How To Partition A Computer To Accommodate Three Or More Distros?

Hey,

My PC has 298 GB of which approximately 179 GB is unallocated. The remaining estimated 119 GB is being used by two distro's: PCLinuxOS and Manjaro 0.8.12

When I have tried to add a new distro, having plenty of free space, I usually get a message telling me I can not proceed further due to my having four primary partitions.

I have a Swap partition of sufficient size to handle multiple distros almost 10 GB.

I installed PCLOS first and then Manjaro. I gave each approximately 12 GB for their 'Root' (/) Their Home (/home) partition was roughly 40 GB each.

{/dev/sda1 swap /dev/sda2 Extended (/dev/sda5, dev/sda6) "PCLinuxOS" /dev/sda3. /dev/sda4 "Manjaro 0.8.12"

For /dev/sda 5 & 6 I used 'Reiserfs' file system. For /dev/sda 3 & 4, I used Ext4.}

The way I look at it my root and home partitions are 'primary' thus taking up the four primary allowed. I seem ti either recall or seen somewhere, that beside 'Primary there was something called 'Logical'

Starting with PCLinux as a base could I make a new installation of Manjaro where (/) would be Primary and (/home) would be Logical?

Or would I need to start totally over with fresh installs of both Manjaro ant PCLinux?? Then make (/) primary and (/home) logical?

Would such a move allow me to install additional distros?

A thought could I make the changes in Gparted while keeping the distros as they are, just making the changes [primary & logical?]

TIA

herakles_14

An Open Question

Hey,

When you have decided to multi-boot several distros and have space to do so. Is there a preferred sequential order for those distros?

Let me see if I can make it even more confusing. I presently have two Linux distros on my PC, PClinuxOS and Manjaro 0.8.12 XFCE. My PCLOS was installed first then came Manjaro.

If I am able to install a third distro would I do it from when I am using Manjaro, or would it be better sequentially to do when I am using PCLinuxOS? Or does it not make a hill of Garbanzos which distro I happen to be using at the time of the third installation?

How does 'GRUB' feature in to this equation?

The Grub screen (I think it's called) shows 'Manjaro' at the top, then Manjaro Advanced. Then below it is, PCLinuxOS followed by PCLinuxOS Advanced. Last is the MEMTest.

Would this hypothetical third distro and there is no problem with installation or with 'GRUB', appear at the top of the list when booting into it?

"XXX.distro
XXX.distro advanced
manjaro
manjaro adcanced
pclos
pclos advanced
MemTest"

Just for elucidation the third Linux distro I am considering adding is; Ubuntu 15.04 Mate Edition.

Thanking All in Advance.

herakles_14

How To Convert Logical Partition To Primary?

hello,

i am using slackware 14.1 and my partition table is given below
Code:

 sda1                    Primary   ext4                             60003.42 
    sda2                    Primary   swap                              8998.46
    sda3                    Primary   ext4                            119998.61
                            Logical   Free Space                           0.10*
    sda5        NC          Logical   Linux                           120739.34*
    sda6        NC          Logical   ntfs                            190356.39*
                            Logical   Free Space                          11.56

and i want to change Code:

sda5        NC          Logical   Linux                           120739.34*

Logical to primary partition.i don't know how to do it.i searched over internet but i can't understand could u any body please guide me how to do it.Thanks in advance.

How To Distro Hop With UEFI

I have a new PC and it's my first with a UEFI motherboard. I've been using Manjaro on it for a few weeks but now I want to switch distros. Before UEFI it was easy; I'd just tell the new distro's installer to overwrite / and use the existing /home as /home. But now I have these extra partitions that Manjaro created regarding UEFI and I'm not sure how to go about it.

I just used the Linux Mint USB live disc and launched the installer. The partitioning tool showed me /bios and /EFI in addition to the other partitions that are more familiar to me, like /boot, /, /home and /swap. It would not let me alter the /bios and /EFI partitions.

In order to preserve /home. what should I tell the Mint installer to do? Should I just overwrite /boot and / as I've always done? Will it work like that on a UEFI system? Many thanks in advance for all advice.

Output of fdisk -l:

Quote:
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sda1 2048 6143 4096 2M BIOS boot
/dev/sda2 6144 210943 204800 100M EFI System
/dev/sda3 210944 735231 524288 256M Linux filesystem (this is /boot)
/dev/sda4 735232 62175231 61440000 29.3G Linux filesystem (this is /)
/dev/sda5 62175232 1938952191 1876776960 894.9G Linux filesystem (this is /home)
/dev/sda6 1938952192 1953521663 14569472 7G Linux swap

Xubuntu MBR Partioning Question

I was wondering if I can repair my current partitioning setup using gparted, or if I should just reload Xubuntu. Basically I screwed up by making the primary partition only 256M, and made a massive extended logical partition for everything else, and did not leave swap space. I am doing this on an older PC with MBR, dual processor, 2G RAM each processor, 160GB hard drive space. It is single boot, no Windows. I would like the partioning to be as follows, leaving empty disk space for other Linux flavors:

/ 13GB ext4
/home 50GB ext4
swap 8GB swap

sudo parted /dev/sda print all
Code:

Model: ATA ST3160812AS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 160GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start   End    Size   Type      File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  256MB  255MB  primary   ext2         boot
 2      257MB   160GB  160GB  extended
 5      257MB   160GB  160GB  logical
                                                                       
Error: /dev/mapper/xubuntu--vg-swap_1: unrecognised disk label

Model: Linux device-mapper (linear) (dm)
Disk /dev/mapper/xubuntu--vg-root: 158GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: loop

Number  Start  End    Size   File system  Flags
 1      0.00B  158GB  158GB  ext4
                                                                          
Error: /dev/mapper/sda5_crypt: unrecognised disk label

df -hT
Code:

Filesystem                   Type      Size  Used Avail Use Mounted on
/dev/mapper/xubuntu--vg-root ext4      145G  6.5G  131G   5% /
none                         tmpfs     4.0K     0  4.0K   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
udev                         devtmpfs  989M  4.0K  989M   1% /dev
tmpfs                        tmpfs     201M  1.1M  200M   1% /run
none                         tmpfs     5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
none                         tmpfs    1003M   88K 1003M   1% /run/shm
none                         tmpfs     100M   24K  100M   1% /run/user
/dev/sda1                    ext2      236M  120M  104M  54% /boot
/home/mbrk/.Private          ecryptfs  145G  6.5G  131G   5% /home/mbrk

My Debian 7 Installation Created More Than 4 Primary Partitions On My MBR Disk!!!

Hi

I am very suprised! I previously had a Windows 7 desktop, dual boot with Windows Server 2012 R2. I didn't care much about 2012 R2, so I went with a Debian server on another computer.

I wanted to triple boot my computer, so I looked at my BIOS to see if my computer has UEFI support, but it doesnt, so I am not able to boot to GPT. One decision lead to another, and I decided not to install Hackintosh. As part of this process, I had converted it to GPT, and then back to MBR when installing Windows 8.1 Pro. Everything went well.

When I went to install Debian 7, it was not recognizing anything on that drive. I found out it was a backup GUID partition table left over. I used fixparts found on rodsbooks.com, and I fixed the disk partition table.

Now this is where things get weird. Before installing, I created a primary partition for /, and an extended partition with 5 logical partitions inside it. I installed Debian 7 from a live install DVD, and I manually created the partitions. I created a 4GB /, 16GB /usr, 4GB /var, and 64GB /home. Then I left a bunch of free space (~145GB) and then 16GB swap space. (I have 8GB ram, and I plan to hibernate sometimes).

After a successful installation, installation of packages, reboots, and frustration with PCI card problems, I rebooted to Windows 8.1.

Upon opening diskpart gui, I was greeted with the picture attached.

WHAT IS GOING ON?

How Do I Convert A Single Hard Drive To GPT Without Losing Data

How do I convert a single hard drive to GPT without losing data and without re-installing.

Current systems
Windows 7 Partition /dev/sda1 (Primary)
xubuntu 14.10 /dev/sda5 (Logical) (maybe upgraded to 15.04 when released)
Swap /dev/sda6 (Logical)

I read some guides they were not clear. They also said it is better to do a clean install of each system. None of the guides give a step by step, they always leave something out.

I am not turning on secure boot but I am turning on uefi.

I have a Mini-partition wizard boot cd that can help out but wouldn't covert a system partition.

I have a way to make an iso for xubuntu 14.10

When do you turn on UEFI in the bios before or after converting drive?

Mod, please move to correct forum if needed

Can't Format Micro Sd Card

So I have 1 gb micro SD card made by Nokia and it just refuses to be formated.

I've tried many ways but it just won't completely format. This is what I've tried
ayy did "diskpart" utility in Windows to remove protection by command "volume disk clear readonly" allowed to format once but doesn't compelely blank it Tried the builtin "Disk Utility" to format but gave me an error, "Error synchronizing after initial wipe: Timed out waiting for object (udisks-error-quark, 0)" Installed Gparted. Did simple rightlclick format to NTFS but it gave me an error "LVM not supported loop disk label" Tried giving multipel commands, delete disk [makes it unallocated drive] create new ntfs Primary partion, gives me an error "too many primary partition"
I've attached the Gparted error log. [can't attach html, pasted the code]

What can I do now? It just keeps getting in its Nokia files back and wont leave FAT format, i want to make it NTFS so i can use it in the camera. It's not corrupted because I can paste files on to it on the desktop. Also its not locked by a physical button

Code:

GParted 0.19.0 --enable-libparted-dmraid --enable-online-resize

Libparted 3.2
Delete /dev/mmcblk0 (fat16, 968.75 MiB) from /dev/mmcblk0  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )
     	
calibrate /dev/mmcblk0  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )
     	
path: /dev/mmcblk0
start: 0
end: 1983999
size: 1984000 (968.75 MiB)
delete partition  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )

========================================
Create Primary Partition #1 (ntfs, 967.00 MiB) on /dev/mmcblk0  00:00:00    ( ERROR )
     	
create empty partition  00:00:00    ( ERROR )
libparted messages    ( INFO )
     	
Too many primary partitions.

========================================

Code:

GParted 0.19.0 --enable-libparted-dmraid --enable-online-resize

Libparted 3.2
Format /dev/mmcblk0 as ntfs  00:00:00    ( ERROR )
     	
calibrate /dev/mmcblk0  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )
     	
path: /dev/mmcblk0
start: 0
end: 1983999
size: 1984000 (968.75 MiB)
clear old file system signatures in /dev/mmcblk0  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )
     	
write 68.00 KiB of zeros at byte offset 0  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )
write 4.00 KiB of zeros at byte offset 67108864  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )
write 4.00 KiB of zeros at byte offset 1015803904  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )
flush operating system cache of /dev/mmcblk0  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )
set partition type on /dev/mmcblk0  00:00:00    ( ERROR )
libparted messages    ( INFO )
     	
The flag 'lvm' is not available for loop disk labels.

========================================

Resize LVM Partitions

UPDATED:
I installed a Deb 7 Srv w LVM w following partitions:
The end product should become a mail server (Citadel) and in time also a Web server.
Code:

 df -hT 
Filesystem                Type      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
rootfs                    rootfs    322M  141M  165M  46% /
udev                      devtmpfs   10M     0   10M   0% /dev
tmpfs                     tmpfs     100M  260K  100M   1% /run
/dev/mapper/deb--srv-root ext4      322M  141M  165M  46% /
tmpfs                     tmpfs     5,0M     0  5,0M   0% /run/lock
tmpfs                     tmpfs     200M     0  200M   0% /run/shm
/dev/sda1                 ext2      228M   18M  199M   9% /boot
/dev/mapper/deb--srv-home ext4      233G  188M  221G   1% /home
/dev/mapper/deb--srv-tmp  ext4      368M   11M  339M   3% /tmp
/dev/mapper/deb--srv-usr  ext4      8,3G  481M  7,4G   6% /usr
/dev/mapper/deb--srv-var  ext4      2,8G  236M  2,4G   9% /var

 fdisk -l 
Disk /dev/sda: 268.4 GB, 268435456000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 32635 cylinders, total 524288000 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00064033

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      499711      248832   83  Linux
/dev/sda2          501758   524285951   261892097    5  Extended
/dev/sda5          501760   524285951   261892096   8e  Linux LVM

Disk /dev/mapper/deb--srv-root: 348 MB, 348127232 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 42 cylinders, total 679936 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/mapper/deb--srv-root doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/mapper/deb--srv-swap_1: 2143 MB, 2143289344 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 260 cylinders, total 4186112 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/mapper/deb--srv-swap_1 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/mapper/deb--srv-usr: 8996 MB, 8996782080 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1093 cylinders, total 17571840 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/mapper/deb--srv-usr doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/mapper/deb--srv-var: 2998 MB, 2998927360 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 364 cylinders, total 5857280 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/mapper/deb--srv-var doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/mapper/deb--srv-tmp: 398 MB, 398458880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 48 cylinders, total 778240 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/mapper/deb--srv-tmp doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/mapper/deb--srv-home: 253.3 GB, 253289824256 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30794 cylinders, total 494706688 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/mapper/deb--srv-home doesn't contain a valid partition table

 pvs 
PV         VG      Fmt  Attr PSize   PFree
/dev/sda5  deb-srv lvm2 a--  249,76g    0

 lvs 
LV     VG      Attr     LSize   Pool Origin Data%  Move Log Copy%  Convert
home   deb-srv -wi-ao-- 235,89g
root   deb-srv -wi-ao-- 332,00m
swap_1 deb-srv -wi-ao--   2,00g
tmp    deb-srv -wi-ao-- 380,00m
usr    deb-srv -wi-ao--   8,38g
var    deb-srv -wi-ao--   2,79g

Now i want to _shrink_ the HOME partition so I can expand my VAR partition. Looked for guides but haven't found any site useful so far

I tried to find a way to do it when I installed it but it didn't seem to offer me this at this time even I looked around for a while.

How do I do this shrinking of HOME and extending of VAR partition??
please be fairly specific as Im not a pro yet

Is LVM/btrfs/ZFS "pooling" Worth The Trouble?

I've long wanted to delve into these methods of HD manipulation but here's the thing: I only have 1 hard drive -- a 1TB, and the more I read the more it seems the main point of using these techniques is to utilize that extra layer of abstraction to bridge HDD's in some version of a RAID setup.

Of course I've also read the performance is better, along with snapshot capability, on-the-fly partition resizing, striping, etc. These prospects excite me. So finally, two questions:

1) With just one physical drive, is it worth creating a new partition table to include these technologies?
2) With all of the above methods, there is no way I can keep the data on any part of this PV if I want to venture into LVM, ZFS or Btrfs, correct?

p.s. I've got 12 partitions (one swap, one extended, one very large one logical partition that serves the 9 linux distros which fill the remaining partitions as a hold of media, documents, music, etc.

Question About Partitioning A 4TB Drive

Hello All;
I am building a Linux media server in my home and I am new to Linux.

Right now I am at the point where I am partitioning and formatting each of my 4TB drives.

I ran sudo parted on /etc/sdb
Then I set mklabel to gpt.

Now my question is about mkpart.

In order to use the full 4TB disk for data (Only one partition)

Do I set mkpart primary 0GB 3725GB
or
do I set mkpart primary 0GB 4000GB?

I don't want to enter a larger capacity than my disk will allow but I also want to be sure I am taking advantage of all of the available space.

Thanks.

Tim

How To Partition A Computer To Accommodate Three Or More Distros?

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