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Re: New 64bit Installation. Root partition too small--what to do?



On Thursday 24 July 2014 22:49:01 debian-user-digest-request@lists.debian.org 
wrote:
> Going by the subject, I'd say "wipe your system drive and do another 
> install, using what you have learned to do it better."
> 
> 
> A better option is to install onto a spare drive, so that you can boot 
> the old drive in case you forgot something.  The old drive then becomes 
> your spare for the next go-around.
> 
> > Yes, indeed. I previously complained about its partitioning with little
> > capability to revise it!  (I did not use LVM because it put everything in
> > one big physical partition which I also did not like.)
> 
> I use the "manual" partitioning option in the Debian installer.
> 
> 
> I have a SOHO with several Wheezy Xfce machines.  I don't use LVM, ZFS, 
> RAID, etc., because my needs don't require them, and because I've found 
> that the administrative complexities outweigh the operational benefits.
> 
> > So, want to install a more recent kernel? No room.
> 
> That means the partition containing /boot is full, or nearly so.  You 
> need to allocate more space to /boot and/or / (root) when you re-install.
> 
> 
> My system drives are partitioned as follows.  I don't need to save core 
> dumps in swap, so it is smaller than RAM.  I tried running without swap, 
> but my machines crashed under heavy RAM loads:
> 
>         primary #1 - 0.5 GB bootable ext4 /boot
>         primary #2 - 0.5 GB random encrypted swap
>         primary #3 - 8.0 GB encrypted ext4 /
> 
> 
> My bulk data fits on one encrypted ext4 drive, which is in one machine 
> and is shared via Samba.  The same drive and machine also provides 
> Approx and CVS services.  My backups, archives, and system images are on 
> various encrypted ext4 drives that I can plug into any machine (via 
> mobile docks/ caddies and/or external drives).  I keep my desktop very 
> light and install Xfce on all the machines, so I can move my desktop to 
> another machine easily.

This is very good and sound advice, actually. Problem is, I tried selecting 
manual partitioning on the install and saw no interface to actually do it. (If 
I set up partitions beforehand, will the installation simply respect them?)

Another alternative: First, to do the above or anything else with the older 1-
terra. I need to thoroughly test it, do something about the bad spot if it is 
still around after formatting. Once I know I can use this drive, I can 
reinstall to it or ...

Move the too-small root partition to a reasonable primary on this drive. Can 
have a separate boot is desirable, maybe in the former / which is all of 
325meg--yuk! I can make other partitions for /opt or anything else which is 
getting full-up. Moving stuff and changing fstab is no problem.

Question: How do I tell grub about new /, new /boot, etc.?? Seems to be mostly 
automatic with little documentation. Or do I go back to lilo which I at least 
know how to configure :-)?


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