Gparted questions

70 Tango Charlie

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Greetings from the Old Geezer,
I started using Gparted to make some changes in the partitions on my 'experimental laptop'.
I put the Gparted live on a stick and booted from there.
Everything went well. I was able to free up a lot of space in the 'unallocated' sections.
The system is a little quicker than before and it still boots up quite well.
On the Gparted start page it has a screen capture option. I used it, as I wanted to show it here on the forum.
Unfortunately, I cannot find where it is saved to.
It says it is at /home/user/gparted.jpeg
Please help me locate my picture. Thanks.
I have 8 different distros on this laptop.
Lubuntu 19.10 Eoan Ermine
Peppermint 9
Elementary 5.0
Linux Lite 4.6
Linux Mint 19.2
Ubuntu 19.10
And a few others.
The Laptop is an Acer Aspire V3-771
Old Geezer
TC :D:D:D
 


Hard to know for sure... My best guess...

since you booted from the gParted- USB stick. It seems that /home/user would be on the USB stick.

A couple of questions come to mind... is there space on the USB drive for the picture?
Also... was the USB made in "dd mode" or "iso mode". dd mode is usually more compatible,
but you can't always write to the file system... it usually boots into "read only" mode.

Can you create anything.. maybe a small text file in /home/user on the USB drive while you are booted from it?
 
Thanks for the reply dos2unix.
I made the usb in iso mode.
However, I have been poking around; pushing buttons and see what happens. Voila! I think I stumbled onto something. {If I can remember how I did it. LOL}

Gparted screenshot.png

It worked!!!
Problem solved. As usual, I have to think outside the box to come up with what works for me.
I tried to follow the instructions on the gparted website but it did not work for me.
So, here's what I did:
I removed the Live gparted stick. I then restarted the lappie in LM 19.2. From there I opened the gparted file on the lappie {after installing it}. Had to wait a few seconds and the pic you see is what the lappie partitions look like now.
Hooray. Chalk one up for the Old Geezer.
I would like The Wiz to take a look at this and get his opinion on the condition of this lappie, and if he has any suggestions on how to make it better.

TC :):):)
 
Last edited:
Gparted is my preferred approach to setting up partitions its much more user friendly than calculating cylinder heads from a command line . I actually use gParted from knoppix Linux on a usb stick. this is a screenshot of my partitions. Really apart from efi if you have a new laptop you only need 2 partitions to install say Slackware Linux, swap for memory and main installtion section.
If you haven't tried to install anything ,then you can go back , delete all partitions , re-size or what you want. Ideally there will be no unallocated sections. You have a large 180gig section thats unallocated
 

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Thanks to all who helped this old guy out.
I appreciate all input.
Old Geezer
TC
 
I see that you have 180.32 of disk space unallocated and you didn't create any swap partitions.

Do you have any plans for the unallocated space?

Here's an article about swap. You may find it helpful.

When I installed Linux Mint 19.2, Slackware and MX Linux I created a 2 GB swap partition for each distro.

Also, looking at the screenshot of gparted that you posted your ext4 partitions are small.
Some Linux distributions need 20 GB for /home or more. If you install a lot of applications/programs you'll run out of space quickly.

Elementary OS needs a minimum of 15 GB of disk space.

Ubuntu 19.10 requires 25 GB of hard disk space.

Hope the information helps.
 
Thanks Alexzee,
I'll read up on the swap thing.
Actually, I'm just getting started into the partitioning - very much a novice; so I am glad for all the info I can get.
You have been most helpful.
Old Geezer
TC:)
 
Thanks Alexzee,
I'll read up on the swap thing.
Actually, I'm just getting started into the partitioning - very much a novice; so I am glad for all the info I can get.
You have been most helpful.
Old Geezer
TC:)
Thanks -:)
 
I see that you have 180.32 of disk space unallocated and you didn't create any swap partitions.

Do you have any plans for the unallocated space?

Here's an article about swap. You may find it helpful.

When I installed Linux Mint 19.2, Slackware and MX Linux I created a 2 GB swap partition for each distro.

Also, looking at the screenshot of gparted that you posted your ext4 partitions are small.
Some Linux distributions need 20 GB for /home or more. If you install a lot of applications/programs you'll run out of space quickly.

Elementary OS needs a minimum of 15 GB of disk space.

Ubuntu 19.10 requires 25 GB of hard disk space.

Hope the information helps.
I read somewhere that having swap space can be beneficial. With the amount of RAM available and the use of SSD's on modern hardware it seems swap space isn't really necessary but from what I read it can be helpful and some apps even expect it.

Wow! I did not realize the hard disk space required by distros had gone up so much! I realize hard disk space is very cheap - relatively speaking - but 25 GB seems a bit "hoggish".
 
Hello Vrai,
What I have in mind is to load my 'experimental' lappie with as many distros as I can; just to see what happens.
It's the only thing I am using this lappie for.
{I got the idea from Wiz when he said he had about 50 distros on one of his cp's.}
I love experimenting with stuff.
I will keep everyone appraised of how I am doing, as I go along.
Old Geezer
TC
 
Hey Charlie, if you haven't already, take a peek at this thread where @wizardfromoz and @Jeffrey Lapinski go toe-to-toe in a very educational and entertaining read. This covers a lot of the ground where you are heading, and it might be helpful... maybe even saving you a mistake or two along the way.

Wizard is definitely the master of multi-multi booting. I'm sure he will assist as needed. Perhaps the first lesson is to save some space for Timeshift backups, or have an external drive available for this.

Good luck, and have fun!

Cheers
 
I would like The Wiz to take a look at this and get his opinion on the condition of this lappie

You rang? (gotta get my doorbell fixed)

Charlie, FYI, if you place an @ before a Member's userid, such as @wizardfromoz - it will autocomplete as you type it, and "ping" the Member, so I get an alert next time I log in.

Let me know if @70 Tango Charlie works - I only typed in @70 and was presented with you and one other Member.

And a few others.

What are the other 2, Charlie, if you don't mind?

PLEASE READ THIS

Charlie, the advice you have been given on both partitioning and Swap is not incorrect, but it is not best suited for your purposes.

If you have already started to take action on that account, well, so be it.

But if not, please hold off until I am back in about 3 hours.

Cheers

Wizard
 
Hi @wizardfromoz ,
Thanks for the info. I have seen the @ used many times but did not know what it was for.
It turns out that the other 2 are really 4
BlueStar - Rolling
Doge Linux - 18.04
Feren - 18.04
LM - 19.01 Tessa
I have not begun to do anything yet with the swap thing, so will wait to hear what you have to say {write}. :)
I had nothing in particular that I was looking for in distros, just as long as I could download the iso and put it on a usb stick.
Gradually I will use them to see what the differences might be.
I really do appreciate all you people putting up with me on this website.
Old Geezer
TC
 
ON TOPIC

Partitioning

1. Charlie, can you go to Terminal in one of your Distros on the Acer, and enter

Code:
inxi -SMDP

and report back the output?

If it tells you inxi is not installed, then

Code:
sudo apt install inxi

and then you can repeat the command using your up arrow direction key to recall the command.

2. Also, the output of

Code:
df -h

Thanks.

3. Leave the 180 GiB at the bottom as unallocated space. It is perfect to use for “growing” some of your Partitions “down” to give them more space.

/dev/sda2 is in imminent danger of running out of space and “falling over”, /dev/sda3 and /dev/sda4 to a lesser extent.

They may give you a warning that you are running out of space, or they may just go kaput one day.

That space is also perfect for using for a separate Timeshift partition, but bearing in mind that if you have external storage that you can hook into the Acer, that is better for safeguarding them.

4. Your Gparted shot from Gparted Live session, only shows devices 1 to 4, and you have told us you also have

BlueStar - Rolling

Doge Linux - 18.04

Feren - 18.04

LM - 19.01 Tessa

Can you tell us where those are, or why the discrepancy?

If you can give us answers for questions 1, 2 and 4 that would be a good start.


OFF TOPIC

Swap is not exactly off-topic, as one of the Members noted there was no Swap partition in Charlie's GParted screenshot.

But there is no need to discuss it further here, for now, and I'll tell you why.

BTW Charlie I have not heard of doge linux, but we can read about it here

https://sourceforge.net/projects/doge-linux/

All of Charlie's Distros already have a form of swap installed.

Zswap is used by -

Peppermint 9

Lubuntu

Elementary 5.0

Linux Lite

Ubuntu

In addition

Peppermint, Elementary OS and Linux Mint also generate a swapfile of about 1 GB on my system.

dmesg | grep -i swap*

[ 0.896048] zswap: loaded using pool lzo/zbud

And also on 3 out of 5 (I have these), my output as follows

[ 11.284607] Adding 970024k swap on /swapfile. Priority:-2 extents:4 across:994600k FS

Feren is based on Debian, Ubuntu and Linux Mint – it will do at least the zswap if not the swapfile.

Bluestar is an Arch-based Distro and uses Zswap.

So you would be reinventing the wheel if you added Swap.

Back tomorrow I hope.

Wizard
 
Good evening @wizardfromoz ,

Thanks for all you do.

Answer to #1 - first attached file.

2.png


Answer to #2 - second attached file.

3.png


Answer to #4.

Here is what I show when I first boot up.

Blue Star - /dev/sda4
Doge - /dev/sdb8
Feren - /dev/sda3
LM 19.1 Tessa - /dev/sdb1 {It appears that I have installed this one twice - ARG!} It also shows this - /dev/sda1 :eek::eek:
Ubuntu 19.10 - /dev/sdb10
Elementary 5.0 - /dev/sdb5
Peppermint - /dev/sdb6
Linux Lite 4.6 - /dev/sdb7
LM 19.2 - /dev/sdb9

I look forward to your evaluation of my 'mess', and the opportunity to pick your brain. LOL. :cool:

Old Geezer
TC
 
@wizardfromoz

As Paul Harvey used to say "Here's the rest of the story!"
Ah, the amazing things that happen when I start pushing buttons.
In my original screenshot {in #3 above}, I only put part of the story, the /sda part.
Here's the /sdb part.

sdb.png


In the top right hand corner there is a box where you can change from /sda to /sdb. Voila!!
And that, my friends is "the rest of the story".
I'm sorry if it caused confusion for anyone.
Onward we will trudge.
Old Geezer
TC
 
I'm sorry if it caused confusion for anyone.

No problem Charlie. I suspected that you had an extra drive up your sleeve, and so the commands I gave you were to tease out that information. :)

But a picture is also worth a 1,000 words and you are getting good with the screenshots, and they are eminently handy for us (and for you to refer to).

As things stand, we can probably shave 50 - 100 GiB off a number of your existing installs, and that redeemed space will give you heaps for a Timeshift partition, data storage, and other purposes.

I'll also show you how to Label your Partitions, and that will help you to identify the Distros easily both in GParted, AND in your File Manager.

For now, I have to scoot to cook tea, so

C U Ron (see you lateR ON)

Wizard
 
Hey Charlie, if you haven't already, take a peek at this thread where @wizardfromoz and @Jeffrey Lapinski go toe-to-toe in a very educational and entertaining read. This covers a lot of the ground where you are heading, and it might be helpful... maybe even saving you a mistake or two along the way.

Wizard is definitely the master of multi-multi booting. I'm sure he will assist as needed. Perhaps the first lesson is to save some space for Timeshift backups, or have an external drive available for this.

Good luck, and have fun!

Cheers
@atanere,
Thanks for the link. It is indeed filled with useful info and will take quite a while for me to digest just what is being done {If I ever do get it digested}.
Looks like it is time to purchase another external drive. They have really come down in price since the 90's.
Many thanks for what all of you do for us 'newbies' and 'oldies'.
Old Geezer
TC
@wizardfromoz @Rob @arochester @Condobloke @poorguy
Hope I didn't leave anyone out!
 

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