2.0G  208K  2.0G   1% /dev
tmpfs                 3.0G  856K  3.0G   1% /dev/shm
/dev/sda7             364G   14G  332G   5% /home
shmfs                 3.0G  856K  3.0G   1% /dev/shm
/dev/sda1              75G   63G   12G  84% /windows/C

/etc/fstab says (if necessary):

/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD5000AAKS-007AA0_WD-WCATR1986254-part5 swap                 swap       defaults              0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD5000AAKS-007AA0_WD-WCATR1986254-part6 /                    ext4       acl,user_xattr        1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD5000AAKS-007AA0_WD-WCATR1986254-part7 /home                ext4       acl,user_xattr        1 2
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD5000AAKS-007AA0_WD-WCATR1986254-part1 /windows/C           ntfs-3g    users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_US.UTF-8 0 0
proc                 /proc                proc       defaults              0 0
sysfs                /sys                 sysfs      noauto                0 0
debugfs              /sys/kernel/debug    debugfs    noauto                0 0
usbfs                /proc/bus/usb        usbfs      noauto                0 0
devpts               /dev/pts             devpts     mode=0620,gid=5       0 0
shmfs                   /dev/shm        tmpfs           size=3g         0       0

how could I give root folder bigger size and take it from /home folder? (without reinstall)

[jdmcdaniel3]

I would download the GParted ISO boot disk from here:

GParted – Download

Basically, since it looks like you have the root / partition and then the /home partition next, you can shrink /home and then move the /home partition to make room to expand / root. I would give it at least 40 GB in size. Be aware that log files can also eat up a lot of space. Just the other day I ran out of space on a computer where I had compiled five kernels, taking 2-3 gigs each to compile. So, even 80 GB would not be out of the question for root /.

While you should be able to make these changes, you must consider it could stop the system from booting. Since this copy has not been loaded long, any failure to make changes to a working system and still be able to boot can be put up to gaining more experience on Linux systems and just reloading it again. You now know the things you need to do right the second time around.

Thank You,

[ken_yap]

You’d have to use something like a gparted live CD to resize the partitions non-destructively. Fortunately they appear to be adjacent to each other.

Or you could leave it. 20GB isn’t too bad for /, unless you were planning on putting lots of stuff in /opt, /usr/local, or have lots of files in /var (e.g. mail server).

[robin_listas]

On 2010-11-30 00:06, bongo zg wrote:

> how could I give root folder bigger size and take it from /home folder?
> (without reinstall)

The easiest way is to reinstall, provided you haven’t started to put your
own data and configurations.

The second easiest way (what I do) is to move some folder from one
partition to another, and symlink it. Choose one of the “movable”
directories and do it. /opt, /srv, are easy targets. /tmp, /var, or parts
of var.

Another way (which I also do) is backup, repartition, restore.

Then there is resizing. Tricky, slow…

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

[tararpharazon]

@robin_listas

On 2010-11-30 00:06, bongo zg wrote:

> how could I give root folder bigger size and take it from /home folder?
> (without reinstall)

The easiest way is to reinstall, provided you haven’t started to put your
own data and configurations.

The second easiest way (what I do) is to move some folder from one
partition to another, and symlink it. Choose one of the “movable”
directories and do it. /opt, /srv, are easy targets. /tmp, /var, or parts
of var.

Another way (which I also do) is backup, repartition, restore.

Then there is resizing. Tricky, slow…

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

how would reinstall be easier? how would your second easiest help the OP?

[robin_listas]

On 2010-11-30 22:36, tararpharazon wrote:

> how would reinstall be easier?

IMO, it is easier.

> how would your second easiest help the OP?

Why would it not?

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

[tararpharazon]

There’s 5.4G of free space on / so the question is why does the OP feel the partitions are incorrect?

IMO, resinstall would still need to resize /home, there’s no other room for / if the OP thinks / needs more space.

I apologize for asking about your second option, I miissed the symlink comments. That’s a viable solution though IMHO, not easier than resizing.

[robin_listas]

On 2010-12-01 00:06, tararpharazon wrote:

> I apologize for asking about your second option, I miissed the symlink
> comments. That’s a viable solution though IMHO, not easier than
> resizing.

Resizing is always a tricky operation, and not all filesystems allow it.
Things can easily go wrong and all data destroyed. I have never done it in
Linux.

The other way you only have to copy over some directories, it is safe. It
can, sometimes, be done on a live system, or as a temporary measure till
next install.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

[tararpharazon]

@robin_listas

On 2010-12-01 00:06, tararpharazon wrote:

> I apologize for asking about your second option, I miissed the symlink
> comments. That’s a viable solution though IMHO, not easier than
> resizing.

Resizing is always a tricky operation, and not all filesystems allow it.
Things can easily go wrong and all data destroyed. I have never done it in
Linux.

The other way you only have to copy over some directories, it is safe. It
can, sometimes, be done on a live system, or as a temporary measure till
next install.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

Of course that explains a bit. I’ve done a few times, and before that I’ve used the backup and restore, and the symbolic linking. Resizing can be tricky but it can also clean up a lot of loose ends very nicely, like the dangling partition from Windows installations.

You should burn yourself a copy of Gparted LiveCD. Boot it and play with the resize and other features but don’t commit any changes, or just review the online documentation at the Gparted site. Gparted allows you to make changes but doesn’t do the changes until you direct (commit?) it to make the actual changes.